Mr. Chartwell

June 27, 2011
Audio buffs looking for something different will find this an original. Depression, in the guise of a black dog who stands over six and a half feet tall in his top hat, arrives in London in the summer of 1964 to lodge at the home of Esther, whose husband killed himself two years earlier. But the hairy, talkative, and slobbering Mr. Chartwell, who prefers to be called "Black Pat," must first tend to Winston Churchill, who is about to retire from politics. Susan Duerden, best-known for her role as Carole Littleton on Lost, provides a wonderful portrayal of Esther, who is both tempted by and afraid of Mr. Chartwell. Unfortunately, Duerden's characterizations of Black Pat and Churchill are less successful: she gives Black Pat a hardly foreboding purr, and cannot master Churchill's distinctive voice. A Dial hardcover.

November 1, 2010

The "black dog" of depression that famously haunted Sir Winston Churchill, Britain's political leader through World War II, is made flesh in a quirky debut.

Rococo both in its imagination and phrasing, Hunt's first novel is a tragicomic fantasy set in July 1964, Churchill's 89th year and the one in which he will finally retire from parliament. Spread over the six days leading up to this significant moment, the book is essentially a triangle of debate between the elderly politician; Esther Hammerhans, a widow seeking a lodger for her spare room; and a colossal black hound known first as Mr. Chartwell (after Churchill's home) but later Black Pat. The gigantic, foul-smelling animal can not only walk on its hind legs, talk and make jokes and literary references, but also threaten, seduce, distract and destroy. Churchill's relationship with Black Pat is long, while Esther's is only just beginning. In an episodic, rather scant, darkly whimsical story, the turning point comes when Esther, a library clerk at the House of Parliament, is sent to Chartwell to act as temporary secretary to Churchill. His words to her, reminiscent of the best of his wartime exhortations to the British people, help her find the power to resist Black Pat's allure and choose differently.

A witty, intelligent curiosity of a novel—less a story, more a recipe for mental health presented in light fictional form.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from November 1, 2010

When librarian Esther Hammerhans decides to rent a room in her London flat to Mr. Chartwell, she has no idea what she's allowing into her solitary life. Mr. Chartwell, aka Black Pat, is, you see, a dog--a huge, odiferous, walking, talking physical mess of an animal, who inexplicably exudes a most charming, seductive manner. He has, he confides to Esther, a final job to do at the home of Winston and Clementine Churchill in nearby Kent. History has noted Sir Winston's long battle with depression, his bete noire as he called it, the "black dog" that accompanied him throughout his life. So what does Black Pat now want with Esther? How will she avoid falling prey to his dark, hulking presence? Please, willingly suspend disbelief and allow Hunt's vivid imagination to take you on this exuberant funhouse ride through a week in the lives of Esther, Winston, two matchmakers, the easygoing love interest, and the buttoned-up library director at the House of Commons. VERDICT Already published in Hunt's home country, Great Britain, this debut novel cleverly combines historical detail, a marvelously subtle sense of humor, and the wit of J.K. Rowling to give readers a quirky assortment of characters they can root for with abandon.--Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Ft. Myers, FL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2010
Chartwell, it may be remembered by some readers, was Winston Churchills country home. Familiarity with Churchill will prompt readers to also remember that he referred to his recurrent depression, his black moods, as the Black Dog. Hunt makes literal use of that image in a strange, slow-to-gain-steam, but ultimately engaging enough novel (set in 1964) that is less a historical study than a psychological one. Depression, not politics, is the theme developed around the wild premise of an actual big, black dogBlack Patobservable only to a few, coming to rent a room in the house of young Esther Hammerhaus, a clerk in the library at the House of Commons. Esther is a recent widow; her husband, we find out in slow increments, was a suicide. Meanwhile, Black Pat is also attendant upon Churchill, in his country home, as he prepares to resign from public life. How all this is wrapped up proves interesting, so long as readers are patient in keeping in mind the metaphoric meaning of the black-dog conceit and do not chafe at the nearly ridiculous literalness of the story set before their eyes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)