Here goes very a fine slice of literary gothic/psychological thriller fiction, one that kept me reading with great interest all the way thru. This reader was excited not just by the creepy, dark story, but by the very high quality of the writing. Lasdun writes deceptively simple prose in which stunning sentences grab one's attention like jewels catching candlelight in a darkened chamber.From the very beginning, one senses that there is something not quite right with the narrator, England-born Lawrence Miller, a journeyman professor who currently resides in New York City and teaches at a nearby college. He seems to believe that someone - most likely a disgraced former colleague - is out to get him in some way, drag him into some sort of nefarious mess. He notices strange things in his office and comes to believe that someone has been messing around in there. Miller is your classic new age, pro-feminist man. He serves on his school's aggressive sexual harrassment committee, which has a "presumption of guilt" policy, and comes very close to being a persecutory organization. He sees himself as proper and decent, yet his wife has left him for some unclear reason, possibly his own actions, and that clearly has him upset. He tries to discuss his problems with a psychotherapist, but is unable or unwilling to reveal very much about himself in their sessions.As the story continues, the central mystery deepens: does Miller possess some sort of split personality, or does he indeed have enemies conspiring to do him in? His behavior becomes more strange, but also more amusing. He seems to be searching for clues to what is being done to him, while the reader is picking up scattered information concerning who he really is. This might sound like pretty standard psychological thriller stuff, but Lasdun's writing is more elegant than your average paperback scribe's, and more full of dark, absurdist humor as well. This book deserves a place in the canon of literary mystery/suspense tales.
The only reason I didn’t stop reading this book after 100 pages is because I needed to finish it for an English assignment. The Horned Man follows the story of Lawrence Miller, a gender studies professor, as he tries to puzzle out a conspiracy to frame him for a murder. It starts with little things that grab Miller’s attention: his bookmark moving from where he placed it and a mysterious phone call made from his office in the early morning hours. But then things begin to escalate quickly as Millar slowly loses his grip on reality. It sounds like a very interesting book, which is why I picked it for my assignment, but the over usage of language and the bland storytelling made this book more a chore than anything else. I must admit that the book was suspenseful, even compelling at times, but the ending was so anticlimactic that in the end it didn’t even matter. By the time I actually reached the ending I didn’t care anymore, the events leading up to the conclusion had just become too strange for me. James Lasdun has a beautiful vocabulary and a knack for description but, sadly, it’s put to waste in this book. Objects and events were described to the point of overkill and the advanced vocabulary took away from the story. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, but if you’re looking for a quick and dirty read that will leave you wondering what just happened this book is definitely for you.
What do You think about The Horned Man (2003)?
After a series of instances that make the main character think he is having lapses in memory, he starts to wonder if someone isn’t messing with him instead. Then murders start happening and he isn’t completely convinced that he didn’t commit them.I thought this book started off well, but the ending just kinda left you hanging. I mean you could figure out what was going on about halfway through the book, but everything became more and more vague as it went on. The author seemed more intent on describing what everything looked like that the plot seemed to get lost.
—Coni Warren
I finished reading The Horned Man this morning after breakfast. It is an extremely odd book. I have absolutely no recollection of buying it; it’s possible, but somewhat unlikely, that it was a gift.I’m not sure how to characterize it. I guess I’d describe it as the story of one’s man’s descent into apparent madness. The story is a first person narrative by Lawrence Miller. Significant parts of Lawrence’s backstory are left unsaid, so the reader is frequently left wondering what is going on. Lawrence is an interesting, but not very likable, man. I found his, perhaps, delusional fantasies disturbing and found myself in the uncomfortable position of identifying with him far more than I would like.The writing is engaging and as we learn more about Lawrence his grasp on reality becomes more and more tenuous. Or, he becomes more and more aware of the conspiracies against him. It’s never quite clear; to either Lawrence or the reader.The ending is even stranger than the rest of the book, and we are left knowing, it seems, even less than when we started.
—MB Taylor
I read this right after After Dark, My Sweet and it was interesting to read two first-person point of view novels back to back. They couldn't be more different in tone or style. While After Dark uses the first-person to create a transparency, a direct connection into the mind of the protagonist, the opposite happens in The Horned Man. It is disconcerting and ultimately distracting to have a narrator who I can't tell if he's crazy or just an out and out liar. This is also the reason that the book took a while for me to get into, because the weird tone (intimate yet obscure) is a bit off-putting until you get into the meat of the story. It was interesting enough, and I'd like to read some of Lasdun's other works.
—Peggy
