Scott Sommer

Hazzard's Head is Scott Sommer's novel of thirty-something writer Jack Hazzard living in New York City, a writer who not only has to deal with Marcelline Tatia, his very hot girlfriend recently returned to New York City from Rome, not only his father who continually phones to harangue and criticize, not only his psychiatrist who asks probing, upsetting questions, but, most dramatically, Jack Hazard has to deal with the voices/personas/little people who take up residence in his head. On a page preceding Chapter One,`The Inhabitants of Hazzard's Head' are listed: Mother, Father, Teacher, Boy, Actor, Patient, Writer, Son, Recluse, Lover, Punk, Paranoid, Depressive.

These voices engage in bitter combat with one another as Jack goes about his day-to-day activities. Here is an example of Jack doing some simple grocery shopping, simple, that is, for most people, but for Jack and the inhabitants of Hazzard's Head, grocery shopping is a battleground: ""I need a green pepper," said the Mother, "and parsley and garlic and two nice fresh leeks." "Shopping like a housewife," grumbled the Father, the Punk replying, "You talking to me?" "I'm only doing the shopping," the Son told the Father, "so the Lover can . . . ." "Well," said the Father, "it's good to know you're finally attracted to girls. Because for a time there I thought maybe the long hair and tight pants meant . . . " "That you and the Mother had emasculated him!" shouted the Paranoid." ----- If this is grocery shopping, you can imagine the uproar when Jack thinks about or has erotically-charged dealings with his sexy girlfriend, Marcelline Tatia.

We are given the details of how Jack Hazzard grew up with a hysterical, possessive, neurotic mother and a sexually twisted, neurotic father. Here is a bit of dialogue when Jack is 16 and eating dinner with his mother and father before his first date with Phyllis, a girl he is taking to her high school's spring dance: ""This isn't the one," said his mother, "with the mousey-looking mother with the sagging breasts, is it?" "I don't know," Jack said sullenly, eyes averted. "Well," said his mother, "if it is, her mother's a real whore." "What's wrong with that?" joked his father. "Because Jackie's more like me than you when it comes to sex." (!) . . . "What's he crying about now?" asked the father, as Jack ran cursing to his room. ----- An entire childhood of episode after torturous episode of such family interplay; makes you appreciate your own childhood, assuming your parents were not as psychologically unbalanced and prone to coarseness and craziness as Jack's.

The author also show us how such a background for a sensitive boy like Jack Hazzard works itself out in adult life. Since Hazzard's Head is clearly autobiographical, the reader senses how much pain Mr. Sommer must have endured in both his childhood and adulthood. However, with the help of some insight into ancient gnostic wisdom, Jack Hazzard does undergo a degree of hard-won transformation in the closing chapters.

There is a rich tradition of novels with psychoanalysis at the center, such as Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, but Hazard's Head is inventive and original, giving us as readers a unique glimpse into the psyche of a contemporary American having suffered emotional abuse as a child and adolescent. Hazzard's Head is a forgotten classic deserving rediscovery.
… (altro)

Hazzard's Head is Scott Sommer's novel of thirty-something writer Jack Hazzard living in New York City, a writer who not only has to deal with Marcelline Tatia, his very hot girlfriend recently returned to New York City from Rome, not only his father who continually phones to harangue and criticize, not only his psychiatrist who asks probing, upsetting questions, but, most dramatically, Jack Hazard has to deal with the voices/personas/little people who take up residence in his head. On a page preceding Chapter One,`The Inhabitants of Hazzard's Head' are listed: Mother, Father, Teacher, Boy, Actor, Patient, Writer, Son, Recluse, Lover, Punk, Paranoid, Depressive.

These voices engage in bitter combat with one another as Jack goes about his day-to-day activities. Here is an example of Jack doing some simple grocery shopping, simple, that is, for most people, but for Jack and the inhabitants of Hazzard's Head, grocery shopping is a battleground: ""I need a green pepper," said the Mother, "and parsley and garlic and two nice fresh leeks." "Shopping like a housewife," grumbled the Father, the Punk replying, "You talking to me?" "I'm only doing the shopping," the Son told the Father, "so the Lover can . . . ." "Well," said the Father, "it's good to know you're finally attracted to girls. Because for a time there I thought maybe the long hair and tight pants meant . . . " "That you and the Mother had emasculated him!" shouted the Paranoid." ----- If this is grocery shopping, you can imagine the uproar when Jack thinks about or has erotically-charged dealings with his sexy girlfriend, Marcelline Tatia.

We are given the details of how Jack Hazzard grew up with a hysterical, possessive, neurotic mother and a sexually twisted, neurotic father. Here is a bit of dialogue when Jack is 16 and eating dinner with his mother and father before his first date with Phyllis, a girl he is taking to her high school's spring dance: ""This isn't the one," said his mother, "with the mousey-looking mother with the sagging breasts, is it?" "I don't know," Jack said sullenly, eyes averted. "Well," said his mother, "if it is, her mother's a real whore." "What's wrong with that?" joked his father. "Because Jackie's more like me than you when it comes to sex." (!) . . . "What's he crying about now?" asked the father, as Jack ran cursing to his room. ----- An entire childhood of episode after torturous episode of such family interplay; makes you appreciate your own childhood, assuming your parents were not as psychologically unbalanced and prone to coarseness and craziness as Jack's.

The author also show us how such a background for a sensitive boy like Jack Hazzard works itself out in adult life. Since Hazzard's Head is clearly autobiographical, the reader senses how much pain Mr. Sommer must have endured in both his childhood and adulthood. However, with the help of some insight into ancient gnostic wisdom, Jack Hazzard does undergo a degree of hard-won transformation in the closing chapters.

There is a rich tradition of novels with psychoanalysis at the center, such as Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, but Hazard's Head is inventive and original, giving us as readers a unique glimpse into the psyche of a contemporary American having suffered emotional abuse as a child and adolescent. Hazzard's Head is a forgotten classic deserving rediscovery.
… (altro)