num_pages: 383
description: In 1975 the National Book Award Fiction Prize was awarded to two writers: Robert Stone and Thomas Williams. Yet only Stone's Dog Soldiers is still remembered today. That oversight is startling when considering the literary impact of The Hair of Harold Roux. A dazzlingly crafted novel-within-a-novel hailed as a masterpiece it deserves a new generation of readers. In The Hair of Harold Roux we are introduced to Aaron Benham: college professor writer husband and father. Aaron-when he can focus-is at work on a novel The Hair of Harold Roux a thinly disguised autobiographical account of his college days. In Aaron's novel his alter ego Allard Benson courts a young woman despite the efforts of his rival the earnest and balding Harold Roux-a GI recently returned from World War II with an unfortunate hairpiece. What unfolds through Aaron's mind his past and present and his nested narratives is a fascinating exploration of sex and friendship responsibility and regret youth and middle age and the essential fictions that see us through.
language: English
title: The Hair of Harold Roux
publisher: Bloomsbury USA