House Mother Normal, the English writer B. S. Johnson's fifth novel (published in England in 1971, reissued there in 1984), is unusual in both its subject and structure. Subtitled "A Geriatric Comedy," it is a remarkable study of old age. Stripped of sentimentality and spiked with the bizarre, the text explores the minds of the old with precision, humor, and unflagging compassion, and achieves, through the author's inventiveness, a vivid multidimensional effect.
"This is the most accomplished tour de force so far from a writer who has always rejected the Dickensian limitations of the novel."
-The Times (London)
"The work of B. S. Johnson, one of our most boldly original writers, gives the lie to the belief that only the cosy traditional novel can contain the true warm stuff of human life. Mr. Johnson rightly calls his novel 'a geriatric comedy. there is much humor of bawdy, bitching, and all the messy absurdities of the human plight."
-Financial Times (England)
"He [Johnson] played a very important part in the development of the exper-imental novel and kept that kind of writing alive when it was far more under-ground. It's time he received recognition for that."
-Malcolm Bradbury
An absurdest novel in poetry format
Soft cover

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