It is rare for me to want to own and re-read a book, but this strange and delightful tale has entranced me. The author has managed to juxtapose a very dark theme with effervescent characters and language. The writing is so good, and the storytelling is sensitive and wise. This book will be bought, place on my shelf of favorites and read again and again.

Very novel take on depression. The author's writing style and use of words made it a little difficult to get some meanings out of the sentences. Mr. Chartwell, as dark as he is, had a lot of humor, surprisingly.

Hmm... Nah, I'm not sure about this. On paper, it's a fine idea: Churchill described his depressive tendency as a black dog, so Rebecca Hunt has brought that dog to life and made it a character in a book in which he visits both Churchill and the protagonist, Esther. Esther is lucky enough to be given personal advice by Churchill, and she has friends around her, and with their help she has the strength to reject the dog. This seems like an idea with legs. Maybe even four legs. I like the idea of a book that acknowledges that, to an extent, we can choose whether or not to surrender to our depressive tendencies. This feels true and yet we're often told to see depression as an unstoppable illness that people have to just surrender to. So I should like this, right?
But it just doesn't quite deliver. I'm not sure why. I think maybe she has gone too far in trying to make the book light-hearted. OK, I can understand why she'd want to do that, but in the process, itfeels like it's trivialising depression. The dog is convincing at first, as Mr Chartwell, offering a faustian bargain to his new landlady, but soon he has changed his name to "Black Pat" which is a stupid name, not at all intimidating. He chews her handbag, breaks stuff, makes noises, annoys everyone, but he doesn't sap the vitality or the willpower out of his victims. Nothing really dark ever happens. He just annoys the shit out of everyone. In the last few pages, his wheedling attempts to convince her to accept him into her life permanently approach the kind of thing I would have expected, but it didn't mesh with anything that had gone before, and the stakes felt very low indeed. So she just says goodbye and off he pops. It's too easy.
I just didn't really feel like the book was as good as it should have been.

Really weird premise which you have to work through in order to finish or understand this book. But! If one perseveres, the book brings you around to an understanding of the metaphorical representation that is the theme woven into the book. I ended up liking this book a lot.

So clever and profound. One to ponder on.

During his lifetime, British politician Sir Winston Churchill often referred to the depression he suffered as the "black dog." In her clever debut novel, Rebecca Hunt personifies the black dog as a monstrous black Labrador Retriever who can speak and walk on his hind legs. The story takes place in England over a 5 day period during the month of July in 1964. In Kent, Churchill is preparing to retire from Parliament while in London Mr. Chartwell, or Black Pat as he likes to be called, answers an ad for a boarder placed by lonely widow Ester Hammerhans. These two seemingly unrelated people now must both deal with this dark menacing stronghold on their lives.

While that summary is entirely inadequate, I think revealing much more would ruin this bizarre little book. Mr. Chartwell provides an insightful look at how depression can swiftly interrupt life and weigh someone down, draining his or her energy and leaving a sense of despair. However, I am torn as to whether I truly liked the story or not. On the one hand, the story is imaginative and creepy at the same time, but on the other hand there were too many issues that made it obvious that this was a debut novel. Hunt creates wonderful imagery and descriptions, especially of Black Pat, but I found the rest of her prose to be a little slow with little to compel me to turn the page. The chapter structures were quite repetitive with the beginning paragraph or two always being a explanation of the current setting. I wish that the author would have played around with the structure a little more, especially considering that the topic is more whimsical than standard.

One positive quibble I had with Mr. Chartwell was the length. I felt that there was so much more Hunt could have done with the story without being excessive. The characters of Churchill and Ester weren't as fleshed out as necessary for me to really care about or understand them. The focus of the story was very much on Black Pat, who is quite a complex character. At times funny and intelligent, he can quickly turn to being cruel, devious, and egocentric. The descriptions of Black Pat are where Hunt's use of imagery really shines through.

While Ester and Churchill didn't interact much, they both served to highlight two ends of the spectrum. Churchill's story focuses on the genetic angle of the disease, and he comes across as more resigned as he's lived with Black Pat most of his life. Ester, a widow struggling with the two year anniversary of her husband's suicide, is new to the feelings of sadness and despair and doesn't quite know how to react.

Overall, I did enjoy the story and liked what the author was trying to accomplish. This was an innovative literary treatment of a disease that affects millions of people. Aside from the debut novel issues, this quick and to-the-point story was definitely one of the more original reads I've encountered this year. If you're looking for something a little puzzling and different, then I would look into Mr. Chartwell.

I'm not sure I completely understood this book, but it was interesting, thought-provoking, and pleasant to read. I want to let it sit in my head for a few days before I try to write a better review.

Die Depression ist wie ein ungebetener Gast, den man nicht einfach raus werfen kann. In diesem Buch erscheint die Depression in Form von Black Pat, einem riesenhaften Hund. Er setzt seinen "Besitzern" arg zu und man wünscht sich, der Gast möge doch endlich das sonst so sichere Heim verlassen. Eine kurzweilige Geschichte, nicht nur für Betroffene sondern auch Angehörige oder schlicht Interessierte.