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Loading... Serenity Houseby Christopher Hope
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Booker 1992 shortlist. Very sophisticated humour. And now that I'm 80, pretty mean humour. Of course the House in the title is a place for oldies who can't manage any longer. There's always hilarity in that - maybe not .P.C. but isn't laughter the best medicine? ( ) A black comedy set in an old people's home in London, this is the story of Max Montfalcon, the genial giant of Serenity House who might have been left to die in peace, but whose life took on a decidedly new turn when it becomes increasingly evident, helped by the investigation of his son-in-law MP who has a special interest in the War Crimes Bill, that Montfalcon was, in an earlier incarnation, Maximilian von Falkenberg. Falkenberg was known to be a brilliant German anthropologist who in 1942 conducted research on genetic racial differences in a Polish facility, possibly killing thousands of Jews and Poles with lethal injection. Enters Jack, an all-American boy, eccentric and obsessed with violent videos and Chinese takeaways. Max is haunted by dreams of the Holocaust. The occupants of Serenity Hause is haunted by Jack. The story is entertaining despite the grim and macabre theme (notions of people-disposal). While I did not fall for the story, I still enjoyed very much the satire and his crisp wit, and look forward to another of Hope's books. no reviews | add a review
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Max Montfalcon lay in bed and tried to remember how many people he had killed. . . Old Max, the genial giant of Serenity House, north London's "Premier Eventide Refuge," might have been left to die in peace. But his son-in-law Albert, an MP with a special interest in the War Crimes Bill, has other ideas. Then Jack arrives. An all-American boy who survives on a diet of video nasties and Chinese takeaways. Max is haunted by dreams of the Holocaust. And the occupants of Serenity House are haunted by Jack. . . No library descriptions found. |
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