Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

For discussion of John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Hanteringen av odöda
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sauvin
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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by sauvin » Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:41 am

Nightrider wrote:Just finished HTU.
It was a tough read, but in the end it was worth it. The book will ring true for anyone who lost a loved one to a disease, accident or old age and how far you would go if you could have them back in your life.
HTU is a haunting and thought provoking work of fiction. I loved reading the book and I will probably come back to it in the future...Now, if only "Paper walls" was released in US so I can check out "The Final Handling".....
I think you may have just told me why HTU didn't affect me as much as it probably should have. I've lost people, but not to death.
Fais tomber les barrières entre nous qui sommes tous des frères

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Ash
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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Ash » Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:14 am

I just got the novel as an audio ebook which I have just begun to listen to.
The narrator with his clipped BBC accent is making it difficult. I'm expecting him to break into the shipping forecast at any moment.
Southeast Iceland. North 7 to severe gale 9. Heavy snow showers. Good, becoming poor in showers. Moderate icing.

DMt.

Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by DMt. » Sun Aug 28, 2011 11:10 am

*

Dogger, Fisher, German Bight,
Humber, Thames, Dover Wight,
Rockall, Mallin, Hebrides,
Viking, Cromarty, Forties.

Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea,
North, Tyne, Shannon, South Utsire,
Plymouth, Biscay, Trafalgar,
South East Iceland, Finisterre;
.
North Utsire, Portland, Sole,
Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes.


*

Strange old names of ocean districts,
Heard from earliest infancy.
The warm-dust smell of steam [valve] radio.
'For those in peril on the sea'.



.

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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Wolfchild » Mon Sep 26, 2011 3:22 am

Nightrider wrote:Just finished HTU.
It was a tough read, but in the end it was worth it. The book will ring true for anyone who lost a loved one to a disease, accident or old age and how far you would go if you could have them back in your life.
The genius is in the real horror: what exactly has come back into your life. JAL makes it ambiguous. Neither we nor any of his characters can really be sure whether their loved one has really come back. At least eventually Anna can be sure, and at the end I guess David is sure, too. But what horror - to desperately want someone back, and then something does come back, but what? Are you fooling yourself into believing that it is your loved one? If it really is your loved one, could you ever forgive yourself for not believing it was them? What utter agony that would be. :cry:
...the story derives a lot of its appeal from its sense of despair and a darkness in which the love of Eli and Oskar seems to shine with a strange and disturbing light.
-Lacenaire

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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Nightrider » Mon Sep 26, 2011 3:36 am

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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Bustedstuff15 » Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:59 am

I really loved the fact that JAL didnt make the zombies into flesh eating maniacs. If hate stemmed from the reliving it was because the people surrounded them felt hate. Such an inredible spin on the Zombie myth and really made you feel for the reliving. As seems to be a pattern in JAL's work the reliving were outcasts and had lost their rights because of the fact they were weaker.

I really felt he did a great job making all the characters in the book feel realistic. Everybody had their flaws and wernt bad people and in the end the love for their lost loved ones drove them to great measures. Once again JAL left me wanting more as the book came to an upbrupt but perfect ending, much like his other works.
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light

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Ash
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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Ash » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:32 am

But what horror - to desperately want someone back, and then something does come back, but what?
My mum used to tell me a story called The Monkey's Paw that frightened the bejesus out of me!, but I loved it.
A family inherits a monkey's paw with mysterious powers to grant three wishes.
The dad wishes for £200. Their son is killed by machinery at his company, and they get compensation of £200.
Almost mad with grief, the mum wishes her son back to life. After a delay, there is a knock at the door. While mum fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door, dad knows the son will be a mangled mess and uses the last wish. The knocking stops and when the door is opened there is nobody there. :o :o :o

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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Tigermamma » Sun Feb 17, 2013 8:43 pm

Ash wrote:
But what horror - to desperately want someone back, and then something does come back, but what?
My mum used to tell me a story called The Monkey's Paw that frightened the bejesus out of me!, but I loved it.
A family inherits a monkey's paw with mysterious powers to grant three wishes.
The dad wishes for £200. Their son is killed by machinery at his company, and they get compensation of £200.
Almost mad with grief, the mum wishes her son back to life. After a delay, there is a knock at the door. While mum fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door, dad knows the son will be a mangled mess and uses the last wish. The knocking stops and when the door is opened there is nobody there. :o :o :o
The Simpsons made a version of this story with the monkey paw in one of their Halloween specials :lol:

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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by JToede » Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:21 am

Ash wrote:
But what horror - to desperately want someone back, and then something does come back, but what?
My mum used to tell me a story called The Monkey's Paw that frightened the bejesus out of me!, but I loved it.
A family inherits a monkey's paw with mysterious powers to grant three wishes.
The dad wishes for £200. Their son is killed by machinery at his company, and they get compensation of £200.
Almost mad with grief, the mum wishes her son back to life. After a delay, there is a knock at the door. While mum fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door, dad knows the son will be a mangled mess and uses the last wish. The knocking stops and when the door is opened there is nobody there. :o :o :o
I do remember reading this years ago. It goes to show be careful what you ask for.
Veni, Vidi, volo in domum redire.

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Re: Just Finished Reading Handling the Undead

Post by Tigermamma » Wed Feb 20, 2013 4:50 pm

Wolfchild wrote:
Nightrider wrote:Just finished HTU.
It was a tough read, but in the end it was worth it. The book will ring true for anyone who lost a loved one to a disease, accident or old age and how far you would go if you could have them back in your life.
The genius is in the real horror: what exactly has come back into your life. JAL makes it ambiguous. Neither we nor any of his characters can really be sure whether their loved one has really come back. At least eventually Anna can be sure, and at the end I guess David is sure, too. But what horror - to desperately want someone back, and then something does come back, but what? Are you fooling yourself into believing that it is your loved one? If it really is your loved one, could you ever forgive yourself for not believing it was them? What utter agony that would be. :cry:
Like they say in Stephen Kings Pet Sematary- "Sometimes, dead is better..." :shock:

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