Reviewed by: Dace lives in Tasmania, Australia, and loves to knit and sew for her grandchildren and many grand nieces and nephews.
The Enthusiast: A Novel (P.S.)
A book for those of us with secret obsessions.
This book is very difficult to describe and impossible to assign to a ‘genre’. The basic plot comprises the experiences of the narrator, Henry Bay traveling around the USA in the guise of an associate editor of way out niche magazines produced by aficionados of various extreme sports and other less sporty enthusiasms such as crochet and tea drinking and collecting weird animals.
The voice of the narrator is at times so held in and inhibited when faced with ghastly scenarios, that you feel like yelling advice before he busts a vessel. Henry is at times funny, glib, lonely, pathetic, brave and cowardly, but at all times his powers of observation and the recording of details of his surroundings are nothing short of magnificent.
I have to quote some passages: We were having a long rainy season, with ants, mildew, wet cuffs, darkness at lunch, and lost dog flyers washing off poles in smeared shreds, a world gone bad in the refrigerator.
And what he describes as an enthusiast crime scene: teetering piles of unfolded clothes, unopened mail, dishes, skillets, sketch books, shower caps, pets’ leashes and Midol bottles. Industrial- size balls of yarn were spread around the house like designer tumbleweed, Hello?
It seems to me that Whipup is the ideal place to review this book! Obsessions, hobbies and eccentricities. But it is also about friendship and love and family, which out of the way roadside diner has the best coffee, hamburger, comic books, pool tables, old shirts and pastries. This is a must have book to read and keep, be sure to put your name in it!
