The Enthusiast: A Novel

by Charlie Haas

Overview

Henry Bay has his own America going. If there's an offbeat interest or extreme sport that's poised to sweep the nation, chances are there's a magazine for its enthusiasts, and chances are also good that Henry has worked there. He's a modern nomad, associate-editing his way from state to state, exploring the small worlds that make up modern America from Spelunk to Ice Climbing, to Cozy, The Magazine of Tea.

But those are other people's interests—Henry's still looking for his own enthusiasm. He ends up finding more than he ever imagined in this energetic, hilarious debut novel from a surprising and promising new voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061879708
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	302
File size:	657 KB

About the Author

Charlie Haas's writing has appeared in Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, among many other journals. His screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. He lives in Oakland with his wife, the writer and editor B. K. Moran.

Editorial Reviews

A Hollywood screenwriter turned novelist, Haas shows a skilled literary hand in his sharp first novel about college dropout Henry Bay, who turns into something of a serial associate editor at a series of fringe magazines, beginning with a stint at one geared toward kite buggy enthusiasts. From there, Henry bounces around the country taking low-paying editing jobs at enthusiast rags with such themes as crocheting, ice climbing and conspiracy theories. The compelling side characters are central to the novel's charm. These include Gerald, Henry's talkative friend, and Henry's brother, Barney, who transforms from a science prodigy and stem cell researcher into a secretive adrenaline junkie who may be on the hit list of Freebird, a Unabomber-like domestic terrorist. Haas plunges Henry into bizarre nooks where hobbies become obsessions and subsubcultures are formed, but the characters encountered aren't dismissed as freaks; rather, they're examined with a near curatorial zeal. Though the narrative could stand to go a little deeper into Henry's motivations, overall this is a slick first novel: funny, thought provoking and a little alarming. (June)

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Publishers Weekly

Can the secret of better living be found in the pages of ultra-niche magazines? One man spends many low-pay, high-angst years finding out in Haas's debut. Henry Bay's career in the glory-free world of enthusiast rags like Crochet Life, Wakeboarding and Monster Truck Tunin' begins in college. He's initially interested in studying law so he can sue the aerospace company that laid off his father, but his experiences in a sport that mixes off-roading and parasailing prompts him to move from California to Illinois to work at Kite Buggy magazine. "There's a magazine as soon as five people find a new way to hurt themselves," Henry notes, and the author has great fun inventing both obscure publications like Cozy, the Magazine of Tea and the off-kilter people who fill their pages. (One woman crochets throws that depict violent crimes; the editor of Exotic Pets runs an office where a turtle, a kinkajou and a fennec fox mingle with the staff.) Haas has so much fun, in fact, that the thin plot feels like an afterthought. Henry's older brother Barney is a brilliant scientist who acts out against his suffocating wife by engaging in the kind of extreme sports Henry covers, and their fate is tied to a Unabomber type who darts in and out of the narrative. The novel's message is clear: Our lives are often lived most sincerely in the hobby-obsessed margins, and the happiest relationships are with those who indulge our quirks. Yet neither Barney nor Henry's love interest are much more fully sketched than the staffers at the enthusiast magazines, and Henry is an ungainly mix of good intentions and absurdity; the reader loses count of just how many low-circulation magazines he works at in how many small towns.His character rarely feels like more than a repository for Haas's riffs on subcultures, though Henry's sincerity keeps the novel from degrading into farce. A brilliant conceit never finds the right seriocomic groove. Author appearances in New York and San Francisco

Kirkus Reviews

(An) eccentric, slyly romantic debut novel. At heart, Henry is an oddball innocent, a romantic in search of meaning that eludes him early on. (T)he book captures something at once fragile and vital —the excitement of the ordinary, the exhilaration of the everyday.” — San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Funny and often moving.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Witty and endearingly patriotic.” — Christian Science Monitor (Summer Reading List Pick)

“(THE ENTHUSIAST) isn’t just a picaresque ride through the weirder side of the magazine industry, but a super-extended coming-of-age story. And a good one, too.” — The Onion AV Club

“THE ENTHUSIAST’s best quality: a virtual guarantee that each page will include at least one delightful and surprising turn of phrase that could have wandered in from a Frank O’Hara poem.” — San Francisco magazine

“A charming, sly, and even wise first novel. (Haas) skillfully sketches memorable characters and places with a few pithy sentences, and his dialogue is often arch and very funny.” — Booklist

“I am having the most wonderful day, lying on the couch and reading Charlie Haas’s brilliant book. It is wonderfully written, charming, wise, sometimes funny, always real. Henry is the perfect narrator, and the book reads like a dream.” — Anne Lamott

“Haas shows a skilled literary hand in his sharp first novel. The compelling side characters are central to the novel’s charm…but the characters encountered aren’t dismissed as freaks; rather, they’re examined with a near curatorial zeal. This is a slick first novel: funny, thought provoking and a little alarming.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I loved this novel from start to finish. It’s always funny and often profound. Again and again there are single lines that are both hilarious and saddening, that are alive both on the surface of the novel and in the depths of experience. It’s a triumph, it’s unique.” — Greil Marcus

“As impossible to categorize as it is to put down. THE ENTHUSIAST occupies a smart, weirdly fascinating, sometimes laugh-out-loud, ever soulful universe all its own. As close to perfect as any first novel should ever be allowed to be.” — Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty and Pain Killers

From the Publisher

(THE ENTHUSIAST) isn’t just a picaresque ride through the weirder side of the magazine industry, but a super-extended coming-of-age story. And a good one, too.

The Onion AV Club

I loved this novel from start to finish. It’s always funny and often profound. Again and again there are single lines that are both hilarious and saddening, that are alive both on the surface of the novel and in the depths of experience. It’s a triumph, it’s unique.

Greil Marcus

As impossible to categorize as it is to put down. THE ENTHUSIAST occupies a smart, weirdly fascinating, sometimes laugh-out-loud, ever soulful universe all its own. As close to perfect as any first novel should ever be allowed to be.

Jerry Stahl

A charming, sly, and even wise first novel. (Haas) skillfully sketches memorable characters and places with a few pithy sentences, and his dialogue is often arch and very funny.

Booklist

THE ENTHUSIAST’s best quality: a virtual guarantee that each page will include at least one delightful and surprising turn of phrase that could have wandered in from a Frank O’Hara poem.

San Francisco magazine

(An) eccentric, slyly romantic debut novel. At heart, Henry is an oddball innocent, a romantic in search of meaning that eludes him early on. (T)he book captures something at once fragile and vital —the excitement of the ordinary, the exhilaration of the everyday.

San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

I am having the most wonderful day, lying on the couch and reading Charlie Haas’s brilliant book. It is wonderfully written, charming, wise, sometimes funny, always real. Henry is the perfect narrator, and the book reads like a dream.

Anne Lamott

Witty and endearingly patriotic.

Christian Science Monitor (Summer Reading List Pick)

Funny and often moving.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

A charming, sly, and even wise first novel. (Haas) skillfully sketches memorable characters and places with a few pithy sentences, and his dialogue is often arch and very funny.

Booklist

Funny and often moving.

Los Angeles Times Book Review