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The McGuffin
1984 Atlantic Monthly Press; First American Edition; Hardcover
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1984
About the author
John Bowen
31 books11 followersJohn Griffith Bowen was a British playwright and novelist. He was born in Calcutta, India, and worked in publishing, drama and television.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gr...
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gr...
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 7, 2025
Alfred Hitchcock invented the term "McGuffin" for the device or plot element that catches the audience's attention, and draws the protagonist into the plot of a thriller. Industrial diamonds, heavy water, a top secret message encoded in a jaunty little tune .... Hitchcock recognised that you need the McGuffin to get the story rolling, but then it can be forgotten as soon as it has served its purpose: The Birds isn't about birds, and North by Northwest isn't about people scrambling around on Mt. Rushmore.
Of all people, Paul Hatcher should know this: as the film critic for a failing literary magazine, he knows his Hitch, and he is self-aware enough to know that -- in the absence of things like friends and family -- he filters his life though the lens of the movies he obsesses over. So when he tries to help an elderly neighbour and her transvestite grandson (pretty edgy for 1984!), and he is drawn into a fatal mystery, he titles each chapter after an appropriate Hitchcock film (including two very early silents that I had never heard of ...) The Master himself makes an appearance, at a telling moment: "shook his head reproachfully, and walked out of frame."
But Hatcher learns the hard way that the McGuffin is more important, and has more fatal consequences, than Hitch's oeuvre might have led him to believe, and he must decide how much he is willing to risk to help a neighbour, and get justice for a stranger.
I tracked down this thoroughly out-of-print novel from 1984 because I was so impressed by Bowen's dark comedy The Girls, which is like a mirror image of The McGuffin, as it explores in graphic, not to say slightly shocking detail what one might do to protect someone you love. Paul Hatcher is a socially awkward recluse, who believes he has no one he loves (), but is willing to risk everything for strangers.
I think The Girls was a more perfect little novel: Bowen sometimes overdoes the weirdness and Hatcher's awkward affect, and there are problems with tone, as Bowen juggles dry humour, violence and horror.
I had heard that at Cannes the distributors gave lavish parties, sometimes several in an evening, at which starlets appeared with their nipples gilded, and although one despised that sort of thing, it would make a pleasant change ...
BUT, I found it interesting, and I'm glad I tracked it down.
Because I am as obsessive, in my own way, as Paul Hatcher, I discovered that Bowen adapted his novel for Screen Two, a 1980s drama anthology series for BBC Two. Hatcher was played by Charles Dance, and transvestite grandson Gavin was played by Mark Rylance. I would pay hard cash money to see it!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089570/...
Of all people, Paul Hatcher should know this: as the film critic for a failing literary magazine, he knows his Hitch, and he is self-aware enough to know that -- in the absence of things like friends and family -- he filters his life though the lens of the movies he obsesses over. So when he tries to help an elderly neighbour and her transvestite grandson (pretty edgy for 1984!), and he is drawn into a fatal mystery, he titles each chapter after an appropriate Hitchcock film (including two very early silents that I had never heard of ...) The Master himself makes an appearance, at a telling moment: "shook his head reproachfully, and walked out of frame."
But Hatcher learns the hard way that the McGuffin is more important, and has more fatal consequences, than Hitch's oeuvre might have led him to believe, and he must decide how much he is willing to risk to help a neighbour, and get justice for a stranger.
I tracked down this thoroughly out-of-print novel from 1984 because I was so impressed by Bowen's dark comedy The Girls, which is like a mirror image of The McGuffin, as it explores in graphic, not to say slightly shocking detail what one might do to protect someone you love. Paul Hatcher is a socially awkward recluse, who believes he has no one he loves (), but is willing to risk everything for strangers.
I think The Girls was a more perfect little novel: Bowen sometimes overdoes the weirdness and Hatcher's awkward affect, and there are problems with tone, as Bowen juggles dry humour, violence and horror.
I had heard that at Cannes the distributors gave lavish parties, sometimes several in an evening, at which starlets appeared with their nipples gilded, and although one despised that sort of thing, it would make a pleasant change ...
BUT, I found it interesting, and I'm glad I tracked it down.
Because I am as obsessive, in my own way, as Paul Hatcher, I discovered that Bowen adapted his novel for Screen Two, a 1980s drama anthology series for BBC Two. Hatcher was played by Charles Dance, and transvestite grandson Gavin was played by Mark Rylance. I would pay hard cash money to see it!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089570/...
Displaying 1 of 1 review