Chapman's Odyssey, by twice Booker-shortlisted Paul Bailey, draws the reader inexorably into the life of Harry Chapman, heavily medicated in a hospital ward. His ramblings are sometimes lucid, occasionally off the wall and always entertaining. Harry can quote poetry endlessly, to the delight of his attending doctors, nurses and other helpers. He started his adult life as an actor and retains a theatrical flair despite a crippling pain in his belly that makes him cry out for release.
A lifelong reader, despite humble beginnings in an anti-intellectual atmosphere, Harry wrote several successful books after leaving the stage. Many of his best friends are characters from novels he has enjoyed. In his current miasma of drugs, they visit him and settle in for a talk. One of his frequent callers is Pip, of Great Expectations; Harry identifies with Pip's poor boy–makes-good scenario.
Harry's mother is a harridan who has been dead for 22 years and now visits him daily, spewing her venom around the room. Another drop-in is Harry's father, Frank, killed in the war. Harry floats from injection to injection receiving his ghostly guests like a good host.
This all adds up to a fascinating story of a man who has lived a full life both of the body and the mind. Harry was never averse to a little rough trade, but also gloried in fine music, good food and wine and the best in literature. The rapier wit and wisdom of Harry Chapman amuse and amaze by turns. --Valerie Ryan, Cannon Beach Book Company, Ore.