The Grotesque

by Patrick McGrath

Book Overview

This exuberantly spooky novel, in which horror, repressed eroticism, and sulfurous social comedy intertwine like the vines in an overgrown English garden, is now a major motion picture, starring Alan... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679776214
• ISBN13: 9780679776215
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Deceptively complex, highly recommended

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.

The Butler Did It---Or Did He?

This is McGrath's first book, and it's a good one. A goof on the familiar Gothic novel, it tells the story of the hostile take-over of a creepy old estate by the owner's butler. However, since the narrator is in a state of complete paralysis, and quite possibly insane, his story is suspect. Is the butler really doing the nasty with Sir Hugo's wife? Who murdered the insipid fiance of Sir Hugo's daughter and fed him to the estate's pigs? What REALLY happened in Sir Hugo's barn workshop the day he became paralyzed?A black comedy of murder and manners, THE GROTESQUE provides us with the requsite gloomy mansion, a dismal swamp, a suspicious servant, bad plumbing, and a possible inspiration for Thomas Harris's HANNIBAL. I recommend it.

A dark, laugh-out-loud, horror novel

I was pretty impressed with this book, as it is from early on in the writer's career. McGrath has gone on to become probably the greatest gothicist of his generation (admittedly, a title which is *not* oft contested), but, in my opinion, there are wickedly funny elements in this book that I find lacking in his later, "greater" works. I was surprised that such a diabolical sense of humor lurked within the author of utterly disturbing books such as "Spider" and "Asylum". The cataleptic narrator's (Sir Hugo) observation are always at least worthy of a smirk, sometimes a snort, often an out-loud laugh. Like all of McGrath's works, it will occupy your mind long after you've finished it... trying to fingure out exactly what's going on. I suppose it is not as expertly crafted as his later books, but it is certainly a good start to a stellar career. Also, a good intro to McGrath, as it's not quite as harrowing as his later work.

Did the butler really do it?

Having picked up this book rather randomly, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well written modern gothic tale. Narrated by an aristocrat who is confined to a wheelchair, the reader is never sure if his opinions are the ramblings of a man with an overactive imagination or an accurate account of the hostile takeover of his estate by a devious butler. Sir Hugo's observations and insights are always suspect but very entertaining. A masterpiece of black humor. McGrath is a great storyteller.

Another Great One from McGrath

I LOVED this book. McGrath is the modern master of neo-gothic stories. It's all here: the spooky old house, the bad weather, the seriously disturbed people. Even though McGrath deals with content that can easily fall into stereotype, he pulls it off; I giggled with pure pleasure at his creepy descriptions. Read anything and everything by McGrath.