The Misfortunates
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Frank, tender, and brutally funny, Dimitri Verhulst's semi-autobiographical story details the vibrantly entertaining journey of a boy growing up in a family of alcoholics in Belgium
Sobriety and moderation are alien concepts to the men in Dimmy's family. Useless in all other respects, his three uncles have a rare talent for drinking, a flair for violence, and an unwavering commitment to the pub. And his father Pierre is no slouch either. Within hours of his son's birth, Pierre plucks him from the maternity ward, props him on his bike, and takes him on an introductory tour of the village bars. His mother soon leaves them to it and as Dimmy grows up amid the stench of stale beer, he seems destined to follow the path of his forebears and make a low-life career in inebriation, until he begins to piece together his own plan for the future.
Bringing to life the shambolic upbringing that The Guardian describes as, "the odd, ugly, excremental poetry of their grubby lives," The Misfortunates "can be unexpectedly tender as well as uncomfortably funny… this novel continually surprises and intrigues."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this "semi-autobiographical" novel from Verhulst (Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill), the tattered family of narrator Dmitri, or "Dimmy," lurches through life, frequently drunk and often disorderly. Dimmy, his uncles, and his father live in Arsendegem, Belgium, in a state of squalor about which nobody cares overmuch: "We were ashamed, but we didn't do anything about it.... A miserable existence doesn't have to be complicated." The book itself is uncomplicated. Dimmy wryly relates stories, mostly from his youth, of his relatives' alcoholic hijinks: getting a cousin drunk for the first time; "gambling to pay off gambling debts"; a drinking contest/bicycle race modeled, improbably, after the Tour de France, in which "vomiting wasn't against the rules: the puked-up beer would not be deducted from the total." Verhulst doesn't shrink from portraying Dimmy in a bad light, as when he describes waiting for his child to be born: "There was still a very slim chance of the child being stillborn.... In that case I would find it difficult to conceal my delight." This bitingly honest book tips toward the amusing as fiction and toward the dismaying as autobiography.
