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House Mother Normal
Eight residents in a home for the elderly sit down to dinner, along with the House Mother herself, and each takes it in turn to relay the proceedings of the evening from their own, individual perspective. By virtue of the novel’s clever structure, the reader’s comprehension of events is limited so as to allow them a powerful experience: Johnson’s humorous yet deeply compassionate depiction of what it means to live life and grow old.
210 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 1971
11 people are currently reading
1698 people want to read
About the author
B.S. Johnson
40 books130 followersB. S. Johnson (Bryan Stanley Johnson) was an English experimental novelist, poet, literary critic and film-maker.
Johnson was born into a working class family, was evacuated from London during World War II and left school at sixteen to work variously as an accounting clerk, bank junior and clerk at Standard Oil Company. However, he taught himself Latin in the evenings, attended a year's pre-university course at Birkbeck College, and with this preparation, managed to pass the university exam for King's College London.
After he graduated with a 2:2, Johnson wrote a series of increasingly experimental and often acutely personal novels. Travelling People (1963) and Albert Angelo (1964) were relatively conventional (though the latter became famous for the cut-through pages to enable the reader to skip forward), but The Unfortunates (1969) was published in a box with no binding (readers could assemble the book any way they liked) and House Mother Normal (1971) was written in purely chronological order such that the various characters' thoughts and experiences would cross each other and become intertwined, not just page by page, but sentence by sentence. Johnson also made numerous experimental films, published poetry, and wrote reviews, short stories and plays.
A critically acclaimed film adaptation of the last of the novels published while he was alive, Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (1973) was released in 2000.
At the age of 40, increasingly depressed by his failure to succeed commercially, and beset by family problems, Johnson committed suicide. Johnson was largely unknown to the wider reading public at the time of his death, but has a growing cult following. Jonathan Coe's 2004 biography Like a Fiery Elephant (winner of the 2005 Samuel Johnson prize) has already led to a renewal of interest in Johnson's work.
Johnson was born into a working class family, was evacuated from London during World War II and left school at sixteen to work variously as an accounting clerk, bank junior and clerk at Standard Oil Company. However, he taught himself Latin in the evenings, attended a year's pre-university course at Birkbeck College, and with this preparation, managed to pass the university exam for King's College London.
After he graduated with a 2:2, Johnson wrote a series of increasingly experimental and often acutely personal novels. Travelling People (1963) and Albert Angelo (1964) were relatively conventional (though the latter became famous for the cut-through pages to enable the reader to skip forward), but The Unfortunates (1969) was published in a box with no binding (readers could assemble the book any way they liked) and House Mother Normal (1971) was written in purely chronological order such that the various characters' thoughts and experiences would cross each other and become intertwined, not just page by page, but sentence by sentence. Johnson also made numerous experimental films, published poetry, and wrote reviews, short stories and plays.
A critically acclaimed film adaptation of the last of the novels published while he was alive, Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (1973) was released in 2000.
At the age of 40, increasingly depressed by his failure to succeed commercially, and beset by family problems, Johnson committed suicide. Johnson was largely unknown to the wider reading public at the time of his death, but has a growing cult following. Jonathan Coe's 2004 biography Like a Fiery Elephant (winner of the 2005 Samuel Johnson prize) has already led to a renewal of interest in Johnson's work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
March 7, 2023
Help the aged, one time they were just like you: drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue…
House Mother Normal is the stream of senile consciousness… And we try to decipher these chaotic torrents into the lives of those in whose heads the consciousness is locked.
The characters attempt to look back at their past:
And they endeavour to face their present misery:
And there is the House Mother who knows all her residents and who is God to them…
“The joys of life continue strong
Throughout old age, however long:
If only we can cheerful stay
And brightly welcome every day.”
What a drag it is getting old…
I wish I’d been kind to old people then, now I know how it is. It’s always the same, you can never know until you actually are. And then it’s too late. You realise which are the important things only when it’s too late, that’s the trouble.
House Mother Normal is the stream of senile consciousness… And we try to decipher these chaotic torrents into the lives of those in whose heads the consciousness is locked.
The characters attempt to look back at their past:
My true love went once round fingering, blue hair he had with his long black eyes, four foot three in his bloomers, I remember him so clearly, it was in a pub we first met, I was with my mates at the time, he was with his. Yellow jumper and pale skirt… He was my first, it was raining at the time.
And they endeavour to face their present misery:
How can I think about anything else, it’s constant, the pain, what else is there to think about, it goes round and round in circles, my mind, off it, on it, not very often off it.
And there is the House Mother who knows all her residents and who is God to them…
“The joys of life continue strong
Throughout old age, however long:
If only we can cheerful stay
And brightly welcome every day.”
What a drag it is getting old…
April 16, 2020
B S Johnson was an experimental English novelist who is too little known and who took his own life when aged only 40. I was drawn to this particular novel first because of its subject matter; a care home for older people. It follows a portion of the day for the residents and the House Mother (or matron) who is in charge of their care. The time period (its length isn’t clear) includes a meal and clearing up, the house song (truly awful) some “work” (including sticking together Christmas crackers and putting stuff in bottles), pass the parcel and dancing; although I’m not convinced dancing is what is being described in some cases as it seems to involve mops and wheelchairs and resembles jousting.
Each of the residents has allotted 21 pages; the events happen at exactly the same point in each narrative so that comparisons can be made. At the very beginning there is a description of each resident’s medical conditions and capabilities, including a score relating to a set of questions meant to assess cognitive abilities. The residents are given their say starting with the younger and more cognitively able and ending with those who have little or no verbal ability (and much of the last two or three resident’s pages are virtually blank). The House Mother has her say last of all and has an extra page.
Johnson himself described what he wanted to do with the novel;
“What I wanted to do was to take an evening in an old people’s home, and see a single set of events through the eyes of not less than eight old people. Due to the various deformities and deficiencies of the inmates, these events would seem to be progressively "abnormal" to the reader. At the end, there would be the viewpoint of the House Mother, an apparently "normal" person, and the events themselves would then be seen to be so bizarre that everything that had come before would seem "normal" by comparison. The idea was to say something about the things we call "normal" and "abnormal" and the technical difficulty was to make the same thing interesting nine times over since that was the number of times the events would have to be described. … Each of the old people was allotted a space of twenty-one pages, and each line on each page represented the same moment in each of the other accounts; this meant an unjustified right-hand margin and led more than one reviewer to imagine the book was in verse. House Mother’s account has an extra page in which she is shown to be
the puppet or concoction of a writer (you
always knew there was a writer behind it all?
Ah, there’s no fooling you readers !)
Nor should there be.”
It is described as a “geriatric comedy”, but the comedy is very bleak indeed. There is more of a growing sense of horror as the petty tyranny and brutality gradually come across to the reader. There might be a temptation to say that all the abuse is the invention of the writer; but unfortunately I can assure you that it is not. Whilst there is an oddity in some of the abuse here, most of it is plausible and has been done. It is only necessary to recall the Winterbourne view case (this will be familiar to those in the UK), which was quite recent.
As Johnson says this is a study of what is normal and abnormal, but it is also a study in the use and abuse of power; exercised over the weak and vulnerable. Johnson manages to make the voices of the residents poignant and human as they look back over their lives and loves. He also captures the disconnectedness of cognitive deficit very well. He doesn’t in my opinion quite get advanced dementia right; communication may be very limited, but I don’t believe the mind is as blank as he indicates.
This is a brave and interesting novel. There have been some critics who have noted that this could be seen as a deeply unpleasant book and calling it a comedy is not appropriate. This misses the point; Johnson does try to make the reader laugh with his descriptions of some of the events. However because of the poignancy and humanity of the pen portraits the reader realises what they are laughing at is the abuse and brutalisation of a vulnerable human being. There is also a sense of the writer reminding the reader that this could be where they are headed too and will it be any better then?
Each of the residents has allotted 21 pages; the events happen at exactly the same point in each narrative so that comparisons can be made. At the very beginning there is a description of each resident’s medical conditions and capabilities, including a score relating to a set of questions meant to assess cognitive abilities. The residents are given their say starting with the younger and more cognitively able and ending with those who have little or no verbal ability (and much of the last two or three resident’s pages are virtually blank). The House Mother has her say last of all and has an extra page.
Johnson himself described what he wanted to do with the novel;
“What I wanted to do was to take an evening in an old people’s home, and see a single set of events through the eyes of not less than eight old people. Due to the various deformities and deficiencies of the inmates, these events would seem to be progressively "abnormal" to the reader. At the end, there would be the viewpoint of the House Mother, an apparently "normal" person, and the events themselves would then be seen to be so bizarre that everything that had come before would seem "normal" by comparison. The idea was to say something about the things we call "normal" and "abnormal" and the technical difficulty was to make the same thing interesting nine times over since that was the number of times the events would have to be described. … Each of the old people was allotted a space of twenty-one pages, and each line on each page represented the same moment in each of the other accounts; this meant an unjustified right-hand margin and led more than one reviewer to imagine the book was in verse. House Mother’s account has an extra page in which she is shown to be
the puppet or concoction of a writer (you
always knew there was a writer behind it all?
Ah, there’s no fooling you readers !)
Nor should there be.”
It is described as a “geriatric comedy”, but the comedy is very bleak indeed. There is more of a growing sense of horror as the petty tyranny and brutality gradually come across to the reader. There might be a temptation to say that all the abuse is the invention of the writer; but unfortunately I can assure you that it is not. Whilst there is an oddity in some of the abuse here, most of it is plausible and has been done. It is only necessary to recall the Winterbourne view case (this will be familiar to those in the UK), which was quite recent.
As Johnson says this is a study of what is normal and abnormal, but it is also a study in the use and abuse of power; exercised over the weak and vulnerable. Johnson manages to make the voices of the residents poignant and human as they look back over their lives and loves. He also captures the disconnectedness of cognitive deficit very well. He doesn’t in my opinion quite get advanced dementia right; communication may be very limited, but I don’t believe the mind is as blank as he indicates.
This is a brave and interesting novel. There have been some critics who have noted that this could be seen as a deeply unpleasant book and calling it a comedy is not appropriate. This misses the point; Johnson does try to make the reader laugh with his descriptions of some of the events. However because of the poignancy and humanity of the pen portraits the reader realises what they are laughing at is the abuse and brutalisation of a vulnerable human being. There is also a sense of the writer reminding the reader that this could be where they are headed too and will it be any better then?
September 2, 2024
2.5 stars rounded up
short review for busy readers: an experimental novel that allows us to peek into the minds of eight elderly pensioners at varying levels of coherence during the same one hour of time. As a literary experiment, it's simply phenomenal. The content and humour...down to taste. Oddly distant and for social commentary, rather too meek to make much of a statement. Brownie points for including a section in Welsh! 🏴
in detail
I can say right now after having read two of B.S. Johnson's works: I am not a fan.
He certainly was doing what he set out to do, in that he was experimenting with how far you could stretch the boundaries of the novel form. His experimentation is highly interesting and, as in this one, rather accomplished. The idea of lining up the pages and dialogues to match so that you could get a collective narrative (or multi-camera) look at the same hour, and the choice of the elderly as characters -- nice!
Unfortunately, he seems to have had the sense of humour of a 12-year old boy.
We're supposed to find a man in constant pain from inoperable rectal cancer funny, because hahahahaha it's in his backside! Hahahaha, oh hilarious! See, his backside! Get it? You know, where the poo comes from! He's constantly worried about his arse! Hahahaha!
Women seem to be nothing but easy, constantly randy sex opportunities. You can hear Johnson going "...oooooh, she's a goer, isn't she? *wink wink* A real goer, eh? eh? eh? Boah, what a goer! *wink wink* She's a goer! A real goer, that one! Boah, I just can't get my mind off sex, goer, goer, goer!!!"
I'm not sure male readers of Johnson would notice this rather puerile male humour as much as women readers, and it's down to taste whether you find it comical, as per the billing in the blurb, or not. (It's the same sense of humour as in Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry, so it must be Johnson's own and not the characters.)
As for the rest, as well as Johnson's direct addressing of the reader at the end:
Many years ago, there was an urban myth about depressed and suicidal Disney World workers dressing up in their costumes, climbing up to the top of one of the big attractions, shouting dirty limericks and singing obscene songs for a few minutes before jumping to their collective deaths.
That's what Johnson seems to be doing in this novel judging by his 'public address' at the end: dressing up in the costume of House Mother and yelling sexual and toilet obscenities before he jumps to his death in his anger of how obscene life and the indignity of growing old is.
Growing old is no picnic, and there are plenty of exploitive care homes, but when Johnson lets his anger fly, it seems out of tune with the rest of the, fairly mild, novel and rather ruins the experience as it goes way way way too far.
And finally, I'd like to correct one misconception many reviewers seem to have.
The character of Rosetta (2nd to last) is not spouting "nonsense", "gibberish" or "inarticulate noises," in her section. She is, in fact, speaking perfectly coherent, if disjointed, Welsh! 🏴
I'm chalking this misunderstanding up to English-speaking readers not expecting another language to show up in an English text, as well as Welsh being a minority language and not as easily recognisable as, say, French or German...and not any chauvinistic feelings toward the Welsh language speakers of British English might have.
short review for busy readers: an experimental novel that allows us to peek into the minds of eight elderly pensioners at varying levels of coherence during the same one hour of time. As a literary experiment, it's simply phenomenal. The content and humour...down to taste. Oddly distant and for social commentary, rather too meek to make much of a statement. Brownie points for including a section in Welsh! 🏴
in detail
I can say right now after having read two of B.S. Johnson's works: I am not a fan.
He certainly was doing what he set out to do, in that he was experimenting with how far you could stretch the boundaries of the novel form. His experimentation is highly interesting and, as in this one, rather accomplished. The idea of lining up the pages and dialogues to match so that you could get a collective narrative (or multi-camera) look at the same hour, and the choice of the elderly as characters -- nice!
Unfortunately, he seems to have had the sense of humour of a 12-year old boy.
We're supposed to find a man in constant pain from inoperable rectal cancer funny, because hahahahaha it's in his backside! Hahahaha, oh hilarious! See, his backside! Get it? You know, where the poo comes from! He's constantly worried about his arse! Hahahaha!
Women seem to be nothing but easy, constantly randy sex opportunities. You can hear Johnson going "...oooooh, she's a goer, isn't she? *wink wink* A real goer, eh? eh? eh? Boah, what a goer! *wink wink* She's a goer! A real goer, that one! Boah, I just can't get my mind off sex, goer, goer, goer!!!"
I'm not sure male readers of Johnson would notice this rather puerile male humour as much as women readers, and it's down to taste whether you find it comical, as per the billing in the blurb, or not. (It's the same sense of humour as in Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry, so it must be Johnson's own and not the characters.)
As for the rest, as well as Johnson's direct addressing of the reader at the end:
Many years ago, there was an urban myth about depressed and suicidal Disney World workers dressing up in their costumes, climbing up to the top of one of the big attractions, shouting dirty limericks and singing obscene songs for a few minutes before jumping to their collective deaths.
That's what Johnson seems to be doing in this novel judging by his 'public address' at the end: dressing up in the costume of House Mother and yelling sexual and toilet obscenities before he jumps to his death in his anger of how obscene life and the indignity of growing old is.
Growing old is no picnic, and there are plenty of exploitive care homes, but when Johnson lets his anger fly, it seems out of tune with the rest of the, fairly mild, novel and rather ruins the experience as it goes way way way too far.
And finally, I'd like to correct one misconception many reviewers seem to have.
The character of Rosetta (2nd to last) is not spouting "nonsense", "gibberish" or "inarticulate noises," in her section. She is, in fact, speaking perfectly coherent, if disjointed, Welsh! 🏴
I'm chalking this misunderstanding up to English-speaking readers not expecting another language to show up in an English text, as well as Welsh being a minority language and not as easily recognisable as, say, French or German...and not any chauvinistic feelings toward the Welsh language speakers of British English might have.
August 19, 2016
B.S. Johnson's fifth experimental novel is a chorus of moribund voices, each one distinctly rendered on the page in the form of typographically confused (the characters, not the author) meters. With each chapter clocking in at a brief twenty-one pages, we are given nine different takes on a single day in a grim home for the elderly. Each chapter begins with some stats on what remains of each character's diminishing faculties before bounding into an account of an afternoon and evening of casual cruelty enacted by the dreadful house mother and her lascivious mutt. The plot and all of its characters' actions are straightforward enough, but it's the interior monologue of each that allows for Johnson to riff on the indignity of that second childhood we all get to experience before setting out for the Big Nowhere. And even though your body will one day become the rotting cage within which you will waste the rest of your final coherent - and then incoherent - days, that doesn't mean it still can't be funny as hell when you aren't too busy sobbing into the remains of your Xanax and gin cocktail. And while this is a zippy read, House Mother Normal, finishes off its awful and tedious day by breaking form and letting the House Mother have a twenty-two-page say about why her random acts of meanness are the only way you can make the old and forgotten feel like they matter. This is my first novel by B.S. Johnson and I found the experience a lively, wonderfully weird pleasure to breeze through. Will definitely be going through more B.S. sooner rather than later.
January 8, 2014
My brother's review of this excellent book is spot on. I totally agree with him that this book deserves all those glittering stars.
Bryan Stanley Johnson (1933-1973) was an English novelist who loved to experiment. For 10 years who tried writing novels that were different from the ones that had already been published. He probably wanted first to be noticed and then be a commercial success. But at the age of 40, he slit both of his wrists and he died. Wikipedia says that it was because of his failure to succeed commercially while beset with family problems.
What a waste? No, he became popular after he died.
And this book is now included in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. And you know what? This is a appropriate book to read especially if you are already old and you feel you can die anytime.
This book is sad. One of the saddest book about getting old and eventually dying. This is a story of 9 old (74-94 years old) people living in a home for the elderly. There they are being taken cared by an unnamed lady who they call House Mother in exchange of their pensions. Each of the nine characters were allotted by Johnson 21 pages of the book for what he or she is thinking in that one afternoon inside one of the rooms in that house. Johnson tried to double guess what goes on in the mind of each of the 10 characters while they are playing a game similar to a musical chair or "trip to Jerusalem." Then in the end, what the reader gets is a splice in a life of 9 or 10 people told in several points of view. What makes this truly interesting is that each character is in the different stages of dying given their age, physical and mental conditions. Simple yet inventive way of storytelling. Proof of Johnson's creativity as a novelist or artist.
The best part of the book for me is this thought that goes on in the mind of Sarah Lamson, 74-y/o, the first narrator, the youngest and the healthiest among the 9 old patients:
Reading this book made me remember my 95-y/o father-in-law. He is now in the hospital because of asthma (due to the firecrackers last New Year's Eve probably). He is my idol when it comes to staying healthy and alive. Here is his picture together with my 84-y/o mother-in-law:
Bryan Stanley Johnson (1933-1973) was an English novelist who loved to experiment. For 10 years who tried writing novels that were different from the ones that had already been published. He probably wanted first to be noticed and then be a commercial success. But at the age of 40, he slit both of his wrists and he died. Wikipedia says that it was because of his failure to succeed commercially while beset with family problems.
What a waste? No, he became popular after he died.
And this book is now included in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. And you know what? This is a appropriate book to read especially if you are already old and you feel you can die anytime.
This book is sad. One of the saddest book about getting old and eventually dying. This is a story of 9 old (74-94 years old) people living in a home for the elderly. There they are being taken cared by an unnamed lady who they call House Mother in exchange of their pensions. Each of the nine characters were allotted by Johnson 21 pages of the book for what he or she is thinking in that one afternoon inside one of the rooms in that house. Johnson tried to double guess what goes on in the mind of each of the 10 characters while they are playing a game similar to a musical chair or "trip to Jerusalem." Then in the end, what the reader gets is a splice in a life of 9 or 10 people told in several points of view. What makes this truly interesting is that each character is in the different stages of dying given their age, physical and mental conditions. Simple yet inventive way of storytelling. Proof of Johnson's creativity as a novelist or artist.
The best part of the book for me is this thought that goes on in the mind of Sarah Lamson, 74-y/o, the first narrator, the youngest and the healthiest among the 9 old patients:
"I wish I'd been kind to old people then, now I know how it is. It's always the same, you can never know until you actually are. And then it's too late. You realise which are the important things only when it's too late, that's the trouble.Let's not make it too late for us, okay?
Reading this book made me remember my 95-y/o father-in-law. He is now in the hospital because of asthma (due to the firecrackers last New Year's Eve probably). He is my idol when it comes to staying healthy and alive. Here is his picture together with my 84-y/o mother-in-law:
Tay, get well soon!Taken by me last year, 2013, inside their house in Quezon City. My father-in-law sometimes don't recognize his relatives anymore, sometimes even his own daughter. But he still always remembers my name. He always appears happy when he sees me and I can still make him laugh. Last month, I even read him the first few chapters of the Gospel of St. Luke because it was Christmas season and he appreciated my reading to him the Word of God.
Read
January 9, 2018Since I've recently become a sucker for white space in fiction ;; just a moment to note the wonderful white space (and "blank pages") in this wonderful 1971 romp.
[white space]
_______
And this is completely unrelated. But if like me you be a Zappa=Freak ; here's a show you don't want to miss. Because if features "Bianca, the Bionic Woman, on keyboards and vocals" ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nszMs...
And then she finally got official release in 2009 with Philly '76 ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoHS...
Frankly, the BURIED Zappa vocalist. She's great.
________
Definitely a spoiler :: but what happens at the end, well, Zappa's ditty Stinkfoot pops into mind ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0v8...
And don't you know it ; I turn to my next little British bit, Adair's Love and Death on Long Island, and there's Zappa again. I mean, more than Mann's Death in Venice, this feels like a riff on Punky's Whips. You decide ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSUHG...
______
What this world needs is more geriatric comedies.
[white space]
_______
And this is completely unrelated. But if like me you be a Zappa=Freak ; here's a show you don't want to miss. Because if features "Bianca, the Bionic Woman, on keyboards and vocals" ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nszMs...
And then she finally got official release in 2009 with Philly '76 ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoHS...
Frankly, the BURIED Zappa vocalist. She's great.
________
Definitely a spoiler :: but what happens at the end, well, Zappa's ditty Stinkfoot pops into mind ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0v8...
And don't you know it ; I turn to my next little British bit, Adair's Love and Death on Long Island, and there's Zappa again. I mean, more than Mann's Death in Venice, this feels like a riff on Punky's Whips. You decide ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSUHG...
______
What this world needs is more geriatric comedies.
November 13, 2019
Geriatrics under the care of a Nurse Ratched-like House Mother
Review of the Audible Audio audiobook edition (2017) of the 1971 original hardcover.
The inner lives of many of the 8 geriatrics in House Mother Normal often devolve to memories of youthful sexcapades, which is at least one of the more light-hearted aspects of the book which often otherwise portrays a dark horrorshow of mockery and sadism by their resident caregiver, the House Mother of the title. Anyway, the quote from Murakami came straight to mind.
The other shoutout to make here is Isabel Waidner's We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (2019) which namechecks author B.S. Johnson and even incorporates a somewhat more benign House Mother Normal character into its collage-like view of Brexit-era UK immigration and bureaucracy. It was thanks to Waidner that I looked up House Mother Normal, also pleasantly discovering that I could also now check it off from the 1001 Books to Read List.
A big point is made (even in Andrew Motion's 2012 introduction in the first 10 minutes of the audio) about how each character gets 21 pages in the print edition (except for House Mother's 22 pages) but that doesn't work out the same in the audio timings which you can see below.
Cast of Characters (spelling is approximate as I don't have access to a print copy)
1. Sarah Lampson 74 years old CQ10 38 minutes
2. Charlie Edwards 78 years old CQ10 34 minutes
3. Ivy Nicholls 79 years old CQ10 41 minutes
4. Ron Lampson 81 years old CQ8 20 minutes
5. Gloria Ridge 85 years old CQ6 40 minutes
6. Sinead Bowen 89 years old CQ8 35 minutes
7. George Hedbury 89 years old CQ2 5 minutes
8. Rosetta Stanton 94 years old CQ0 5 minutes
9. House Mother 42 years old CQ10 34 minutes
As the CQ (Comprehension Quotient, a measure of how many correct answers to 10 basic questions such as what year is it, how old are you, etc.) decreases the verbalisation drops severely as well, to the point where Rosetta Stanton is mostly making inarticulate sounds, although she becomes more verbal in the end.
Overall this was a sobering experience as it will remind you of your own mortality and also perhaps that of your mental longevity. You can only hope that it will be under better care than that of House Mother whose practices here include putting her patients to work making paper/glue souvenirs (Christmas Crackers I think?) for her re-sale, feeding them cheaply (with food that she wouldn't give to her own dog) and playing Pass-the-Parcel where the winning player unwraps a surprise package of dog shit (from the same said dog).
The performances by narrators Rosalyn Landor, Stephen Thorne and Maggie Mash were excellent and definitely bump this up to a 5 rating from what might otherwise have been a 3 to 4 for the print experience.
Review of the Audible Audio audiobook edition (2017) of the 1971 original hardcover.
“You have to enjoy it while you’re still young. Enjoy it to the fullest. You can use the memories of what you did to warm your body after you get old and can’t do it anymore.” - The dowager in 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.
The inner lives of many of the 8 geriatrics in House Mother Normal often devolve to memories of youthful sexcapades, which is at least one of the more light-hearted aspects of the book which often otherwise portrays a dark horrorshow of mockery and sadism by their resident caregiver, the House Mother of the title. Anyway, the quote from Murakami came straight to mind.
The other shoutout to make here is Isabel Waidner's We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (2019) which namechecks author B.S. Johnson and even incorporates a somewhat more benign House Mother Normal character into its collage-like view of Brexit-era UK immigration and bureaucracy. It was thanks to Waidner that I looked up House Mother Normal, also pleasantly discovering that I could also now check it off from the 1001 Books to Read List.
A big point is made (even in Andrew Motion's 2012 introduction in the first 10 minutes of the audio) about how each character gets 21 pages in the print edition (except for House Mother's 22 pages) but that doesn't work out the same in the audio timings which you can see below.
Cast of Characters (spelling is approximate as I don't have access to a print copy)
1. Sarah Lampson 74 years old CQ10 38 minutes
2. Charlie Edwards 78 years old CQ10 34 minutes
3. Ivy Nicholls 79 years old CQ10 41 minutes
4. Ron Lampson 81 years old CQ8 20 minutes
5. Gloria Ridge 85 years old CQ6 40 minutes
6. Sinead Bowen 89 years old CQ8 35 minutes
7. George Hedbury 89 years old CQ2 5 minutes
8. Rosetta Stanton 94 years old CQ0 5 minutes
9. House Mother 42 years old CQ10 34 minutes
As the CQ (Comprehension Quotient, a measure of how many correct answers to 10 basic questions such as what year is it, how old are you, etc.) decreases the verbalisation drops severely as well, to the point where Rosetta Stanton is mostly making inarticulate sounds, although she becomes more verbal in the end.
Overall this was a sobering experience as it will remind you of your own mortality and also perhaps that of your mental longevity. You can only hope that it will be under better care than that of House Mother whose practices here include putting her patients to work making paper/glue souvenirs (Christmas Crackers I think?) for her re-sale, feeding them cheaply (with food that she wouldn't give to her own dog) and playing Pass-the-Parcel where the winning player unwraps a surprise package of dog shit (from the same said dog).
The performances by narrators Rosalyn Landor, Stephen Thorne and Maggie Mash were excellent and definitely bump this up to a 5 rating from what might otherwise have been a 3 to 4 for the print experience.
December 31, 2013
Let me tell you the reasons why I consider this book not normal.
First, it came upon me while I was alone by myself in a mall after my wife and two children went to see a movie. I bought it, read it, finished it and I am now reviewing it-- all in a single day. This has never happened to me before. I even read it while sitting on a promotional rocking chair for senior citizens (not that I am already one!) provided for by the mall right outside the cinema.
Second, it has an introduction written by Andrew Motion in December 2012 where he cited the book's title wrongly (and I wonder why none of the Picador people had noticed it) in the very apex of his stirring endorsement, the last paragraph, where he wrote "Mother House Normal." It was like making a rousing speech to make an introduction to a supposedly well-known guest and then not getting his name right. LOL!
Third, the pagination. At the end of the last page you'll see "204" at the bottom and "22" at the top.
Fourth, many pages are blank or almost blank. They made me laugh. Upon serious thought, it should have made me sad. But what can I do, I'm beset with HAPPY new year greetings!
The setting is in a home for old people. It is run by a 42-year-old, unnamed House Mother who narrates last and consumes 22 pages (the others only have 21 pages each) for her internal/external monologues where she exposes with glee her vileness and cruelty. Preceding her narration are those of her guests, not one of them below 70, and in various stages of decay, illnesses and dementia with their valiant efforts to make sense of what is happening to their minds and bodies. A sobering thought is that as the years pass by everyone of us comes closer to being one of these characters, each introduced boldly with the most important appendages attached to persons within that age bracket. Like the best of them:
Sarah Lamson
age - 74
marital status - widow
sight - 60%
hearing - 75%
touch - 70%
taste - 85%
smell - 50%
movement - 85%
CQ count - 10
pathology - contractures; incipient hallux valgus; osteo-arthritis; suspected late paraphrenia; among others.
and the worst of these eight:
Rosetta Stanton
age - 94
marital status - not known
sight - 5%
hearing - 10%?
touch - 5%
taste - 15%
smell - 20%
movement - 5%
CQ count - 0
pathology - everything everyone else has; plus incipient bronchial pneumonia; atherosclerotic dementia; probably ament; hemiplegia (with negative Babinski response); to name only a very few.
What's a "CQ count"? It is the total of correct answers old people are asked again and again to the ten classic questions: Where are you now? What is this place? What day is this? What month is it? What year is it? How old are you? What is your birthday? In what year were you born? Who is on the throne now--king or queen? (may vary depending on the person's country's system of government) Who was on the throne before?
Some writers write from experience while others can create reality only through their powerful imaginations. The author Bryan Stanley Johnson belonged to the latter. For he never experienced any of these as he killed himself in 1973, aged 40.
December 12, 2021
A memorable, thought provoking, sad, unique short novel about ageing. This novel is told in the first person by each of the eight old people in an aged care home and by the 42 year old woman who is the carer. The novel begins with the most ablest dependent patient recounting her past and current situation, then we gain the perspective of each of the other old individuals, finishing with to the patient who can barely function at all. The 42 year old carer then provides her perspective of caring for the old people.
This book was first published in 1971.
This book was first published in 1971.
January 3, 2014
Disappointing, especially after a strong beginning. I feel bad giving this so few stars, when it did so many things well...
The novel is set in a home for the elderly. There are 8 residents and 1 House Mother who cares for them. In each of the 9 chapters, you get to live inside the head of one of these characters. After some obligatory facts and figures about their health and mental awareness, etc. you are dumped into that character's head for 21 pages. Each page is like a musical score, in that the characters thoughts mark out the time, sometimes blank spaces will show periods of thoughtlessness or sleep. Each chapter covers the same period of time, so that you can cross reference one character with another to understand better the interactions going on. It reminded me of layers in photoshop, where you can put them all on top of each other or view them individually. But if you just read one character's perspective, some of it may not make as much sense. When you've read all 9 accounts, a full picture forms. Another analogy is reading music, the different harmonic parts coming and going, but specifically what it would feel like to read those musical notes (if only I could read music) rather than listen to them together.
Or... it's like Virginia Woolf if she were an anal accountant of thoughts rather than a poet of them.
That makes it seem like I didn't like it. But I did. I liked that part, because I still have Woolf for Woolf, but this gives me a different approach to that stream of consciousness that may be less poetic but more interesting in other ways.
Specifically, when we get to the very senile residents at the end... George and Rosetta. Even though the pages are mostly blank with one or two words, you can still build much more in your mind just because you know what else is going on in the other people's heads.
The voices and backstories of all the characters were fun to read too, although part of me has the same problem with it as I do with most stream of consciousness writing, which is that people don't actually think this way. They don't recount their life story over and over again like this. It becomes very obviously a device for storytelling. Of course, for the sake of artifice, I see why it's better to do it this way, otherwise it would be TRULY boring to read it.
So... onward to my quibbles:
First the tiny quibble. It is a bit tedious. Once the initial excitement of the idea subsides, once you get to the oh-so-necessary execution part, it's a little bit of a slog to read through--despite the sprinkling of interesting humor and connections.
Main quibble:
The novel is set in a home for the elderly. There are 8 residents and 1 House Mother who cares for them. In each of the 9 chapters, you get to live inside the head of one of these characters. After some obligatory facts and figures about their health and mental awareness, etc. you are dumped into that character's head for 21 pages. Each page is like a musical score, in that the characters thoughts mark out the time, sometimes blank spaces will show periods of thoughtlessness or sleep. Each chapter covers the same period of time, so that you can cross reference one character with another to understand better the interactions going on. It reminded me of layers in photoshop, where you can put them all on top of each other or view them individually. But if you just read one character's perspective, some of it may not make as much sense. When you've read all 9 accounts, a full picture forms. Another analogy is reading music, the different harmonic parts coming and going, but specifically what it would feel like to read those musical notes (if only I could read music) rather than listen to them together.
Or... it's like Virginia Woolf if she were an anal accountant of thoughts rather than a poet of them.
That makes it seem like I didn't like it. But I did. I liked that part, because I still have Woolf for Woolf, but this gives me a different approach to that stream of consciousness that may be less poetic but more interesting in other ways.
Specifically, when we get to the very senile residents at the end... George and Rosetta. Even though the pages are mostly blank with one or two words, you can still build much more in your mind just because you know what else is going on in the other people's heads.
The voices and backstories of all the characters were fun to read too, although part of me has the same problem with it as I do with most stream of consciousness writing, which is that people don't actually think this way. They don't recount their life story over and over again like this. It becomes very obviously a device for storytelling. Of course, for the sake of artifice, I see why it's better to do it this way, otherwise it would be TRULY boring to read it.
So... onward to my quibbles:
First the tiny quibble. It is a bit tedious. Once the initial excitement of the idea subsides, once you get to the oh-so-necessary execution part, it's a little bit of a slog to read through--despite the sprinkling of interesting humor and connections.
Main quibble:
September 6, 2022
This is the last of B S Johnson’s novels to be published during his own short lifetime and it’s about something he would never get to experience for himself: the indignities of growing old; all the horrid unravellings, bodily and psychologically, that people have to contend with as they age.
There are just eight residents (guests? inmates?) at a small unnamed home for the elderly, all in their seventies or older and apparently without relatives. Overall the book describes one particular evening, a weekly Social presided over by the rather sinister and sadistic woman in charge, the House Mother of its title: there’s dinner, a handicrafts session, games, singing and to finish with…well, an “entertainment”. We see how this evening, the world in fact, looks to all eight in turn, one point of view after another. More, the chapters are meticulously set out, page by page and line by line, so that they match and you can directly compare how each incident is experienced by each resident. First come the youngest and most lucid ones, understandably absorbed in their memories to some extent, but still alert and even cantankerous. As we work through them though, the grip on reality loosens with each passing viewpoint and the last few are clearly pictures of dementia, seen from the inside: minds scattered, slowed almost to a standstill, cut adrift.
Nothing here—none of the twisted “activities” and “games”—are quite what they seem at first; and as well, like all Johnson’s books, this was regarded as “experimental” when first published. But like all of them it’s sympathetically written too, at once both funny and deeply sad.
There are just eight residents (guests? inmates?) at a small unnamed home for the elderly, all in their seventies or older and apparently without relatives. Overall the book describes one particular evening, a weekly Social presided over by the rather sinister and sadistic woman in charge, the House Mother of its title: there’s dinner, a handicrafts session, games, singing and to finish with…well, an “entertainment”. We see how this evening, the world in fact, looks to all eight in turn, one point of view after another. More, the chapters are meticulously set out, page by page and line by line, so that they match and you can directly compare how each incident is experienced by each resident. First come the youngest and most lucid ones, understandably absorbed in their memories to some extent, but still alert and even cantankerous. As we work through them though, the grip on reality loosens with each passing viewpoint and the last few are clearly pictures of dementia, seen from the inside: minds scattered, slowed almost to a standstill, cut adrift.
Nothing here—none of the twisted “activities” and “games”—are quite what they seem at first; and as well, like all Johnson’s books, this was regarded as “experimental” when first published. But like all of them it’s sympathetically written too, at once both funny and deeply sad.
December 7, 2019
3.5, rounded down.
I'd read - and enjoyed - a few of Johnson's works, but came to THIS one due to the titular character also being prominent in the recent and bizarre We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff. I didn't find some of this terribly accessible, since the UK references didn't resonate for me, plus it is structured in such a way that one has to work hard a lot of the time to fathom just exactly what is going on within the senile characters' minds. Still Johnson is always worth a look, and this moves quickly
I'd read - and enjoyed - a few of Johnson's works, but came to THIS one due to the titular character also being prominent in the recent and bizarre We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff. I didn't find some of this terribly accessible, since the UK references didn't resonate for me, plus it is structured in such a way that one has to work hard a lot of the time to fathom just exactly what is going on within the senile characters' minds. Still Johnson is always worth a look, and this moves quickly
March 28, 2023
3.5 stars, rounded up for existential dread about aging, stylistic flair, and good use of book design as content.
July 15, 2015
Readers and critics have commented on B.S. Johnson's experimental use of telling a tale. Which is perfectly true, but also he is (so far, or what I have read) is very much a straight ahead narrative writer. He has a great imagination and skills in relating the narrative is a slightly different way - but he's totally readable for everyone who loves a narrative. The story here is about an old people's home in the U.K. and you hear the participants voices in separate chapters, but, one presumes at the same time. The inner-dialogue is jumpy, and sometimes doesn't connect - but the overall effect is one not losing the narrative point of view of what is happening at that time and place. The last chapter is "House Mother" who is the objectionable voice - which of course, is cruel. Johnson is a good writer for other writers. He knows the format of the novel or narrative and he plays with that form. He knows the rules of the game, or otherwise he wouldn't know how to break them.
October 14, 2014
I'd originally heard that this was stream-of-consciousness from nine characters, all happening at once in real time, which made me prepare myself a total chaos of interleaved simultaneous events. Which makes the actual 21-parallel-pages-per-character-cover-exactly-the-same-time-period format seem almost gentle and simple by comparison. Still probably one of the weirdest books about the lives of the very old around. Actually unexpectedly sorrowful, as well.
March 23, 2020
I've read four novels now by B.S. Johnson and have enjoyed all of them and this one was no different. All his novels are quite experimental in structure, but this one is by far the most experimental that I've yet read by him. It concerns eight old people in a nursing home and their matron, or House Mother, which must be an old fashioned term for the woman in charge of the home, back in those days. The reader gets little bursts from each old person, so small insights into how they are feeling and how they are comprehending what's going on around them, and so its like we are inside their mind, each time we hear from them in a way, as we get their unique points of view. Some of the residents of the care home are clearly in differing states of mental well-being and this gets cleverly represented by Johnson, in the way he presents the different people's sections, in terms of the content and style which can vary wildly. The House Mother is clearly not such a nice person and has them all doing little jobs all day, like making Christmas crackers and other menial tasks; probably not for their own benefit and their time spent there comes across as being quite unpleasant, as its unclear how well any of them are really getting cared for...
Its not the happiest book ever, but it is very interesting and is moving in terms of the content, but is also a really engaging book to read because of the way its constructed. I think a lot of people would find it memorable, both for the intriguing insight into (some) care homes back in the 1960's/70's and for the unique layout that makes for a truly original reading experience. I have a few books left to read by him and look forward to seeing what invention awaits me within their pages!
June 29, 2019
One hour of one day from the perspectives of eight elderly people (and the not elderly house mother) in a nursing home, each successive person with worse dementia than the last, so they slowly get less coherent and focused as it goes on. There were a handful of very touching moments but mostly it felt a little too much like a formal experiment, and the coldness of the writing was a little bit of a turn-off! I'm not that sentimental but I expected a lil bit more empathy in the writing!! Still gonna read some more B.S. Johnson books despite being a teensy bit let down by this.
January 1, 2025
There is an irony in reading books so profoundly upsetting, as they can also be infinitely inspiring in their creativity. Yes, we shant forget that this geriatrics convention is assembled by B.S. Johnson's projections of the futility of a lived life ('tis better to have not lived at all than to have lived and died? I suppose that can be an argument of the suicide). I do think there is a lot of truth to how he imagines the thoughts of our super-seniors, and I see even his darkest of meditations in my own mind's light, but I think this is an absolute work of genius regardless.
A new all-time favorite book of mine though, for sure. And I highly recommend translating the penultimate chapter from the Welsh, if you can (or need). I definitely thought it was just nonsense until another reviewer on here mentioned it was simply another language.
A new all-time favorite book of mine though, for sure. And I highly recommend translating the penultimate chapter from the Welsh, if you can (or need). I definitely thought it was just nonsense until another reviewer on here mentioned it was simply another language.
February 3, 2021
Four or three stars. Great idea. Surprisingly easy to read apart from chapter seven or eight. I mean, there are a number of just blank pages...
I wish there had been more to each chapter. It felt slight, tantalisingly slight. Sort of how I felt about Christie Malry's Own Double Entry - like Johnson was holding back on me.
I wish there had been more to each chapter. It felt slight, tantalisingly slight. Sort of how I felt about Christie Malry's Own Double Entry - like Johnson was holding back on me.
February 28, 2013
The Positive:
This is the poignant tale of residents at an abusive old peoples home. Each chapter is told in a different voice and this is definitely the books strength, each character feels distinct and genuine. The representation of the peoples varying states of dementia is tragic and I genuinely felt very hurt and angry at the treatment the characters were getting.
One of the most brilliant features of this book is the arranging of words on the page, some of the monologues represent the characters mental deterioration not only through the words that are used but also through the arrangement of the words on the page. (This in many ways works like concrete poetry).
The Negative:
I am not going to ruin anything if I say that on the last page, the novel gets a bit meta, and I just didn’t feel it fit with the tragedy in the rest of the book. However this is only a very small issue and I am aware B. S. Johnson was an experimental novelist.
The Rating:
5/5
I would recommend this book to everyone as it is one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read. However this was at times a tough read for me, as my grandfather suffered from Parkinson’s disease which meant that he suffered from sever dementia and i would understand that people with a similar family history might find this book upsetting.
This is the poignant tale of residents at an abusive old peoples home. Each chapter is told in a different voice and this is definitely the books strength, each character feels distinct and genuine. The representation of the peoples varying states of dementia is tragic and I genuinely felt very hurt and angry at the treatment the characters were getting.
One of the most brilliant features of this book is the arranging of words on the page, some of the monologues represent the characters mental deterioration not only through the words that are used but also through the arrangement of the words on the page. (This in many ways works like concrete poetry).
The Negative:
I am not going to ruin anything if I say that on the last page, the novel gets a bit meta, and I just didn’t feel it fit with the tragedy in the rest of the book. However this is only a very small issue and I am aware B. S. Johnson was an experimental novelist.
The Rating:
5/5
I would recommend this book to everyone as it is one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read. However this was at times a tough read for me, as my grandfather suffered from Parkinson’s disease which meant that he suffered from sever dementia and i would understand that people with a similar family history might find this book upsetting.
August 30, 2021
One of the best books I have ever read. Not only because of the plot, or unorthodox typography, but because of all. Johnson is considered as modernist, though I would without a doubt put this book in a postmodernist category. The style is like I have never seen before, it immediately grasped my attention and carried it, with waves, through the end. Everything is done deliberately and meticulously; you just need to pay a little bit attention to details. The pagination is there for something, to help you most of the time, and the elaborate typography too, is not there for just being fancy; though at first I thought it was kind of. They all add up to the construction of the book, to engage with the reader every way possible. And at some point (don't think this is spoiler) a dictionary might be useful, but definitely not necessary. While Johnson plays his cards, he does not alienate the reader at all like Joyce and sometimes Beckett do.
All in all, I strongly recommend it to everyone, and especially to the lovers of postmodern novels.
All in all, I strongly recommend it to everyone, and especially to the lovers of postmodern novels.
October 28, 2012
Set in an old people's home, a book which relates a day as seen by 9 people. The first 8 are residents with differing levels of confusion, health problems and backgrounds, the last is the House Mother herself. Some aspects are funny, some sad and some disturbing, personally more like House Mother Abnormal.
January 10, 2024
Second from the BS Johnson Omnibus I have loaned and the much more enjoyable and entertaining of the two. Probably one of Johnson’s most fictional works; I suppose he departed from his shrine to writing what only he’s experienced in his later career. Suitably experimental, and wonderfully structured with 21 pages per narrator and each narrator being scored on how mentally competent they are, leading to chaos and near silence ensuing towards the end, before the House Mother comes in, with you expecting some normality, some sense, but in a way taking the book even further off the rails than you thought possible.
Filled with dark humour and particularly packed with it at the end, this book clearly demonstrates Johnson’s fear of getting old and becoming decrepit and scholars of his work might even draw such fears as being a factor behind his tragic suicide just two years later.
The fact that each of the 21 pages has the same events ensuing for each narrator, with words dotted around the page at points to indicate exactly when thoughts occur, is truly innovative and very compelling as the story builds up and you develop its structure in your own head, before comparing it to the events as described by the House Mother. I’ll finish by saying the last few pages really are textbook Johnson and I love him dearly for it.
Filled with dark humour and particularly packed with it at the end, this book clearly demonstrates Johnson’s fear of getting old and becoming decrepit and scholars of his work might even draw such fears as being a factor behind his tragic suicide just two years later.
The fact that each of the 21 pages has the same events ensuing for each narrator, with words dotted around the page at points to indicate exactly when thoughts occur, is truly innovative and very compelling as the story builds up and you develop its structure in your own head, before comparing it to the events as described by the House Mother. I’ll finish by saying the last few pages really are textbook Johnson and I love him dearly for it.
Read
September 24, 2022My first though was to consider how it could be done as a play! In its way "typically" B.S. Johnson--which, of course, does not exist. There is nothing really typical about Johnson's work. Fascinating effort to present minds in the late stages of life, the gaps between what is seen/heard by outside observers and what is happening inside the minds of the octogenarian characters.
June 8, 2023
As always with Johnson, a fun experiment in form. This one was less enjoyable than e.g. Christie Malry..., but I can't quite put my finger on why - possibly it's just less funny owing to the subject matter. Some of the narrative voices are much more compelling than others, but when it hits it hits hard.
Also - the Audible production is fantastic and highly recommended.
Also - the Audible production is fantastic and highly recommended.
December 24, 2021
A successful experiment in fiction and often funny — no small achievement — but a bit too on the nose in its final pages — more characteristic of the mode than not in ceding to the temptation to take one step too far.
June 2, 2020
cool idea
September 18, 2022
A better B.S. Johnson than Christie's double entry, not as good as Albert Angelo. I think this is a book that must be read on a single sitting for the full experience (saved it for a plane). The story is told from multiple points of view, and you can easily "match" the descriptions that different people give to the same event. I found that to be extremely rewarding, flipping back and forth and figuring out what incidents were what.
October 5, 2017
In which Johnson has lots of fun with constraints and toilet humour... Apparently, the structure isn't new. It had been deployed at least four decades before in 'Tea with Mrs Goodman' by Philip Toynbee, according to Johnson's biographer, Jonathan Coe. Clearly, telling the same events from the perspective of different characters has been done before (Lawrence Durrell's 'Alexandria Quartet' springs to mind). As with 'Trawl', I suspect this novel would be the antithesis of a "good read" for many readers. It makes him/her work and in this, it's ambitious. Only slowly, through a series of refracted mirrors and diminished consciousnesses, does it become clear what is going on in this old people's home.
Johnson creates his characters with affection and compassion. The abuse of them by the care home's 'house mother' carries uncomfortable echoes of recent revelations about some of these institutions. It has been said that you can judge a society by the way it treats its old people, its cultural development by its libraries. On that score, there's much work to do, here in the UK. 'House Mother Normal' ought to be required reading in the case for bringing back council-run homes at the heart of their community.
Johnson creates his characters with affection and compassion. The abuse of them by the care home's 'house mother' carries uncomfortable echoes of recent revelations about some of these institutions. It has been said that you can judge a society by the way it treats its old people, its cultural development by its libraries. On that score, there's much work to do, here in the UK. 'House Mother Normal' ought to be required reading in the case for bringing back council-run homes at the heart of their community.
September 30, 2020
Truly terrifying work. If you don’t pick up on it’s subtext then B. S. Johnson lays it out for you plain and simple at the end: When you get old you will be prisoner to a body that may betray you at any moment.
Award for most bone chilling line goes to “when I get better” said amidst a textual representation of an Alzheimer’s riddled brain.
Award for most bone chilling line goes to “when I get better” said amidst a textual representation of an Alzheimer’s riddled brain.
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