William Hazelgrove’s Rocket Man Satirizes our Worst Nightmare Reviewers Hail book as Dark Comedy
Chicago, November 22, 2008 — “William Elliott Hazelgrove’s Rocket Man is a first rate voice-driven black comedy. It is very funny and very engaging, one of those books I was happy to plough through in a couple of sittings, but Rocket Man has a lot more going on than its excellent entertainment value.” Novelist David Niss begins his review of William Elliott Hazelgrove’s Rocket Man and echoes what a lot of reviewers have commented on about this book: It is extremely funny.
That a novel about a man living in the suburbs trying to keep his home should be funny is another story, but it is. “This book is hilarious. Not being given to laughing out loud at books, it was unusual for me to have several people asking me “What are you reading, anyway?” because I was cracking up…it helps us laugh at ourselves as we see ourselves clearly in the narrative.” So goes one of the many Amazon reviews that have lauded this book as the new novel of the American Dream.http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0615213073/re…
Clearly there is something wrong here. We hear so many horror stories of people not able to pay their bills, fighting for their very survival. How could these things be funny? “Well, Dale (the main character) has one thing going for him, he doesn’t sweat the small stuff,” Novelist William Hazelgrove says from his office in Ernest Hemingways attic in Oak Park, IL. http://www.billhazelgrove.com ‘I dont’ mean that losing his house is small, but he doesn’t take money real seriously and I think if we can learn anything from him, it’s that the sky will not fall if you do lose your home and that there is well, a lot of comedy in very dark moments.
” The plot of Rocket Man revolves around Dale Hammer, a transplant from the city who cannot fit into his suburban world. We catch up with him in the middle of the housing crisis, unable to pay his bills, on the verge of losing his home. “You may have to sell this house to pay your debt. You may have to walk the streets to get another job. But many a good man has gone down the same way and gotten back up to do it again,” the protagonist’s father tells him on the front porch. Library Journal points out in their review: “Dale’s incisive narration of his rebellion against his stagnating life is the constant engine that drives this story. As his life crumbles around him, all seems lost for Dale, but he is inspired to an ultimate act of defiance that inspires him.
The descriptions of this writers life are funny and insightful.” The online community has embraced this book with bloggers and reviewers for online sites sounding the drum that while it is a hard story, it is also a very funny one. “I had a man call me and tell me that he is giving the book to a friend of his who is losing his home,” Author Hazelgrove continues, nodding slowly. “That made me feel pretty good. If I can can get someone not to do down into that dark place, then maybe I’ve written a book that might give some people a few laughs when they need it most.”
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