- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Little Brown and Company (Jan 11 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0316156108
- ISBN-13: 978-0316156103
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,778,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Owing to a head injury he suffered 16 days into his Vietnam tour, Howard Kapostash, the narrator of King's graceful, measured debut novel, can neither speak, write nor read. Now middle-aged, Howard lives a lackluster existence in the house where he grew up, along with housemates Laurel, a Vietnamese-American maker of gourmet soups for local restaurants, and two housepainters—essentially interchangeable postcollege jocks—whom he refers to as Nit and Nat. But everything changes when Sylvia, the former girlfriend he's loved since high school, heads to drug rehab, saddling Howard with Ryan, her taciturn nine-year-old son. What happens over the course of the next couple hundred pages will not surprise readers—slowly, Nit and Nat learn responsibility, Laurel discovers her maternal side, Ryan opens up and Howie learns about life and love amid school concerts and Little League games—but it is lovingly rendered in careful, steady prose. Like Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World, the novel explores familial bonds arising between people with no blood ties, and if the novel lingers too long on its notes, thematic and otherwise—Howard often ruminates on the nature of his injury and the things he'd say if he could; his days vary little—it does so with poise and heart. Drama arises with Sylvia's return and Howard nearly loses it, but life and healing are now forever possible.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From AudioFile
Both tough and sweet, this debut novel concerns a brain-damaged Vietnam vet who loves a coke-head single mother with whom he once had a drug-soaked affair. To this day, though he's clean and sober, he still can't say no to her. So when she's hauled off to rehab, he accepts care of her 9-year-old. Of course, what follows becomes a life-altering experience. Maybe he can barely speak, maybe he sound like an idiot, but he has no trouble articulately telling his story with, thank goodness, a sense of humor. The fine stage and screen actor Terry Kinney gives voice to our hero--a dull one unfortunately. Kinney merely recites the words, getting the phrasing right, but expressing few values and little energy. He comes to life only during the more dramatic dialogue. Y.R. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (74 customer reviews)
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Paean to Love and Patience, Mar 23 2005
By J Scott Morrison - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ha-Ha: A Novel (Hardcover)
It's a cliché but I found myself rationing the amount of this book I would read each day because I didn't want it to end and I wanted to savor its unselfconscious wisdom slowly. Frankly, I've never read anything like it. It's told from inside the head of a man whose Vietnam War head injury leaves him unable to speak. But his internal monolog is so rich, observant, feelingful that the pain of his not being able to express himself except through his actions becomes a paean to the virtues of patience over adversity, expression of love through loving actions rather than words, and the wisdom of living life as it is, not as it might have been. King's prose is carefully and poetically chosen. His observations of the little things feel true and important. I am ready to predict from this first novel that this is an important writer just revving up for a huge career.
Scott Morrison
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heart-rending tale of betrayal and hope, Jan 1 2005
By Chris Orcutt "Chris Orcutt" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ha-Ha: A Novel (Hardcover)
Dave King's THE HA-HA gives a unique look into the mind of a man unable to speak, and while this novel succeeds on many levels, its greatest success comes in effectively duplicating in the reader's mind the same frustrations felt by the lead character, Howard. At every turn, this story tugs at your heartstrings, making you wish poor Howard were able to communicate his feelings for his old flame, Sylvia, and her son, Ryan. This is a true tour de force of point-of-view characterization, and for any readers who enjoy a good character-driven story, this is a remarkable novel.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very special literature, Dec 29 2004
By Jacamar Rose - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ha-Ha: A Novel (Hardcover)
This book, so different from most of today's action/romance schlock, grabs your heart and twists it until it breaks, yet the humanity of the characters offers hope to alleviate the pain. Dave King brings a profound empathy to his story of a man thrust inward by his disability who learns that he still can have a meaningful - even fulfilling - life, can reach out to make a difference in the lives of others, can move beyond his decades-old memories. Not an easy read, but an important one which will stay with you long after the last page is read. This is literature at its finest.
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