ONE OF POPSUGAR’S “10 BOOKS BY DEBUT AUTHORS TO WATCH IN 2019” From a powerful new literary voice, a sweeping epic of one family and the destructive power of the American Dream All their lives, the children of George Benjamin Hill have fought to escape the shadow of their father, a dust-bowl orphan, self-made millionaire in bedrock American capitalism (fast food and oil), and destroyer of two … (fast food and oil), and destroyer of two families on his way to financial success.
Now, they are approaching middle age and ruin: A failed ex-minor league ballplayer, divorced and mourning the death of his daughter in Miami; a self-proclaimed CIA veteran, off his meds and deciphering conspiracies in Manhattan; a Las Vegas showgirl turned old maid of The Strip, trying to stay clean; and an Alaskan bush pilot, twice un-indicted for manslaughter and recently thrown off his land by the federal government.
While their father takes his place at the center of a national scandal, these estranged siblings find themselves drawn from their four corners of the country, compelled along crowded interstates by resentment and confusion, converging on a 300-acre horse ranch outside Omaha for a final confrontation with the father they never had.
Migrating from the suburban anonymity of 1950s San Bernardino, to the frozen end of the world (Alaska circa 1976), and concluding in the background of one of the most horrifying moments in American history, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill spans seventy years of life in America, from the Great Depression to the age of corporate greed and terrorism. It is a literary suspense novel about the decline and consequence of patriarchal society. It is also an intricate family saga of aspiration and betrayal.
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The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill
by James Charlesworth
Dysfunctional family – to put it mildly. I am not sure ANYONE in this story was “normal” or that they had the chance to be so. I am not sure if it was nature or nurture that caused the fractures and issues but boy did this story provide some strange characters with unusual issues and outlooks on life. The fact that most of the people blamed one person for their problems and all that negative happenings in their lives made me wonder why they didn’t accept some of the blame themselves.
The story has many characters with one central figure, George Benjamin Hill, that the others were related to. There were two wives and four children all of whom were greatly impacted by that central figure. The story begins with George and how he ended up in California with a few clues provided as to why he became the man he did. It then moves on to his first wife and the children he had with her and how he and those two sons ended up in a larger family with another woman and two more children. From California to Alaska and what happened there and then on to how George’s adult children turned out and what they were up to as they neared the half century mark of their own lives is all part and parcel of this sweeping story. Whether or not the greed of one man, George, is the reason so many lives turned out less than desirable is a question only the reader can decide.
This book was a bit disconnected feeling at times with so many people to follow and with their stories unfolding in a non-linear way. Also, tidbits that would have made the story clear and actions more understood by the reader were at times not made apparent till further along in the story. I almost gave up a few times but there was something compelling about the family that kept me reading…only to come to the end wishing many of the people I had read about could have had a different end to their stories.
This is not light easy reading and does make the reader think not only about places but about people, motivation, family, mental health, choices one makes and the impact those choices have on self and others.
Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing – Arcade for the ARC- This is my honest review.
4 Stars
How can one book cover so much ground, both in the country we call America and in the depths of the human heart? The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill exposes the American Dream for what it can too often be: a nightmare for those caught in the wake of the one striving after it and, at its heart, something that we as individuals will never quite realize. Frightening to consider that it is entirely possible (probable even) that the egos of just a few ambitious men can determine the fate of not only a family but an entire industry or nation.
Charlesworth’s prose is as sweeping as his setting, which takes you from Oklahoma to California to Alaska to Florida to New York City to Houston to Michigan to Nebraska and yet is always laser-focused on story and character. You get the idea that Charlesworth knows everything there is to know about his characters—even much more than he’s telling you—and begin to feel that they could not possibly be a fiction.
Dense, tension-laden, and, in the end, hopeful, this book nearly overwhelms the reader with the weight of man’s folly and the tantalizing prospect of a new beginning. Highly recommended to fans of literary fiction.
In his impressive debut novel, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill, James Charlesworth covers a lot of ground. First, he deftly builds an entire family of offbeat characters, most of them more than a little unlikeable. Second, his characters cross America from end to end: starting as hard-scrabble farmers in the Dust Bowl, they moved to San Bernardino, then the oil fields of Alaska, on to Florida to New York City to Houston to Michigan to Nebraska. Four years, these four children follow a father who is always chasing the next fast buck without regard to the emotional needs of wives and children. Third, Charlesworth captures the soul of America as we struggle with the Depression, the Vietnam War, and other major events in our shared history and often proves that the American Dream is unattainable for most, especially the senior Hill’s children, forever emotionally scarred by his emotional absence.
The prose is gorgeous, laden with depth and feeling. This epic family saga is sure to become an American classic.
I don’t know if I liked this book, or not. There were several times, especially in the early going, when I seriously thought about not finishing. Sometimes I found the pros lyrical and interesting, and at other times I just wanted the author to get on with the story. One of the things that bothered me the most was that there was not one happy or content person in this whole book. I have dealt with dysfunctional families and I find it unrealistic that at least one of the children didn’t figure out how to make their lives work in some way. Read at your own risk.
Terrible book. Don’t waste your time. I rate it minus four stars
very boring. Did not finish it
A wild ride across decades and emotional depths, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill follows one man’s rise from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of power and greed, and the lengths his scattershot offspring will go to exact revenge on the father who left them behind in pursuit of the American Dream.
Patricide is rapid-fire and dense and muscular. I love the way Charlesworth packs his sentences, and his characters have this grand, epic, fated quality.
The eponymous industrialist of James Charlesworth’s debut novel is a bootstrapping striver, a paragon of ruthless certitude, a malevolent Forrest Gump of American capitalism; he’s also the father of grown kids with wrecked lives and serious scores to settle. As Charlesworth tracks their murder-minded convergence on a Midwestern ranch, his winding, precise sentences excavate histories both personal and national to deliver a compressed epic that doubles as a fierce indictment of traditional masculinity. Rollicking, hallucinatory, and deeply felt, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill is a scorching Oresteia for the twenty-first century.
Rife with the mayhem attendant upon corruption and greed, and alight with the ersatz sparkle of American myth-making and self-absorption, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill offers a hefty and concrete document of the often incalculable costs of capitalist success. With this epic entry into the vast field of feckless and appalling father figures, Charlesworth presents one of the most entertaining and utterly spell-binding arguments against the patriarchy ever written. Wild and haunted, it’s a realistic book, yes, but maybe it’s also a horror story in which the scariest monster of all goes by the alias ‘Dad.’
James Charlesworth’s The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill is a brilliant send-up of American mythologies. When estranged siblings flock to their wealthy, scandalized father, the poisonous illusion of the American dream, of capitalism and conventional masculinity and familial betrayal, is powerfully exposed. With its thrilling plot and unforgettable characters, The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill is a vital debut novel.