How Like a God

by Rex Stout

Here's one of the most bizarre fiction books ever written: unconventional in structure & in form as well as in premise. I say "fiction book" rather than "novel," because the chapters of How Like a God are interwoven with segments of a seemingly unrelated short story, & the threads unite only in the terrifying conclusion.
The short story, printed entirely in italics but otherwise told in conventional 3rd-person narration, is divided into segments lettered A thru Q. These reveal the thoughts of one Mr. Lewis as he ascends a staircase with a pistol in his coat pocket, intending to kill someone in an upstairs room. Lewis's sense of impending doom raises the possibility that perhaps his intent is not murder but rather suicide, or perhaps both.
Alternating between these brief cliffhanger segments are the long chapters I thru XVI of a novel, in 2nd-person narration. You are William Barton Sidney. Your entire existence, from childhood thru sexual awakening into prosperous middle age, is recounted in these pages. Your life is respectable, normal, prosaic. Yet nobody suspects that you are aware of multiple personalities within your body, & that your head is full of voices.
The final segment Q is a chilling climax, revealing Lewis's intended prey (human in visage only), the true relationship between Lewis & Sidney, & the full significance of the novel's title (a quote from Hamlet). Can it be coincidence that Brenda Clough's 1997 SF novel How Like a God features a telepathic protagonist also named Lewis?—F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Literature, Mystery, Noir

251 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Rex Todhunter Stout (1886–1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair).

The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of college I got involved with Janny, one of the best-read persons I'd ever met. I went on to graduate studies in New York city, she followed, transferring to Barnard College a semester later. For over two years the two of us lived with our respective libraries in a one room single in Union Theological Seminary's Hastings Hall.

Janny was a mystery fan like I was a science fiction fan. Attempting to get me, a psych major, interested, she handed over Stout's How Like a God, a psychological mystery. I read at over a night or two between rounds as a campus security guard. Being mostly written in the second person, the experience of reading it was weirdly impressive, evocative of midnight paranoias.

[Sun · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's strange reading a Rex Stout book that has nothing to do with detectives or mysteries. 'How Like a God' is touted on the cover as an "extraordinarily brilliant novel about a sexual psychotic - his strange marriage, abnormal obsessions and dark desires". It is actually an account of Bill Sidney, from his school days to mid-life and his awkward relationships with women. He is fixated on elder sister Jane, has an affair with Sunday-school teacher Mrs Davis, falls in love with country-girl Lucy, but instead marries rich but unfaithful Erma, and finds a mistress in gamine Millicent.

The book alternates between a third-person segment that implies murderous intent and the main second-person narrative and jumps back and forth in time. In my mind it's the stylistic precursor to Bright Lights Big City crossed with the confused psychotic tone of American Psycho. I'm not sure what Stout was trying to achieve, but it is too well-written and the thoughts too pedestrian for the protagonist to be truly nutty but the plot is too little developed to pique a reader's interest. Worth checking out as an oddity, not so much as a reading experience.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very odd story but written in the second person. Loved the way it was written

[Adam Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly, Wolfe's novel is written in the second person perspective, which is very jarring when you first read it. It is supposed to make the reader feel like they are the character, but it didn't work in this case, in my opinion. At no point did I feel like I was in the shoes and mind of the protagonist, and maybe that was why I was really disapponited with "How Like A God." In fact, I would argue I felt less in the head of the protagonist, than most books that are written in the first person. But, putting that aside, every writer must start somewhere, and the ingenuity and wonderful prose Wolfe became famous for, were evident in this early work. But, Stout's ending, which was set-up on the very first page, just took too long and wasn't interesting enough to keep my attention for it's entirety. If it weren't for the fact that Stout wrote it, I would have abandoned the novel, but I was reluctant to do so to a genuine master writer of the crime fiction genre. But, unfortuntely, he hadn't yet crafted the expertise that his Nero Wolfe novels exhibit, and I found "How Like A God" to be slow, rambling and not very exciting. The characters are fine, the theme sufficient and the prose is well written, it just took far too long to get there for me. I normally adore everything that Hard Case Crime publish but I have to say I've been let down for the first time. But you can't win them all, every one has to start somewhere, and Wolfe has done more for the American detective novel than almost anyone. I can hardly hold "How Like A God" against him, considering the mastery levels his career would reach, most notably with his Nero Wolfe books.

[Downward · Rating 3 out of 5]

essentially a lesser Philip Roth book about the neurosis of sexuality that gets derailed by a crime pretense and interstitial chapters that ask for a violent ending that is unearned but expected by its shoehorned genre. outside of the ending, which plays a morality tale that insists an unashamed woman die for her sins against man, the text engages with the fragility of masculinity by repeating the magnetic appeal of this unashamed woman while consistently reminding the reader that this unashamed woman is (through the voice of an untrustworthy narrator and other men) unappealing, boring, unattractive, disgusting...and yet, she holds power over them, instead of them dismissing her the way they would any woman who held those traits but fell under the sway of their egos. the major misstep here is not providing a cathartic end that asks the man to cleanse himself of that ego through destruction of that ego's major symbol in the book, but rather fall in light with what the easy traditional and expected ending is.

[Vincenzo Iennaco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scritto in una retrospettiva seconda persona, il romanzo eviscera, nell'arco di due rampe di scale, ricordi e introspezioni di un ricco magnate dell'acciaio nella New York dei ruggenti anni Venti. Una lenta e inesorabile salita al proprio personale Golgota, d'altronde l'atmosfera patibolare ne rivela i sentori fin da subito. Forse questa scelta anti-narrativa (a mio sindacabile giudizio) è data dal voler scavare nei risvolti e nelle pieghe di un'esistenza, un tentativo di scovare incidenze o lacune dell'arbitrio e del destino. Certo ognuno potrà trovarvi tutte le proprie domande e risposte del caso. Di certo c'è solo che questo romanzo, a suo tempo, fu un totale insuccesso e il buon Stout voltò pagina e diede alla luce il suo pargoletto piuttosto in carne Nero Wolfe. Retrospettivamente parlando, dietro a un successo c'è sempre un'insuccesso.

[City Mist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very pleasant surprise. I've previously avoided Rex Stout's novels in the Hard Case Crime range due to their age and seeming emphasis on mystery, which, in combination, don't usually make for stories that I enjoy, but How Like a God reads as very modern in its internal monologue and borderline depravity. I was at points a little startled at how much detail Stout lends to the lead character's sexual and romantic deviancies.

[Amanda Himes · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment! I was so excited to find a Rex Stout novel I haven't read before, but this one is a long way from the delightful Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin novels that made Stout famous. The protagonist is deviant (he finds a 10-year-old sexually appealing, and they go on to have a relationship) in ways that had me putting the book down 20 pages in. Yuck.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cover blurb makes this sound taundry. It is a character sketch that is unique in its delivery and style. One of most clever murder noir mystery books. Hard to find this book. Should be a movie

[John Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a sort of proto-Jim Thompson vibe.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rex Stout’s How Like a God (orig. published in 1929; republished in 1963 by Pyramid; and now republished in June 2024 by Hard Case Crime) is a psychological study of William Barton Sydney through childhood and throughout his life. William’s tale is told in the second person oddly enough and you eventually get the idea that he is talking to himself and working things out throughout the narrative. Told from William’s point of view, as a reader you always wonder how much of his narrative you can trust and how much of it is told in a way that shields William from responsibility for his actions. Indeed, William makes no bones about the fact that he sees himself as a weed floating in the wind and a weakling in spirit carried through life but stronger figures such as his sister Jane, who returns home like Napoleon conquering Europe.

Much of William’s life is in the shadow of these stronger figures starting with Jane, who becomes the family matriarch, and going to his Sunday School teacher who he has a torrid affair with to the shock of the entire town. From there, he leaps into the shadow of Dick and his sister Erma, wealthy business owners who have fleets of servants and fleets of cars. William is much under Dick’s wing his entire life becoming the second in command at the business. William is also much under Erma’s wing his entire life from her decision that they would be married to the odd cuckoldery of their twisted marriage. Throughout it all, William, by his narrative, takes little responsibility for anything.

Still odder is William’s connection to Millicent, who begins as his laundress’ ten-year-old who fetches his clothes and who he gives candy to and develops a rather inappropriate connection to. She remains a twisted fantasy throughout his life of purity and innocence. It is never made explicit whether he touches her inappropriately, but it is hinted at. The cover of the 1963 edition of the book tells the reader that it is a story of a man’s strange marriage, abnormal obsessions, and twisted desires so there is no pretending that William is normal. He is not.

Alternating with these second-person narrated chapters are brief paragraphs telling a story of a man (Mr. Lewis) climbing stairs with a gun in his pocket, carefully, guiltily, and with bad intent. It is not until the very end that the stories are ultimately connected. Everything about how the story is laid out is rather experimental, particularly for the time it was written in – 1929. While it is a crime fiction story, much of the book is invested in detailing William’s thinking and obsessions and his manner of approaching things.

This reviewer received an advance reader’s copy from the publisher.

[M. K. French · Rating 3 out of 5]

William Sidney climbs the stairs of a New York City brownstone, with a loaded revolver. At the top of the stairs, a woman he intends to kill. But who…?

Rex Stout is known for his detective Nero Wolfe. Written in the 1930s, this novel is a psychological thriller told mostly in the second person. It may take the reader some time to get used to it since the style meanders a lot more than what we get in psychological thrillers written today. I heard of Nero Wolfe but hadn't read those novels, so I jumped at the chance to read this one.

We see parts of Bill's life as well as the women in his life that had impacted it. His sister, his first tryst, his first love, his wife. Throughout most of his life, he is pushed this way and that, not truly making decisions for himself but letting things happen and following along with what others did. It landed him his job, his hefty bank account, and even his marriage. With everything laid out for him to follow, he was always distinctly unhappy and drifting through life. Interspersed with this are snippets of his thoughts as he climbs the stairs to kill her, but no name is given, leading the reader to try to guess who he's going to kill.

Bill might be the protagonist, but he's largely a forgettable character, moving through the story like a leaf on the wind. He doesn't soar but gets bogged down more and more over time. There isn't necessarily a clear motive, other than he feels terrible and blames others for it. As the novel progresses and we see more of his past, who the woman is changes until we get to the very end and the murder itself. It's a very different style of murder mystery than we're used to, with a very sudden crash at the end. For those who really enjoy mysteries and thrillers from the turn of the century, this book is for you.

[Mariga Temple-West · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interminable. Pointless. Pretentious. Writing wasn't bad.

[Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is NOT a crime novel.