The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton

by Russell H. Greenan

"A murderously funny fugue of the macabre ... Grave matters, elegantly dispatched." — The New York Times Book Review 

Algernon Pendleton — call him Al — lives by himself in a suburban Boston house loaded with treasures collected by his Egyptologist great-grandfather. His solitary life, punctuated by occasional visits to a shop where he trades artifacts for ready cash, would be lonely if not for his confidential chats with Eulalia, a talking porcelain pitcher. When an old army buddy shows up with a suitcase full of money, Eulalia has some less-than-friendly ideas about separating their houseguest from his fortune. Meanwhile, a professor of archaeology is getting increasingly suspicious about the shop's supply of rare and valuable antiquities. Thanks to Eulalia's advice, Al soon finds himself trapped in a murder mystery that unfolds with ample doses of black humor. 

"You have to have a heart of stone not to love Algernon Pendleton, the mad-as-a-hatter murderer … Curl up with him and your doom is sealed ... Greenan has fashioned an excursion in to the macabre that is in a class by itself." — Saturday Review

"Oddly appealing, a sort of Arsenic and Old Lace approach that really works in terms of entertainment if you have a taste for the fantastic." — Publishers Weekly

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Greenan grew up in the Bronx, had a tour of duty in the US Navy, and after attending Long Island University on the G.I. Bill, went to live in Boston in the early 1950s. For several years he worked as a traveling salesman selling industrial machine parts in remote corners of New England. His savings enabled him to travel to Nice, France where he stayed for a year to write. On his return to Boston he married Flora Bratko and opened an antique shop in Harvard Square. The business was short-lived but the experience provided an abundance of material for his subsequent career as a writer. In 1966, by then aged 40, he left his job as a ball bearing sales manager and traveled with his wife and three children to return to Nice with the intention of taking a year to finish a novel. This work was eventually published by Random House in 1968 titled It Happened in Boston? to significant acclaim.

Greenan maintained his career as an author by dividing his time between Europe and the U.S.A. and concentrating exclusively on writing novel-length works. To date ten novels by Russell H. Greenan have been published in the U.S.A. and France. Over 40 different editions of these novels have appeared in five languages.

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton is a remarkably odd (but very well written) novel by Russell H. Greenan. Originally published in 1973, this reformat and re-release from Dover on 12th June 2019 is 224 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats. Other formats available in earlier editions.

For readers who are fans of very black humor, this is a cleverly written novel with a truly trippy protagonist. Algernon ("everyone calls him Al") Pendleton. His best interactive relationship is with a vase (yes, really) called Eulalia. He also has a lively relationship with a Turkish dealer in antiques to whom he sells bits and pieces of his great grandfather's collection of Egyptian artifacts.

Admittedly the book is a product of its time. There are some uncomfortable racial and sexist stereotypes which felt somewhat dated. They weren't gratuitous, though, and they fit with the narrative (still somewhat disheartening).

Technically this book is amazing. It's not easy to bring dialogue between a living person and an inanimate object to life and to do so with enough finesse that it's not pathetic or ridiculous. Some of the scenes raised the hair on my arms at the same time I was chuckling. Well plotted and paced, the dramatic tension arc is satisfying and unpredictable.

I love Dover in all their glorious weirdness. This book really deserves to be presented to a new generation of readers. If the Dexter novels appeal, this one will be right on target.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[🐴 🍖]

oof. plotwise every bit as whip-smart as i.h.i.b., to be sure; but you can only have characters refer to the dude of middle eastern descent as "sly" and "sneaky" and "greaseball" (!) so many times before things start getting real uncomfortable, death of the author or not. skip it, read the aforementioned instead

[Huguelet Michou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le style totalement suranné m'a beaucoup dérangée et a rendu cette lecture agaçante.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of endearing, but ultimately pretty insubstantial.

The protagonist/title/viewpoint character, Algernon Pendleton, is a psychotic WWII veteran (he has conversations with a favored porcelain pitcher, Eulalia, among other objects) who lives in the rickety mansion that had belonged to his great-grandfather, a distinguished Egyptologist, and makes ends meet by gradually selling off bits of his great-grandfather's collection of artifacts. So far so good.

But it doesn't go anywhere particularly exciting, and there are no grand themes or ideas explored. The story just kind of pootles along amiably, with flashes of black comedy (multiple murders) and absurdism, everything filtered through Algernon's slightly skewed narration. It's never laugh-out-loud funny, and it stops quietly once all the loose ends have been tied up. There's the occasional unusual or archaic word- eg "pabulous," "forb," "repoussé"- but this doesn't indicate a lushness or density of style; really, the odd words stick out uncomfortably given how dry the text is otherwise.

It reminded me, more than anything else, of The Third Policeman, with maybe a bit of A Confederacy of Dunces, though not quite as sharp as the former, and lacking the local flavor of the latter. I wish I could like it more.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd probably give this three-and-a-half if it were possible.

I'd call this book "If P. G. Wodehouse had written Psycho."

I'm not a Wodehouse fan, but the fussy, easily manipulated narrator of this novel struck me as an American Bertie Wooster-type. The contrast between his narration and the situations he gets himself into create the humor of this book.

It is amusing. I didn't find it funny, the way I find Robert Benchley or Thomas Berger funny, but this was amusing.

There wasn't a strong narrative drive to the book. Like the narrator, the story just ambled along.

In some ways, Robert Bloch could have made this an effective short story.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Algernon, the protagonist of the this macabre story is nuts, but his world view is logical.

This first person account is well written and engaging as a determined and annoying female Egyptologist discovers that she cannot compete with Al's talking vase (that only he hears).

[charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

bit strange, kind of glad i got it from a blind date with a book thing because I wouldn't have chosen it hahaha
actually wasn't terrible though so I don't knowww

[Eric Shaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was singularly entertaining, and rarely do I read a book that introduces me to so many words I have never seen before, like "pleach." Of course, the book is focused on Egypt and archeology, so there are new terms, but this guy seems to know the name of or word for everything. Even if he is showing off his vocabulary (surely one of the least credible ways to demonstrate mastery of writing), he is a master at the sentence level. Too many fiction writers decline to examine--or assume any responsibility for--the sentences they make, awkward, confusing, and ill-punctuated as they so often are; I can only guess that they have completely accepted the bookseller's novel credo that plot drives fiction, when there are actually a number of ways to drive fiction, all of which can be entertainingly handled by an expert writer. The truth is that Greenan can craft a very fine sentence, and they are more than worth reading, even if you must crack a dictionary on every fourth page.

[Kristin]

Wow. I wish I could find more information on Greenan--his writing, characters, timing, and stories blow me away. I always have to make myself sit down with one of his books--because there's something about them that is particularly mind-bending for me, because they're not easily digestible--but once I do, I don't like to stop reading. Reading his books is like riding a roller coaster that stops just as the cars start to tip over the slope...

[Jared Caraway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and fairly clever. Nice combination of mystery, murder, and madness. Colorful characters, and a page-turning plot. It hits a few flat notes along the way, but it's a worthwhile read overall.

[Greg Jolley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read and good and interesting visit to Mr. Greenan's brave and tidy characters and story.