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The Dinner Party


The Dinner Party cover

DETAILS
Title:
The Dinner Party
Author: Houghton, Gordon
ISBN: 1862300348
Binding:
Paperback
Number of Pages: 224
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
Imprint: Anchor Books
Publication date: April 1998

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REVIEWS

"The Dinner Party shows a tremendous insight into the character of a seriously disturbed young man. Ultimately believable, it is written in first person and the reader is drawn into the character, both identifying and empathizing with him... Scary stuff given the deranged nature of the character. Like looking out through the eyes of a murderer: it is amazing what you can justify and rationalize, even if you are irrational. From the revelation of the secret Objects, Symbols, and Rites the reader is drawn into the macabre world of a young man marked from the beginning with the name of Felix Fly... The pace is sustained for the entire novel—it hooks you in early and you have to keep reading to see if your own warped idea of the finish is the same as the writer's."
Sandra Drake, review on Dreamforge eMagazine

"Not for the faint-hearted... it is a fascinating and repugnant portrait of the pathological mind. Through a narrative cross-stitched with grotesque humour, in which the mundane is whisked up with madness, you are left cowering, your sensibilities like mincemeat, wide-eyed on a slab of horror."
Syndicated review in various UK newspapers

"...bizarre in the extreme, [it] will keep you reading until you are finished... Laced with instances of black humour, this is a sharp and funny look at the life of a very sick individual. A stunning debut."
Reader review on Alphabet Street
eBookshop

"...the final scenes may make you reach for the bucket."
Eva magazine