The Ha-Ha : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: AN EMOTIONALLY CHARGED READING
Review:


Tony nominee Terry Kinney gives a dramatic and emotionally charged reading of Dave King's debut novel. It takes someone with the ability of voice performer Kinney to inhabit the mind and heart of Vietnam veteran Howie Kapostash.

After just a little over two weeks in Vietnam, Howie is rendered speechless by an explosion. Now, he is in mid-life, still unable to speak or communicate save for incoherent sounds. He lives in a rundown house he inherited and earns a meager living by mowing lawns and taking in boarders. His three tenants are a bit unusual - there is Laurel, a Vietnamese-American cook/caterer, and two laid back house painters, whom Howie thinks of as Nit and Nat.

While most avoid Howie because he appears to be unstable, he is actually the same person he has always been and is still in love with his high school sweetheart, Sylvia. To him she may be the lovely young girl he remembers but to the world she's a dope addicted neglectful mother who is being sent to rehab. She leaves her 9-year-old son, Ryan, in Howie's care.

The presence of a child in their midst changes all four of the adults. Laurel begins to care for Ryan, and Howie finds himself attending school activities. While this growing sense of family involvement might bode for a bright future, there is a dramatic change when Sylvia returns.

"The Ha-Ha" is poignant reminder of the humanity in all of us, and our need to be involved with one another.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: A heart-rending tale of betrayal and hope
Review: Dave King's THE HA-HA gives a unique look into the mind of a man unable to speak, and while this novel succeeds on many levels, its greatest success comes in effectively duplicating in the reader's mind the same frustrations felt by the lead character, Howard. At every turn, this story tugs at your heartstrings, making you wish poor Howard were able to communicate his feelings for his old flame, Sylvia, and her son, Ryan. This is a true tour de force of point-of-view characterization, and for any readers who enjoy a good character-driven story, this is a remarkable novel.

Rating:
Summary: an absolutely stunning debut!
Review: Due to a complicated head injury suffered from the Vietnam War, Howard Kapostash is unable to speak or write, and lives in a world of solitude for almost thirty years. He carts around cards that explain his situation and he assures people that he is of normal intelligence. He remains in the house he grew up, takes on the occasional prostitute and had his own bought with alcohol and drug addiction. As many disabled people are forced to do, he takes on menial work at a local convent, mowing lawns and performing assorted repair work. His house is filled with boarders and people weave in and out of Howard's seemingly uncomplicated life rather easily. That is until his effusive high school sweetheart, Sylvia, shows up at his doorstep, nine-year-old son in tow and explains her situation: an intervention has been staged by her older sister, Carolyn. Sylvia's going into rehab for her cocaine addiction and could Howard take care of her son, Ryan, just for a short time? What ensues through the course of the novel is the transformative affect Ryan has on Howard. For the first time in years, Howard is frustrated with his world of silence that has him boxed in and he yearns for something beyond his empty life - fun, love and a sense of family.

King navigates this world of silence, yearning and loss with precision without being precious or sentimental. His characters are flawed, honest people that seek the basest of things: love, compassion and the closest thing one can conceive as a normal life of baseball, hot dogs and lazy bbq's. I was enveloped by the beautiful, elliptical prose and the story's conceit: how does a man function in a world of silence where the only words are spoken in interior monologue? I wondered how King would pull this off, but he did, and brilliantly.


Rating:
Summary: Didn't like it
Review: I just did not like this book. I got over 1/2 way done and just stopped. I could not get into, did not feel anything for the characters and really did not care what happened to any of them. I see others loved the book...to each his own.
Although this had nothing to do with my rating, I thought I would add that there are a few crude scenes in the book based on what I did read. I was slightly surprised by that, so I thought I would tell others. Anything discussing war and military, I completely expected. Details of other areas of his life, I was not anticipating.


Rating:
Summary: Profound, Transformative Reading Experience
Review: It doesn't get better than this. Dave King's first novel is miraculous, maddening in its brilliance, vexing in its beauty, but its sentences dig deepest. Each phrase, each image--so clear, so true. Not since AS I LAY DYING have I been so moved as I was when I first read THE HA-HA, and I don't think it is hyperbole to state, without reservation and in utter awe, that King's book is as perfectly crafted as THE GREAT GATSBY. Big shoes to fill, to be sure, and of course, only time will tell what the world will make of THE HA-HA, but if there is any justice in the world (and, these days, justice seems to be in short demand), THE HA-HA will be required reading not just at every school and detention center and corporate center in America but in the Armed Forces as well. (George Bush, read this book.) It has been months since I finished this book, and, to this day, I find myself getting coffee at the local cafe and thinking to myself, What would Howie do now? Or on the subway, surrounded by anonymous faces, How would Howie fit in? And I feel, for a moment at least, as if I have found not only a great character and a great heart but a friend in Howard Kapotash. Finally, finally, someone has written the book I have longed to read, and his name is Dave King.

Rating:
Summary: Very special literature
Review: This book, so different from most of today's action/romance schlock, grabs your heart and twists it until it breaks, yet the humanity of the characters offers hope to alleviate the pain. Dave King brings a profound empathy to his story of a man thrust inward by his disability who learns that he still can have a meaningful - even fulfilling - life, can reach out to make a difference in the lives of others, can move beyond his decades-old memories. Not an easy read, but an important one which will stay with you long after the last page is read. This is literature at its finest.

Rating:
Summary: an amazing book
Review: This is an amazing book. Howard is a just like all of us - yearning for love and home and normalcy - only he cannot communicate. When a sort of normalcy is thrust upon him, he begins to believe... And the results are of course painful and wonderful and hopeful and sad. The writing is powerful. I totally related to Howard, and there were times when putting down the book that I felt as if I, too, had been rendered speechless.

Rating:
Summary: remarkable book
Review: This is one of the best book I have ever read. I found it hard to put it down. I have recommended it to several people. The characters are fascinating and real and the book is full of love. Every chapter is a surprise.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent storytelling
Review: Three decades ago while on his first month of duty in Viet Nam, Howard Kapostash suffered a head injury that devastated his communication abilities. Though his intelligence remained average, he no longer could speak, nor write or read. His emotional quotient was already lagging before the trauma and over the subsequent thirty years since has not developed. Howard shares his childhood home with Vietnamese-American Laurel, who makes specialty soups for local restaurants; and Steve and Harrison two housepainters he calls to himself Nit and Nat.

Taking advantage that Howard still has some feelings for her, Sylvia dumps her reticent nine-year-old child Ryan on Howard to take care of him while she is away though he has no experience with children. This dysfunctional commune soon comes together as the four adults responsibly and lovingly rally for the child. As the quartet learn about what life is all about, Sylvia will return soon and take away their catalyst, but will each one slip back to indifference and irresponsibility?

Though what happens to the foursome when Ryan enters their lives seems too obvious and expected, readers will not care as Dave King provides a deep look at the importance of having a reason to live not jus exist. The story line is terrific as the four adults begin to mature and provide stability to the introverted child who changed their lives for the better. Fans will enjoy this fine character study as everyone begins to heal because now they have a cause.

Harriet Klausner