The book
“Hamilton […] is a sort of urban Thomas Hardy: He is always a pleasure to read, and as social historian he is unparalleled.” —Nick Hornby
Adrift in the grimy pubs of London at the outbreak of World War II, George Harvey Bone is hopelessly infatuated with Netta, a cold, contemptuous, small-time actress. George also suffers from occasional blackouts. During these moments one thing is horribly clear: he must murder Netta.
The author
Patrick Hamilton
Patrick Hamilton was born in England in 1904. By the late 1920's he was recognized as one of the most gifted and admired writers of his generation. His novels and plays of the 1930's established a wide readership in Britain and America. His play Rope was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock and his play Gaslight was a huge success on the stage before being made into a popular film starring Ingrid Bergman.
Hangover Square is perhaps his best-known work, but his novel The Slaves of Solitude also enjoys great popularity. Patrick Hamilton died in 1962.
Press
- May 19 2008
New York Review of Books: "When Hamilton's work is at its best, his preoccupations—consciousness, power, obsession, sex, and social class—converge, and their combined weight gives the fiction a momentum that moves it above the sooty streets of Earl's Cour - Jun 20 2007
Boston Globe: " Hamilton's novels are filled with drinking, murder, madness, unrequited passion, loneliness, casual cruelty, the anomie of modern society, dismal, drenching weather, and humor --the words "black comedy" spring to mind." - Mar 7 2007
Los Angeles Times: "as a character study and social portrait of the seedier side of London life in the 1930s, the book is a marvel." - May 2 2006
Mystery File: "Patrick Hamilton's work as a playwright produced the landmark suspense films ROPE and GASLIGHT. Now his 1941 novel Hangover Square is back in print." - Mar 2 2006
Boston Phoenix: "Hamilton raises his hard-boiled, pulp-fiction world to the level of tragedy."