The Dead Fathers Club

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Many of Haig’s characters, including Uncle Alan (Claudius), Philip’s mother (Gertrude), Leah (Ophelia), and Ross and Gary (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) have clear parallels in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Nevertheless, these characters have been reimagined with traits and motivations that distinguish them from their Shakespearean models. Choose a character from The Dead Fathers Club and reread the scenes involving that character’s counterpart in Hamlet. How has Haig altered the character? What do you think of these changes?

The Dead Fathers Club - Matt Haig The Dead Fathers Club - Matt Haig

The Dead Fathers Club is a 2006 novel by Matt Haig. The book was published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape and in the United States by Viking Press. The story is a retelling of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and thus an example of intertextuality. This loose reworking of Hamlet is full of poignant insights and literary in-jokes, plus the author does a nice line in grim hilarity. Easy Living Dad’s ghost” appears to Philip Noble, not on the battlements at Elsinore, but at the family-operated Castle and Falcon Pub, where mourners gather following his funeral. The spirit explains that his apparently accidental death in a car crash was in fact engineered by Philip’s paternal Uncle Alan, an auto-dealer who has designs on Philip’s now conveniently widowed Mum. Dad’s ghost also explains the unhappy fellowship of the title group, whose members hover, unavenged and restless, between the dead and the living—while spurring the reluctant Philip to action, evoking from the boy reactions that astound his family, teachers and schoolmates, and even the forthright older girl (Leah), who matter-of-factly declares him her boyfriend. An act of violence (though not the one intended) ensues, and the embattled Philip—whose unpunctuated, edgy narration is an utter delight—even does some hasty growing up. Haig rather overworks the pattern of carefully spaced allusions to Hamlet (e.g., mischief-making tins Ross and Gary; pronouncing the wonderfully slimy Uncle Alan a “smiling damned villain”). But there are nice characterizations of Philip’s Mum (so needing to be loved that she’s blind to her brother-in-law’s stratagems) and his sympathetic teacher Mrs. Fell, whose practiced niceness does not cloud her keen understanding of boyish bravado and secrecy. The author also makes effective use of the image of Hadrian’s Wall (which occasions a class trip and essay subject) and to its reputation as a barrier between civilization and savagery. As such, it also embodies Philip’s quite credible vacillations between obedience and moral choice.Dad died because his car crashed into a bridge outside of Kelham which is a village near Newark. There was a picture of it on East Midlands Today and it showed the whole car hanging overthe edge like it was going to fall into the River Trent. All the windows weresmashed like spiders webs and the woman on the news was talking about thebridge having to be closed for two months as if the bridge was the importantthing. My intention was to write a story that connects with people emotionally and hopefully that connection works the same with or without an in-depth knowledge of Hamlet. After all, Shakespeare himself was the king of rewrites, and Hamlet itself echoes earlier vengeance stories. The Regulars were there like Big Vic and Les who were at the bar and smoking Hamletcigars and speaking to Carla. One of the greatest challenges a writer faces is to sustain a narrative voice that differs from his or her own natural mode of expression. How were you able to think your way so successfully into the mind and diction of an eleven-year-old boy? Then I asked him if he sees other ghosts and he said There are lots of ghosts inNewark and they take some getting used to because they are all from differentages. And I said It must beweird seeing all the ghosts.

The Dead Fathers Club: FAQ - Matt Haig The Dead Fathers Club: FAQ - Matt Haig

Many of Haig’s characters, including Uncle Alan (Claudius), Philip’s mother (Gertrude), Leah (Ophelia), and Ross and Gary (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) have clear parallels in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Nevertheless, these characters have been re-imagined with traits and motivations that distinguish them from their Shakespearean models. Choose a character from The Dead Fathers Club and reread the scenes involving that character’s counterpart in Hamlet. How has Haig altered the character? What do you think of these changes? Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories.”―NEIL GAIMAN Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories." —Neil Gaiman, author of American GodsPlot in a nutshell: This is a British hip-hop retelling of Hamlet, an effort you may not have realized you needed until you see it. Author reminds me of: Dave Eggers. Best reason to read: If he weren’t so literary, Haig could have a future in the gothic world. His scenes with Dads Ghost are genuinely frightening — and they’re interspersed with funny and poignant insights of adolescent love and loss. I kept looking round the bar and Nan kept talking to me and that is when I saw him. That iswhen I saw Dads Ghost. I showed him the keys and he said I think its for the red mini bus not the white one. And I got to the car park and I couldnt see the red bus His dad, who was killed in a car accident, appears as a bloodstained ghost at his own funeral and introduces Philip to the Dead Fathers Club. The club, whose members were all murdered, gathers outside the Castle and Falcon, the local pub that Philip’s family owns and lives above. Philip learns that the person responsible for his father’s death is his Uncle Alan. When Philip realizes that Uncle Alan has designs on his mom and the family pub, Philip decides that something must be done. But avenging his father’s death is a much bigger job than he anticipated, especially when he is caught up by the usual distractions of childhood—a pretty girl, wayward friends, school bullies, and his own self-doubt.

The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig | Waterstones

Philip grossly misjudges the people around him and, because he tells the story, we view these people only from his misguided perspective. Nevertheless, by some miracle of narration, we are able to see them more or less as they are: as somewhat limited but basically well-meaning human beings. How does Haig manage both to immerse us in Philip’s point of view and give us an objective understanding of his other characters? Philip takes a surprising interest in Roman history, especially in the reign of Nero. How does this interest relate to Philip’s overall mental state, and how is it woven into the novel’s plot? Leah confides to Philip that she hates God. By contrast, her father, Mr. Fairview, has turned enthusiastically toward religion after the death of his wife. What commentary does The Dead Fathers Club offer regarding religion, and how does religion influence events and relationships in the novel? F. Scott Fitzgerald said when he wrote he felt like he was holding his breath and swimming under water. With The Dead Fathers Club it was certainly written at quite a breathless, intense level, and came from a place I can’t easily locate. But once I had the voice, it was there and I was able to see everything through Philip’s eyes.Matt Haig’s prose is quirky, with no apostrophes, liberal use of capital letters, and some creative typesetting. He captures Philip’s young voice with its innocence and acceptance of a new reality. . . Haig has a deft descriptive touch. A church “smelt of God which is the smell of old paper.” When Philip reluctantly answers Uncle Alan, “In an invisible ice cube out of my mouth I said Yes.”. . . a poignant, original, often charming story of a boy struggling in sorrow and misery with all his heart. Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness Haig cleverly reinvents this 400-year-old tragedy as a 21st-century morality tale inhabited by schoolchildren, barmaids and mechanics, and it’s fun to look for the parallels between the two works. . . The story’s greatest strength, however, is Philip’s perspective as narrator. Haig effectively runs Philip’s words and thoughts together with an economy of punctuation, spliced with details that a child would notice, to create the voice of an anxious child. . . The Dead Father’s Club has much to recommend it, especially in how it shows the adult world through the eyes of an innocent. . . . It’s still the dark tale of Hamlet, perhaps more disturbing because it is related by an adolescent. It’s ingenious. Susan Kelly, USA Today She turned to see where I was looking but she couldnt see anything and Dads Ghost was now tellingme to follow him with his hand.