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The Fit
From the author of The Mulberry Empire comes a short, delicious, rather disorienting novel about an indexer who wakes up one morning to find out that he has just been left by his wife! 'My wife had gone and I didn't know where she had gone. It would have been terrible if I had liked her but I only loved her.' John is an indexer, and a bloody good one at that. He lives in a beautiful house with a beautiful garden, and has a beautiful wife, Janet. (Yes, yes, they are called Janet and John. They know.) But lately, things have begun to go wrong. Thanks to his flawless index for The Story of the Fish Which Changed the World, John has become typecast, and a commission for an index for Squid Through the Ages in Poetry and Prose swiftly followed. And to cap it all, he's woken up with a terrible case of the hiccups, and Janet has left him! Wonderfully funny and light, but ultimately very moving, The Fit is English comic writing at its best, from one of the most talented novelists at work today.
- GenresBritish Literature
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Philip Hensher
41 books111 followersHensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.[1] He has published a number of novels, is a regular contributor, columnist and book reviewer for newspapers and weeklies such as The Guardian, The Spectator , The Mail on Sunday and The Independent.
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishcouncil.org/...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.
You can find out more about Philip on his author page at 4th Estate Books: http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/phi...
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishcouncil.org/...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.
You can find out more about Philip on his author page at 4th Estate Books: http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/phi...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 30, 2009
Lately I've been finding a lot of books are falling into a 3 and half star rating; they are very pleasant to read but not exactly recommendable to everyone one I know. When I started reading this bitter-sweet comic tale of rediscovered love I was expecting a series of weird and farcical events (a presumption from reading the back jacket) and to laugh out loud all the way to a 4 star rating. What I actually ended with was a more subdued affair with a subtly amusing yet plausible series of encounters for our main protagonist, John, and a wonderful soul-searching side story for his wife, Janet, punctuated by a heartfelt reflection on the death of his sister Franky.
Personal tastes aside, there's very little I would have actually added to the writing; maybe if John had dropped a knife in the kitchen he would have mused on the old saying, "Dropped knives, running wives, let them go." and I would like to have heard Janet's new found friend Marina's background in greater detail. However, it was very fitting, a touch of genius really, that since John is an indexer by trade there was an index of topics at the back, including: a long list of ineffective cures for the hiccups; the behavior of taxis; London and memories of marmite.
To give it just 3 stars seems mean but it still comes with a warm recommendation to specific fans of the self-reflective type of whimsical humour.
Personal tastes aside, there's very little I would have actually added to the writing; maybe if John had dropped a knife in the kitchen he would have mused on the old saying, "Dropped knives, running wives, let them go." and I would like to have heard Janet's new found friend Marina's background in greater detail. However, it was very fitting, a touch of genius really, that since John is an indexer by trade there was an index of topics at the back, including: a long list of ineffective cures for the hiccups; the behavior of taxis; London and memories of marmite.
To give it just 3 stars seems mean but it still comes with a warm recommendation to specific fans of the self-reflective type of whimsical humour.
August 14, 2018
A demonstration of the difficulties encountered by people, probably mostly men as the central character John indeed is, who don’t use feelings to decode their social surroundings. John has been lucky, he has married Janet, a kind and beautiful woman who, for several years, has enjoyed being comfortably married, as has he. But now she’s bored, and hearing her attempt to articulate what she wants and needs is painful, when experienced through John’s perspective. “Go figure” is the phrase which suggests at once her admission of defeat and his perplexity: after all, he hasn’t changed anything, not even the clothes he buys, so what could possibly be wrong?
John now proceeds to be unlucky, vulnerable as he is to manipulation. He ends up the subject of a photo-journalist art exhibition, in which we are invited to pity the ordinariness of his family. But the suburban Bromley of John’s upbringing was not sufficiently secure for his oldest sister, whose fate holds the key to John’s emotional suppression. The small boy described in his mother’s memories after the crime tears through their family, a lost, wide-eyed and eager child, lives on in the man. Luckily, his wife can also see his sweetness, his intentional kindnesses and thoughtfulness, and after her own journey of discovery, rewards him with what he has always needed, the comfort of love.
John now proceeds to be unlucky, vulnerable as he is to manipulation. He ends up the subject of a photo-journalist art exhibition, in which we are invited to pity the ordinariness of his family. But the suburban Bromley of John’s upbringing was not sufficiently secure for his oldest sister, whose fate holds the key to John’s emotional suppression. The small boy described in his mother’s memories after the crime tears through their family, a lost, wide-eyed and eager child, lives on in the man. Luckily, his wife can also see his sweetness, his intentional kindnesses and thoughtfulness, and after her own journey of discovery, rewards him with what he has always needed, the comfort of love.
July 22, 2019
I really enjoyed this book, in fact I laughed out loud, scoffed, tittered and periodically snorted my way rather ungraciously through entire sections. It's not often that a light hearted, rollicking read can be so well written and witty, not to mention incredibly insightful and reflective. His wry tale of an introspective, quirky indexer whose wife has suddenly left him brilliantly captures the struggles of marriage (and relationships in general) in a way that is at once playful and perceptive. I haven't read any of Hensher's novels previously, but with writing of the quality, I surely will.
October 12, 2020
A whimsical and slightly surreal read! One day a man called John who writes indexes for a living and seems to have an uncanny knack of making everybody fall in love with him wakes up to find himself in unexpected circumstances: firstly, his wife appears to have left him; and secondly, he has hiccups. This dual state of affairs persists for a month, during which time further strange and disturbing occurrences cause him to re-examine his attitude to Life, the Universe and Everything (to borrow Douglas Adams' famous phrase).
This story is often bizarre, often laugh-out-loud funny, and often desperately sad. A family tragedy that occurred when John was ten years old is exhumed in stark and searing detail, and his quiet and mildly obsessive routine, his safety zone, is rudely and cruelly disrupted. His hiccups will not abate despite numerous attempts at a cure (including the imbibing of a bottle of champagne a day), his twin occupations of indexer and domestic help to an elderly lady appear to be in jeopardy, and instead of falling in love with him on sight, strangers now begin to challenge, abuse and trick him.
Narrated in the first person, with brief interludes of alternate perspective from John's emotionally distant mother and confused errant wife, this novel combines heartbreak, humour and a steep learning curve with a soupcon of clever misdirection - by the end you know that everything's been more or less resolved, but you're not entirely sure how! All in all, thoroughly enjoyable.
This story is often bizarre, often laugh-out-loud funny, and often desperately sad. A family tragedy that occurred when John was ten years old is exhumed in stark and searing detail, and his quiet and mildly obsessive routine, his safety zone, is rudely and cruelly disrupted. His hiccups will not abate despite numerous attempts at a cure (including the imbibing of a bottle of champagne a day), his twin occupations of indexer and domestic help to an elderly lady appear to be in jeopardy, and instead of falling in love with him on sight, strangers now begin to challenge, abuse and trick him.
Narrated in the first person, with brief interludes of alternate perspective from John's emotionally distant mother and confused errant wife, this novel combines heartbreak, humour and a steep learning curve with a soupcon of clever misdirection - by the end you know that everything's been more or less resolved, but you're not entirely sure how! All in all, thoroughly enjoyable.
September 25, 2019
I went through a Philip Hensher phase earlier in this decade and particularly enjoyed The Northern Clemency and The Mulberry Empire -- but somehow left this one languishing on my shelves, which is odd because it is about a book indexer, and I worked part time as a book indexer through grad school and until landing a full time academic position. And I don't think there are any other novels out there about indexers . . . the book even has its own rather charming index at the end.
The protagonist/narrator is almost certainly neurodiverse, and seems rather unmoored in the world once his wife leaves him. His adventures or misadventures are amusing enough, and there's even a happy ending.
It is, however, a rather skewed picture of indexers. *cough* ;-)
The protagonist/narrator is almost certainly neurodiverse, and seems rather unmoored in the world once his wife leaves him. His adventures or misadventures are amusing enough, and there's even a happy ending.
It is, however, a rather skewed picture of indexers. *cough* ;-)
May 20, 2020
fue un libro que en sus momentos fue un poco tedioso al leer, pero luego de las 100 páginas todo fue un poco fresco, el humor fue magnifico aunque con sus fallas, el final pudo haber sido mucho mejor, mucho mejor, pero no importa los personajes son manejeables y personalmente el principal sacaba de mi casillas en algunos momentos, es un libro que esta recomendado para parejas, definitivamente mucho romanticismo no hay y aunque el final no fue como esperaba personalmente estuvo bueno.
July 24, 2017
This book, 'The Fit' by Philip Hensher does not have much of a plot. The protagonist, John wakes up to find that his wife has left him. From that day onwards he starts hiccupping. The story starts on a humorous note but gradually the narrative tone becomes starkly solemn. John tries to find a number of remedies to cure his hiccup. His wife, on the other hand, embarks on a journey to rediscover herself.
The diction is simple. The author employs subtle humour.
The diction is simple. The author employs subtle humour.
June 30, 2020
Definitivamente tengo que releerlo en su idioma original. La traducción al español de Roser Vilagrassa es absolutamente literal, repleto de adjetivos antepuestos, y del típico humor inglés perdido porque no se ha localizado ni aunque sea un poco. Una pena. :(
February 26, 2021
Ok read but prefer the author’s other books
September 16, 2021
Quirky, but a really good take on marriage.
February 14, 2016
This book is nowhere near as good as The Northern Clemency. The story is mainly set around the month after a man's wife leaves him. It starts off quite funny and offbeat but gets a little serious around the halfway mark with a chapter about his mother and her reaction to the death of her daughter. There were some characters introduced that were sort of interesting but then they disappear from the story with no further explanation. It was a strangely written story that doesn't have much of a plot and the character development is a little thin. Three stars is a little generous, but the writing style is quite good.
June 30, 2011
I've fall asleep after reading this.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews