The Dead Father is a gargantuan half-dead, half-alive, part mechanical, wise, vain, powerful being who still has hopes for himself--even wh...
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Mar 28, 2009
Adam
rated it: 
The Dead Father is the story of your everyday, average funeral procession for a 200 foot tall father figure who's bloodlust and libido have not been quelled by death. Barthelme comically relates the influence that Greco-Roman and Judao-Christian traditions have had on literature and life in the occidental world.. The more the narrative tries to free itself of these cosmologies the harder they pull them back into the fold.
The protagonists and their entourage painstakingly drag the "dea
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Nov 30, 2008
David
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My favorite work of Barthelme's, and one of my favorite books ever. I'd give it 8 out of 5 stars, but Goodreads has no HTML code for this. A book for anyone who has a father, who had a father, who had an absent father, who had a father who loved too much or not enough or the right amount; a father who beat them or taught them to ride a bike or both. A book perhaps not for fathers, but a book for fathers who had fathers themselves (and so, a book for fathers).
This is the story of a so More...
This is the story of a so More...
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Dec 30, 2008
Danielle
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Barthelme at his best! The Dead Father is a fabulous work of fiction rich in irony and humor seasoned by the stray poignant moment.
I suppose it's blatantly "postmodern" -- by golly, what better time to write a postmodern work than the 1970s? Of course, if you're not a fan of consciously postmodern writing, you might not enjoy the work. It's not going to honor the dead, that's for certain - Barthelme is excellent at vilifying most paradigms, so he's liable to upset cert More...
I suppose it's blatantly "postmodern" -- by golly, what better time to write a postmodern work than the 1970s? Of course, if you're not a fan of consciously postmodern writing, you might not enjoy the work. It's not going to honor the dead, that's for certain - Barthelme is excellent at vilifying most paradigms, so he's liable to upset cert More...
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Mar 07, 2010
Joselito
rated it: 
Imagine an alien from a remote, little planet in a galaxy so far, far away. It is a literary genius, and a Nobel Prize for Literature winner in his planet. He hurls into space aboard a spaceship and lands in England where people speak and write English. A few days after hearing and reading English the alien says (in his own language, of course): "I can also write a great novel in English."
This book could be the novel such an alien could have written.
I have never More...
This book could be the novel such an alien could have written.
I have never More...
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Feb 15, 2011
Brad
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Dragging a Carcass and The Women’s Poetry
Barthelme, Donald. The Dead Father. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York: 1975.
This is not a book.
Well, it is. Except it isn’t. But it still kind of is.
I mean, it has all the basic bits that anyone would typically associate with a book and book-like objects: pages, preferably made of paper, ink on said pages, a title, a bit of copyright and publishing information, a front and back cover, even an introduction by a differ More...
Barthelme, Donald. The Dead Father. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York: 1975.
This is not a book.
Well, it is. Except it isn’t. But it still kind of is.
I mean, it has all the basic bits that anyone would typically associate with a book and book-like objects: pages, preferably made of paper, ink on said pages, a title, a bit of copyright and publishing information, a front and back cover, even an introduction by a differ More...
Oct 05, 2011
Chrissy
rated it: 
A wonderful, frolicking, clever, realistic, fantastical little work of allegorical fiction. As with the best kind of fiction, this not-really-a-novel-but-technically-still-a-novel speaks to almost every aspect of the human condition in a tone at once contemporary and timeless. It tells the tale of a reluctant journey from life to death, a hesitant transfer of fatherhood from the father to the son who will never truly be the father.
Barthelme hits every note just so, commenting in perfe More...
Barthelme hits every note just so, commenting in perfe More...
Oct 04, 2011
JR
rated it:
The Dead Father by Donald Berthelme. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975.
A lively work of postmodernism.
Postmodern literature is always difficult to review as it is often the author’s purpose to stray from conventional methods of writing. The Dead Father was not my first experience with Postmodernism. I have read a few other works within the hard-to-define genre, including works by the author that comes up in many searches on the topic: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I will say t More...
A lively work of postmodernism.
Postmodern literature is always difficult to review as it is often the author’s purpose to stray from conventional methods of writing. The Dead Father was not my first experience with Postmodernism. I have read a few other works within the hard-to-define genre, including works by the author that comes up in many searches on the topic: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I will say t More...
Jul 30, 2009
Tom
rated it:
To understand my rating, you need to do some basic math.
Most of the book, I thought was a 3-star deal, mainly because I found some of the sections (particularly the long moments when Emma and Julie talked to each other) to be borderline incomprehensible, and while I'm sure Barthelme knew exactly what he was doing, it was one of those situations where I was holding a book in my hands and processing words and then feeling stupid. And maybe I was too dense to understand what was going More...
Most of the book, I thought was a 3-star deal, mainly because I found some of the sections (particularly the long moments when Emma and Julie talked to each other) to be borderline incomprehensible, and while I'm sure Barthelme knew exactly what he was doing, it was one of those situations where I was holding a book in my hands and processing words and then feeling stupid. And maybe I was too dense to understand what was going More...
Aug 08, 2011
Rosemary
rated it:
Very, very surreal book. Quite difficult to read at times because of the completely nonsensical nature of it all, but it's what makes it such an enjoyable read!
After a while I seemed to start reading between the lines and it felt like there were two narratives playing out. While taking in the literal story of the novel, the secondary story was attempting to give it a logical interpretation, which was probably futile but kept me reading.
I've tried to avoid giving too much away because I th More...
After a while I seemed to start reading between the lines and it felt like there were two narratives playing out. While taking in the literal story of the novel, the secondary story was attempting to give it a logical interpretation, which was probably futile but kept me reading.
I've tried to avoid giving too much away because I th More...
Oct 12, 2010
Zachary
rated it:
A Manual for Fathers
“The Dead Father”
Donald Barthelme
Published 1975 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The literal story of Donald Barthelme‘s “The Dead Father” is that 21 people are pulling an immensely huge man by means of a cable attached to his leg across the ground. This man is only referred to as the Dead Father, though he is very much alive. He walks, he talks, he kills things with his sword—-he is described as having a mechanical leg which is “the administrative c More...
“The Dead Father”
Donald Barthelme
Published 1975 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The literal story of Donald Barthelme‘s “The Dead Father” is that 21 people are pulling an immensely huge man by means of a cable attached to his leg across the ground. This man is only referred to as the Dead Father, though he is very much alive. He walks, he talks, he kills things with his sword—-he is described as having a mechanical leg which is “the administrative c More...
Aug 28, 2008
T
rated it:
I don't yet understand how he was able to make this so emotional at the end, how so silly got so serious so fast without ruining the experience. I don't yet understand, but I will bygod. I will.
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Jan 02, 2012
Booker
rated it:
This strange book is about the destruction of the archetype of fatherhood or masculinity. Or perhaps what we believe is fatherhood or masculinity. Thomas represents a sort of new version of the father type which is mostly an absent one to his own children while taking the place of fatherhood by caring for his own father as he creeps (or is dragged along toward) his own death. Having read a lot of Barthelme, probably his most challenging work to follow in terms of language and structure. Ben
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Nov 09, 2010
Bob
rated it:
Not surprising that a book I thought was the coolest thing ever when I was teenager doesn't quite have the same effect decades later. Barthelme more or less fits in stylistically with Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut and other such mid-70s counterculture writers and can seem a bit facile in retrospect. This one combines some cynical humor, scattershot philosophy, a dollop of surrealism, lots of clever parodies and homages to many different literary forms - everything from Gaddis-styled party chatte
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Sep 08, 2011
Oscar
rated it:
Hasta hace poco, nunca hubiese pensado que me iba a convertir en un aficionado a la literatura posmoderna. Hasta hace poco, huía de autores como Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace o Donald Barthelme. Requerían de una atención desmedida a la hora de leerlos, y esto no era precisamente lo que buscaba, me interesaban textos más asequibles y de fácil lectura, libros con argumentos e historias, si no lineales o con el clásico planteamiento-nudo-desenlace, sí con una estructura objetiva
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Sep 30, 2010
James
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I remember reading this twice in the '70s, but I didn't remember much about it. I remember thinking I got it pretty well. Now I'm unsure if my understanding is complete. Because Roland Barthes said the reader is creator of the text I wonder if we're being encouraged here to create because it's so shotgun-patterned that it seems to suggest rather than to mean or define. It's a novel about myth and the hero. The dead father serves as all myth as well as all the cultural weight we've accumulat
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Oct 21, 2009
Jonathan
rated it:
That I sat for several minutes contemplating the starshells awaiting my decision to fill or leave vacant is a testament to either the difficulty intrinsic to "rating" a book or my ongoing inability to make the sort of snap judgments that grown men routinely must make, even as I roar towards the 27.5 yr old checkpoint. I go with "5" only because I can't see how Barthelme on full blast could merit less –– but be advised this is frequently an annoying book. And not just formally
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Apr 02, 2009
Eric
rated it:
I've never encountered a prose style that reads so much like poetry. There's a tightness, a smooth imbrication of dialogue and narration. I read it in three or four gulps; the flow carries you on, and one would just as soon stop randomly in this novel as leave a bookmark between the stanzas of a short lyric. And that is what struck me as the stylistic eminence of it all: his idiom and sense of humor, while incredibly elegant and effective, are nothing unfamiliar to readers of Joyce, Beckett and
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Apr 07, 2008
Sus
rated it:
Still [said Julie] he has something.
Oh yes, Thomas said, he has something. I would not dream of denying it.
Authority. Fragile, yet present. He is like a bubble you do not wish to burst.
But remember there was a time when he was slicing people's ears off with a wood chisel. Two-inch blade. And remember thee was a time when his voice, his plain unamplified voice, could turn your head inside out.
Hunkwash, she said, you are perpetuating myths.
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Oh yes, Thomas said, he has something. I would not dream of denying it.
Authority. Fragile, yet present. He is like a bubble you do not wish to burst.
But remember there was a time when he was slicing people's ears off with a wood chisel. Two-inch blade. And remember thee was a time when his voice, his plain unamplified voice, could turn your head inside out.
Hunkwash, she said, you are perpetuating myths.
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May 04, 2010
Eric
rated it:
A great book, experimental in style but consistently hilarious in an absurdist fashion. "The Dead Father" reminds me of Ben Marcus, whose "Notable American Women" I read recently. The book-within-a-book about 2/3rds of the way in is especially Marcus-like, given its series of declarative statements and odd enumerations as to the types of fathers. The sort of surrealist treatment of family relations is intriguing, and has less to do with making familiar things totally alien th
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Sep 01, 2009
Will
rated it:
Barthelme continues to be one of my favorites. His writing is very much surrealistic and experimental, but he manages to keep from sounding pedantic or pretentious, and rather maintains a classic voice. His experiments are also done with clear purpose; one rarely finds himself confused to a point beyond understanding.
What is amazing about the writing of The Dead Father is the very much real-world subjects and emotions that Barthelme evokes through such bizarre, surreal imagery. The p More...
What is amazing about the writing of The Dead Father is the very much real-world subjects and emotions that Barthelme evokes through such bizarre, surreal imagery. The p More...
Sep 30, 2011
David
rated it:
I've got to say, this has to be one of the oddest books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Really, odd doesn't even begin to cover it. Strange. Bizarre. Weird. It's symbols are metaphorical. It's metaphors are symbolic. It is a book that definitely could use multiple readings. I wondered what a book-length Barthelme work would look like and I am definitely not disappointed. I can't say that I understood everything, but I can say that I enjoyed it immensely.
Jul 26, 2011
Justin
rated it:
Barthelme's sense of humor is immensely charming. This novel is difficult at times because of a high diction and complicated images. It's not a book for everyone (especially the casual reader) but it is a book that challenges you, something not always found in modern literature. It's a book like no other, and it is a gem in my eyes.
Jan 29, 2012
Sean
rated it:
Excellent. Insane. The book feels emotional but it doesn't seem like it's going to have too much oomph until the second half. And the last three pages are absolutely killer.
It's kind of typical Donald Barthelme, subverting a lot of regular devices with storytelling. You're either going to love it or hate it.
It's kind of typical Donald Barthelme, subverting a lot of regular devices with storytelling. You're either going to love it or hate it.
Apr 25, 2009
Maya
rated it: 
This worked for me if I just judged it sentence by sentence. There was some interesting vocabulary. But it did not work in terms of characterizaton, plot. It was pretty funny when Mother showed up. There were other funny parts too, which helped, but overall a laborious reading experience.
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Oct 23, 2011
Ian Drew
rated it:
Frustrating at times for the non sequitars, other times funny, well-paced, all by dialogue, funny at times, good commentary done in interesting bizzare phrases.
Jan 17, 2009
Wes
rated it:
My favorite Barthleme novel. The premise is so hysterical and the characters are so likeable that it should go in some sort of absurdist hall of fame!
Jan 06, 2009
Sean
rated it:
A strange metaphorical journey, this book. Barthelme writes using two by fours, electrical tape, minced garlic and strings of blinking lights tangled by the wind.
May 26, 2010
David
rated it:
making this kind of writing work is so difficult. Some of it is admittedly gibberish, but there is enough humor to pull you through
May 31, 2009
John
rated it:
Sort of pre-post-modern "As I Lay Dying" meets "Waiting for Godot" as written by Kurt Vonnegut with a lobotomy 'cept different.
