I wish I had reviewed this right away. It was about a month ago that I read it, as of the date I write this; now, my ability to form a very clear and comprehensive picture of it is somewhat diluted.

I can say this:

Its ending seemed somewhat less significant or powerful than I expected, but it was in perfect keeping with the tone of the rest of the novel. The title is a trifle overblown, judging by the end. Even the most fiendish things Red does are mitigated by some very human self-justification, and after that peak I found his vileness actually mitigating itself over the rest of the novel.

He did not strike me as a fiend so much as a slightly worse example of most of humanity -- just enough worse so that the potential for foulness in people manifested in more directly recognizable forms. The usual weak self-justifications, mental contortions to avoid cognitive dissonance, and spite were cast in slightly starker light than usual.

I have read this book and several of Sorrentino's short stories. I liked the short stories more, though Red the Fiend was a worthwhile read as well. ( )

This family could make any run-of-the-mill dysfunctional families look like rainbows and sunshine.

Grandma - Red's Grandma - can easily put to shame any tv show/book of the S#it My XYZ Says variety. She often breaks into over the top, endless diatribes without warning, giving one an earful about her irrational opinions, idiosyncrasies and pet peeves. Not only does she transition smoothly from whatever topic to whatever, she is quite creative with name calling too.

All would be peachy if Grandma were just an amusing/annoying old lady running her mouth. But don't underestimate Grandma. She lives to make lives of everyone within her force field miserable - miserable possibly meaning something worse than whatever the word miserable means to you. Be it making Grandpa choose between cigarette and lunch, or treating her daughter like a servant and constantly telling her how she is the scum of the earth, nothing is beyond her. Her favorite toy, though, is Red. From making him eat the food he hates to beating him within an inch of his life, everything goes. While Red's retaliation largely involves practicing a semi-moronic expressionless look in the hopes that it will somehow make him invisible, it goes much deeper than that. There is no way his psyche can make it past scar-free. There are times when those festering wounds do show up on the surface and it is real ugly.

This is a black comedy where you will be hard pressed to come up with a single positive quality for any one of the characters. The only hero here is Sorrentino's writing. His playful, sarcastic and often exaggerated voice worked really well for me. Writing here is mostly straight in comparison to Mulligan Stew, there are some chapters that stand out stylistically.

If you enjoy dark humor and can stomach some ugliness, go for it. Grandma is as interesting and strange a literary character as they can be. She will be super-delighted to entertain you. ( )

This is the story of how a good child grows up to become a monster. The theme of abuse, poverty, neglect, and lack of education has been told many times, but Sorrentino's style is unique and compelling. The narrative varies seamlessly from omniscient third-party narrator to stream of consciousness. Red's grandmother's malevolent spirit permeates every corner of the book. Some may dislike the book because of its unrelenting bleakness, and things do go from bad to worse in Red's life. This is an extremely good book, however, and if these themes resonant with you (or even if they don't and you want to read some virtuostic writing), I recommend this book. ( )

Gilbert Sorrentino has long been on my list of great American writers. He's been at the top of that list for quite a while now and so when a great friend of mine sent me a copy of Red The Fiend I was keen to read this later work (1995). This is the latest of his works that I have read and yet he produced 5 more books before he died in 2006 so I still have 5 treats in store.

Since Steinbeck effectively laid down his pen in 1962 few American novellists have addressed themselves to the issues of the American working classes even though it is arguable that the working class plight now is worse even that it was in Steinbeck's time. Bellow, Roth and Updike all produced middle class novels for the American middle classes. Sorrentino and his great friend Hubert Selby wrote of the working classes though I doubt that the working classes read their work. Red The Fiend is a novel about a small, tight, american working class family.

Red The Fiend is a brilliant novel that examines, dissects, documents and observes the creation of a monster or fiend. In his trademark elegant sentences, with his unfailing ear for dialogue, and with the inventiveness that marks him as a genius Sorrentino invites us to watch, and smile, as a young boy is turned into Red The Fiend. Only Pynchon can handle the grotesque with humour anywhere near as well as Sorrentino. At times I felt as though I was watching a train crash happen as I read this book and felt almost ashamed that I was laughing openly.

Red's grandmother may well be the most unpleasant character in all of literature but despite this she is frighteningly convincing - no caricature this - this is the real thing and all the more terrifying for that realism. Red The Fiend is in fact peopled by a fair few very nasty pieces of work. I cannot imagine that anybody who has read this book will ever forget it.

Despite the genius of the narration, the polished brilliance of the language, the darkness of the subject matter, and the unforgettable nature of the things that happen in this book the truly stunning thing about this novel is the fact that it is so easy for the reader to fail to notice just how exceptional it is as a novel. Sorrentino wrote some of the greatest 20th century novels but in Red The Fiend he wrote a genuine 21st century novel and yet you could be forgiven for not noticing - he does it so well.

Red The Fiend runs to only 213 pages but contains 49 chapters. 49 chapters that could probably be read in almost any order. It is direct. It is unforgettable. It engages immediately and lastingly. It achieves what B S Johnson once described as the only point of the novel - telling the truth by telling stories. And it does so in an almost entirely new way. Red The Fiend points the way ahead for the novel.

"I want to look away but cannot. I am pulled into the story, even as I find it difficult to identify with any of the characters. It is even somewhat to identify with Red, since he is a difficult character to love in spite of the abuse he endures. He is not very sympathetic."

Read it all at http://troysworktable.blogspot.com/2007/01/shades-of-red.html ( )