How to Make Friends with Demons

by Graham Joyce and William Heaney

Book Overview

William Heaney is a man well acquainted with demons. Not his broken family -- his wife has left him for a celebrity chef, his snobbish teenaged son despises him, and his daughter's new boyfriend... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1597801429
• ISBN13: 9781597801423
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Night Shade Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A good read in search of a genre.

The protagonist sees "demons" but not the usual suspects brought to mind by that noun. He may or may not have a mental condition, we are told, but he clearly drinks quite a lot, either of which may be the root of his visions. I cannot for the life of me peg this book as a "real" fantasy novel. I can only suggest it be called a psycho fantasy.

A Lovely Book

Really enjoyed this one. I'm not sure it is fairly characterized as fantasy (though I'm using the tag for want of anything else), but anyone who reads the more literary end of F & SF is likely to enjoy it. I think the review blurb got it entirely wrong. I'd call it an elegant, well plotted and very well written meditation on the nature of suffering and grace, of the sort that gives a prism or window on the rest of the world for days or weeks after one puts it down. Mileage varies of course. Even though the genre and format are very different, it reminds me more than a bit of RA MacAvoy on one hand, and the best of John Gardner on the other. Joyce thinks in, and keeps, the fictional dream in a way which I think requires great craft -- good enough craft to be mostly invisible and leave one changed for the ride.

Winner of the British Fantasy Award

William Heaney committed an occult transgression in his youth which has been plaguing him for 20 years. He is a very flawed person who despite trying to do his best is his own worst enemy. Heaney deals with the fact that he sees demons by trying to do good in a Robin Hood style with his not so merry band of book forgers. The dialogue is the strongest part of the book with many witty and honest lines. The demon factor barely comes in and neither the British or American titles seem entirely apt because of it. The story had its slow parts and had little semblance of a plot for the first half, which I found disconcerting as the main character is seemingly traipsing about, but that is only because this isn't treated as your normal modern day Fantasy with a mission in mind from the start as it is more of a general lit story that could fine a home in many bookshelves next to the likes of Nick Hornby. It is all about character growth and human interaction. That said the occult underpinnings are there and very realistic in their approach and tact. If you have friends who always say Fantasy isn't for them this could act as a good bridge book between more standard Fiction and genre. If you are expecting something Epic look elsewhere, but for an interesting character driven tour of London with some very flawed characters this is definitely worth checking out. The look into book forging was also quite intriguing. How to Make Friends With Demons was published as Memoirs of a Master Forger in the UK where it also won the British Fantasy Award.

William Heaney = Graham Joyce

I had high hopes for this, based on reviews. Those hopes were met-- at least they were sort of met. The great part about the book is that it has so many interesting ideas and angles that I spent many pages marveling at the coolness. The less great part about the book is that it has so many interesting ideas and angles that a number of them felt undeveloped and kind of thrown away. So much to like-- Heaney's career as a master forger and how that works is great. I wanted more of that. I liked how he developed his demons-- always a little bit open whether they really existed or not. This is speculative fiction on the edge, more a landscape of the mind than horror. The subtlety and restraint is really well done. There's so much that's nice here that I feel guilty about not loving it more wholeheartedly. It somehow just never knit together for me in a way that I wanted it to do. I'd still recommend it, perhaps just not quite as strongly. (This was published in the UK under the name of William Heaney, the main character of the book and ostensible author of the memoirs. But it's really Graham Joyce.)