Book Review: "Henry Henry" by Allen Bratton

'If we become great friends, maybe it will have been worth it. Then when we’re old we can tell the story of how none of it would have happened if I’d been in good form.’

- Henry Henry by Allen Bratton

I found this book whilst doom-scrolling through various recommendations and new releases. Now, I have always enjoyed a book about hedonism, my favourite novel since I was 11 has been The Picture of Dorian Gray and the second, Interview with the Vampire. Many of my favourite books have hedonism in common: Brideshead Revisited, Less than Zero and many more are included.

Allen Bratton's Henry Henry hits the very same notes and feels like it is starring a young man who models himself on a cross between Dorian Gray and Sebastian Flyte but actually happens to be a form of Henry V, which the more you think about it the better it gets. Honestly, this has to be one the best things I've read this year and - with its quippy-humour, there is something really quite loveable about this book even though we have to think about how unlikeable the characters are. Though, that has always been the point of these books.

Henry Henry starts off with an introduction to a young man named Hal who is the son of the 16th Duke of Lancaster and, when his father dies he will be the 17th Duke. His relationship with his father is strange and tense to say the least. It is mostly about scoring a one-up on him whilst his father is trying to keep him at bay and showing good face. However, it is not something high up on the priorities of young Hal who prefers drinking sessions and being a bit of a snob whilst also trying to shake that very same image. He is a hypocrite in the best way and yet, he is absolutely hilarious.

Hal has friends who constantly remind him about his privileges and he also knows another boy, this one is called Harry - Harry Percy. Harry Percy got into Oxford on his own merit whereas, Hal's father had to make arrangements to get his son into the same university. There are so many things that other people are jealous of Hal for, but in reality, he does not really like his life too much because of his father's rigidity and lack of compassion. The casual snobbery therefore comes off as a comedic coping mechanism in which Hal needs to be reminded of when he has had fights with people whilst drunk and waking up randomly on the tube.

One thing I felt was really powerful about this novel was the descriptions that were used for pain. The beginning of Part 2: Paracetamol, there is a horrifying description of Hal when he wakes up on the train with a horrifying headache which is actually a terrible hangover. Honestly, some of these descriptions juxtapose the defiance that Hal feels towards his own hedonism - it is really quite distressing and doesn't have a good, party atmosphere at all. It is a brilliant achievement of the writer to do this so well without making it seem like its been done just so you can pick it out. It is based on the difference between what Hal says about himself in comparison to what actually happens to him.

However, after proclaiming that he doesn't like Harry Percy, Henry is forced to confront what he really wants as an accident brings Henry's family closer to his and thus, Henry closer to Harry. In a way to confront his own sexuality due to the tradition of his family being 'traditional' in a way of expelling men of Henry's own kind - he tries to push on with what he wants rather than what everyone else wants of him.

Hal's father talks about how Hal must preserve the status quo and though he states it 'isn't because' Hal is gay, it sure does sound like it when Hal's father echoes a reason that was once given for the murder of Piers Gaveston - that these men (like Edward II) raised certain men above their own station and spent money stupidly for them. It is a tragedy of their father-son relations which drives Hal deeper into the life of hedonism.

It is clear that this writer knows his Shakespeare and has a really in-depth knowledge of Henry V especially. The paranoia of Henry IV is often very well presented through the Duke's propensity to put a leash on his now-young-adult child. It is a flavoured novel with tons of different characters, each trying to put Hal this way or that, trying to make him see things he already knows and trying to make him realise things about himself that could come in handy if he were to pay attention. It's a beautiful book that I wish I had read on the day it came out.

All in all, I hope that if you have liked novels about hedonism and fortune, books based on Shakespeare plays and texts that deal closely with issues about inheritance and what it means to be rich in money but poor in spirit, you would choose to read this book. It is a rare achievement when we find something quite as good as this in the literary world.