The Grotesque (Vintage Contemporaries)

I have never hated a protagonist more than Sir Hugo Coal. He is a horrendous, callous man and the way McGrath writes him is amazing. Although you are prone to sympathy for the man at times, he invariably will demonstrate his miserable and entitled outlook on life and end any feelings of pity you might be experiencing. Overall, this is an engaging read and perhaps a warning to us all about the perils of hiring a butler.

A little flowery at times, but good nonetheless. Almost creates the despair I consider Steinbeck to be the master of.

Excellent!

Although I was a bit disappointed with the way the story ended, it was a quick read & I loved the dark humor.

Interesting enough that I finished it

Clearly demonstrating that it is never too late to embark on the career for which you were intended, Patrick McGrath's first novel, "The Grotesque," was released in May 1989, when its author was pushing 40 years old. Although the Englishman had come out with a volume of shorter pieces earlier that year ("Blood and Water and Other Tales"), "The Grotesque" was his first foray into the world of the longer form, and was, happily, a stunning success. As of 2013, and having just released his eighth novel, "Constance," McGrath is deemed one of our leading purveyors of what has come to be called "the new Gothic," and a look at his first novel will indicate that his considerable writing ability was already fully formed, right near the beginning.In the book, we meet a cranky, curmudgeonly, highly unlikable British squire--and professional paleontologist--named Sir Hugo Coal. Coal tells us his story several months after having suffered a paralyzing stroke. Now confined to a wheelchair, unable to move or speak, he thinks back on the events of the previous eight months or so at his Berkshire estate, Crook Manor. (The fact that Sir Hugo could not possibly have managed to write or dictate this memoir in his current state may be seen as an inherent flaw in McGrath's novel...or as just one more bit of head-scratching strangeness, in a book filled with so much.) Things had started to fall apart at Crook when his wife, Lady Harriet, had hired a new butler and maid, Mr. and Mrs. Fledge. As Sir Hugo tells us, Fledge had silently mocked his master, seduced his wife, and had even been spotted by Coal himself in the middle of a tryst with Sir Hugo's future son-in-law, Sidney Giblet. When Giblet (the book is replete with outlandish character names) went missing, Coal immediately suspected Fledge of foul play, and when Sidney's buried remains later turned up in the middle of nearby Ceck Marsh, our narrator became even more convinced of his butler's nefarious schemes. But how to prove his suspicions?Readers who thought that the members of TV's Addams family constituted a bizarre household will love reading Sir Hugo's account of his own domestic situation. He himself is a gloomy old coot who spends his days assembling dinosaur bones in the barn; Harriet is a prim and proper biddy who is nevertheless only too willing to give in to her butler's licentious advances; Cleo, the Coals' 18-year-old daughter, is a depressive, suicidal mess, especially after Sidney's remains are found; Mrs. Fledge is a, uh, full-fledged alcoholic; and Fledge himself...well, the man is a cipher of sorts, a blank slate on whom Coal manages to foist all his dark suspicions. As unreliable a narrator as has ever told an untrustworthy story, Sir Hugo himself reveals that his memory is faulty, that his paralyzed isolation has perforce limited his worldview, that he hallucinates frequently, and that he knows that he is telling his story in a faulty order. So ultimately, we don't quite know what to believe, and the solution of Sidney Giblet's murder remains somewhat nebulous. However, as author Peter H. Cannon writes, when discussing why he chose this novel for inclusion in the excellent overview volume "Horror: Another 100 Best Books," the resolution of the book's central crime "is ultimately of less interest than [McGrath's] memorable portrait of his unreliable narrator as well as of [the book's] minor characters...." In this book, atmosphere and characterization are paramount to everything except a love of language, and my goodness, what a remarkably great writer Patrick McGrath turns out to be! Offhand, I cannot recall a writer whose use of language has so impressed me since I read Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale" several decades ago. To read this book (and yes, it HAS been my introduction to McGrath's work) is to want to devour many more by this terrific author. It is simply astonishing that "The Grotesque" was McGrath's first novel, and makes one wonder what the author had been doing with his life prior to 1989 (working in a north Ontario institution--which doubtlessly gave McGrath a great background for his psychological tales--and as a teacher in the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia, as it turns out). McGrath always seems to know just the right word to use--his vocabulary is immense--and just the right macabre detail to throw in. In short, this is a masterly first novel; a most impressive debut. I was only able to detect one other minor flaw in the entire book: Coal tells us that he had first met his gardener, George Lecky, more than 25 years earlier (the tale takes place in 1949); so that would be 1924 or earlier, right? But a little later, Coal sets the date of their first meeting as 1926. But I am certainly willing to concede that this might be just another bit of unreliable detail on the part of our stroke-addled narrator."The Grotesque" was turned into a film in 1995 and features what I would imagine to be a perfectly well-cast Alan Bates as Sir Hugo and Sting as the mysterious Fledge. Theresa Russell, an actress whom I greatly admire, would seem to be an unlikely choice for Lady Harriet, a plump redhead in McGrath's book, and I am now greatly interested in catching this film, to see if Theresa did indeed manage to pull this characterization off. The film does not enjoy a good reputation (unlike the filmization of McGrath's second novel, 1990's "Spider," as brought to life by David Cronenberg in 2002), and it would be difficult indeed to live up to McGrath's original conception, with its booklength interior monologue and gorgeous use of language...despite the fact that McGrath DID write the screenplay himself. Creepy, spooky, at times hilarious and beautiful, macabre and original, memorable and altogether winning, "The Grotesque" novel is certainly a tough act to follow....

This is my first McGrath novel, so I'm not comparing it to his other work, which may explain partly why my perspective differs a little from the other reviewers here. I think they do McGrath an injustice in writing this book off as "Gothic comedy" or relatively lightweight.Yes, it does have a macabre dark humor, and there is a sense in which we never fully engage with the peculiar self-justifications of the narrator, Sir Hugo Coal. But that "failing" goes to the heart of the book's point. We are left wondering at the end which character is truly "the grotesque." Is it the paralyzed, but strangely vigorous narrator whose claims on morality are potentially as tenuous as his grip on reality? Or the Satanic, red-haired, polymorphously virile butler Fledge with his pseudo-Oedipal designs on his master's place and property.Beneath the undeniable charm of McGrath's prose as he inhabits his narrator lie numerous unanswerable questions about right and wrong, identity and duplicity. A tour de force.

McGrath's popular works (Spider, Asylum, Dr. Haggard's Disease) are known for being compact, psychological dramas with a paranormal twist. These novels exhibit not only intriguing stories but also show the effectiveness of writing in the first person. The Grotesque is McGrath's first novel. Although it shows the promise of his capabilities as an author, the book does not compare to his later works.The Grotesque is a relatively light-hearted "gothic comedy". It contains the requisite spooky house, sinister butler, a murder, and some strange happenings. But it is all rather tongue-in-cheek. This comedy aspect disarms the scary elements, which all seems to trivialize the novel. It comes off as a good made-for-TV movie script, and not a serious novel. In fact the characterizations in The Grotesque are surprisingly weak.So The Grotesque is a "McGrath-light" sort of novel. I recommend seeing the film version of it, which is probably available on video, and invest your time on his other novels.

Wow! Utterly marvellous from the beginning, deeply objectionable in terms of some of the events, touches of playful pathos, wickedly ironic, dark as a witches eye. I loved it and would urge anyone to give it a try. It is mesmerising once you get trapped in it’s sticky web. For much of this novel I was gripped, enchanted, alternating between shuddering with distaste and laughing with glee, often at the same passages. It is a deeply immoral book, no one should doubt it, but at the same time it is tremendously inviting and naughty. We are in Crook, a house in the countryside, inhabited by Sir Hugo and his wife Harriet, his daughter Cleo, and her fiancé Sidney Giblet. They have a new butler, who along with his wife Doris the cook, are the only servants. The narrator is Sir Hugo and we necessarily see everything from his point of view, but we quickly begin to wonder how accurate his deep suspicion about their integrity will prove. His reports on what is going on in the house are never substantiated. How reliable a narrator he is comes into doubt. When the fiancé disappears one day, the plot thickens very nicely. There is horror, when after an incident in the barn Sir Hugo is trapped inside his body, unable to communicate, forever condemned to a rictus grin and at the mercy of his staff and wife. Only Cleo believes that there is a sentient person behind this horrifying grotesque. But is it Sir Hugo who is the grotesque? What of his suspicions about the butler Fledge. Should we believe that Fledge has stolen Harriet’s affections and they nightly lie in an adulterous embrace? Where is Sidney Giblet (I loved the names), was he being blackmailed by Fledge? How much do any of them know about what is going on? What will happen to the faithful gardener George when he is accused of murder? You may not find the answer to all of these questions, but you will laugh your socks off. This gloriously dark and blackly comic book is one of the best tonics you could possibly take.

Excellent!

a parte la copertina del libro diversa, questo libro è fantastico! l'avevo letto in italiano e non potevo non comprarlo anche in inglese! l'atmosfera inquietante è davvero eccezionale e in inglese si coglie un maggior senso claustrofobico-confusionale. meraviglioso! io amo questo scrittore e ora che l'ho letto anche in inglese lo amo ancora di più!