Rogue Male
by Geoffrey Household
Nomination: National Book Finalist 1939
Date Read: June 10, 2021
Rogue Male appeared to me a rough-and-tumble book about a hunter mistaken for an assassin and then spends the next year on the run. And it is just that. This rollicking journey is well-told and while I typically don’t go in for those types of stories, I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller/adventure novel. I further appreciates that Household avoids gruesome details but simply alludes to the tortures this poor man endures. He provides the terror without the nightmare.
The beginnings remind me of Lord Grizzly where he drags himself across the plains after a bear attack. Our male hero, who is never named, endures much the same fate after falling off a cliff. Those who put him on that cliff had hoped the fall would end him but he was able to scurry off on his belly like a snake and ever so slowly recover from that terrible fall.
Our hero runs so far and wide and long that after a time I couldn’t help but wonder if giving himself up would be preferable. The circumstances of his life were not just unpleasant, they were unbearable. Particularly when he was trapped in the den in the heath.
Towards the end do we learn that he really did intend to kill the diplomat of which he was accused and that his motive was revenge for the loss of a love. Possibly the most noble of revenge stories. But his failure in killing that man set off a chain of circumstances that could not be anticipated, including the loss of two lives in the course of his survival. Our man was creative, resourceful, intelligent and ultimately successful in eluding those who wished to capture him.
“…the Almighty looks after the rogue male.”
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