Little Hands Clapping

If you read this book based solely on my recommendation (which you should not do), I don't want you coming back to me if you hate it and saying something like "you are one sick puppy." To be really blunt, I tend to march to a different drummer in life as it is, and I gravitate toward the quirky and the offbeat when it's put out there.

On the surface, this book is gruesome and at times a bit sick, but if you want a book that's highly original, one that offers something you'll probably never read the likes of again, then this one's for you. It will probably appeal to minds like mine...a little off-kilter and prone towards the quirkiness of life. And actually, what's really funny is that in the author's world, all of this stuff could have show more actually happened. Sick, a bit macabre, but at the same time often funny, with a story to tell, Little Hands Clapping is one of the best books I've read in a while.I've never read any other books by this author, but I see more on my library shelves from him in the future.

On the surface, this book reads somewhat like a bizarre set of interconnected fairy tales, and once you start reading you are hooked. Somewhere in Germany, a woman known only as Mrs. Pavarotti (not her real name, but so-called because her husband has an uncanny resemblance to the real opera star), has created a museum whose intended visitors are those who are in deep pain, possibly contemplating suicide. The exhibits, which are funny but not really (actually, they're kind of sad, but you can't help laughing even when you know you shouldn't) have a purpose: to try to get these lost souls to change their minds and embrace life. Mrs. Pavarotti herself went through some anguish in life, and she can't stand the thought of unhappiness and pain. She hired a caretaker only known as Herr Schmidt, who embraces nothingness. He hates human companionship and just wants to be left alone, his one pleasure in life the cake brought by Mrs. P. every time she comes to visit. Herr Schmidt often finds the need to call on one of the local GPs, a Dr. Frohliche with whom he shares a secret that the rest of the town is probably not ready to hear about. The doctor, who is loved by his regular patients, does what he considers his penance by doling out money to charity. Interwoven with this story is the sad story of two beautiful young people whom the stars destined for each other early in life.

It's simplistic, but not simple. The author is gifted -- he can turn your stomach while at the same time making you laugh by going off on some rather bizarre tangents. He has no shame sometimes, and the humor tends to lighten some of the darkness of the novel, but at the same time feeds into it. You will laugh in spite of yourself. He takes small-town, inglorious and mundane lives and makes them interesting to the point that he leaves you wanting more. The writing is not a clear linear narrative, going backward and forward through time, but still very easy to follow. It's like a modern Brothers Grimm on steroids.

If you have a quirky outlook on life, or if you like really dark humor which has a purpose, or even if you just want something new and well, refreshingly different, then you are going to love this book. You have to just let yourself go while you read this, because of the gruesome and often gross subject matter, but in the end, it's absolutely exquisite. To those readers, I can highly recommend this book. But this novel is not for the faint of heart, or for those who can't or won't see humor in even the bleakest of situations. show less

This book was a lot darker than I originally anticipated! Cannibalism, necrophilia, suicide?! Despite moments of nausea, there was still some humor and sweetness in this weird, fairy-tale like story. So different and so much fun to read!

Strange book, this... very very weird subjects, but written in a really funny way, and more of 'intermingled' short stories rather than a continuous plot.
And quite a surprise to find portuguese characters here!

How to describe this book? Well it’s a modern day fairy tale and is funny, macabre, innocent, idealistic, realistic and taboo breaking. It’s also beautifully written and at times unremittingly perceptive of the human condition, “She felt numb. Then she felt sick. Then came a raging pain, as if insects were trapped inside her body and struggling to scrape their way out through her skin. One by one these insects gave up and she felt numb again. She hoped this would last, but soon the nausea returned, and the scraping. Her eyeballs throbbed.” This was recommended to me, with some hesitancy, by the manager of my local independent book shop. I understand her hesitancy as I’m a uncertain as to how I feel about this book as at times show more it feels a little unnecessarily gruesome and the plotting is a little uneven. show less

In Little Hands Clapping, we delve into the weird and darkly wonderful world of Dan Rhodes, where Museums are dedicated to suicide and their curators eat little more than crackers, cake and spiders; Doctors are - at least in one instance – cannibals; and love can conquer, or destroy, all.

The story follows various seemingly unconnected stories, some of which span the entire novel, eventually gravitating towards the previously mentioned Museum of Suicide; and some that pop up almost randomly throughout the novel, like windows into the bizarre world of Rhodes.

As with Gold, a previous Dan Rhodes novel I reviewed, Little Hands Clapping is fairly lacking in the plot department. The blurb tells us that the characters of the book will be show more caught up in a crime that will shock the world... OK, so it is a pretty bad crime, but one that becomes apparent very early on in the novel and there is never a real shock involved. The most important aspect of the book is the highly descriptive and downright beautiful prose. Without Rhodes' exemplary way with words, Little Hands Clapping would be a dull and wholly pointless little book, but instead it is transformed into a sweet, funny and mildly macabre novel, which was a real treat to read.

Dan Rhodes' style of writing has often been called 'lad lit', but I don't see it that way. I think its whimsical, plodding nature would make it more a choice for the art/drama student, rather than your typical Bravo Two-Zero 'lad'. Either way, Little Hands Clapping is a bizarre, sometimes melancholy, but thoroughly enjoyable, if unconventional, novel.

Recommended.

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An interesting read which fluctuates between dark cynical plot lines to simple innocent ones. The main plot is based upon the life of a suicide museum in a quiet little town. The main characters seemingly non caring attitude to life provides a contrast to the youthful innocence of other characters and driven nature of the doctor. Well worth a read if you like dark humour and provides an insight into the way we treat death.

all'inizio mi era sembrato un pò confuso,ma quando la storia ha ingranato,ne è venuta fuori una favola tenera,divertente e originale!molto carino!