A Pleasure and a Calling
Phil Hogan
Picador
January, 2015
Reviewed by Josh Black
Mr. William Heming, an unassuming real estate agent, is a man who leads two lives (though this is something he would eloquently argue against). He’s a quiet kind of guy, professional, and good at his job. He also keeps a copy of the key to every house he sells, amassing a town-wide collection of lives to study and places to stay when the owners aren’t around. Sometimes he stays even when they are.
In this town, his town, Heming moves people in and covertly drives people out according to his own idea of what makes an ideal community. One day, however, a simple act of revenge against an arrogant man sets off a chain of events that threatens Heming’s precious invisibility and freedom. Murder, twisted romance, and cat-and-mouse games ensue.
It’s a chilling premise, and one that A Pleasure and a Calling more than lives up to. The story is told in first-person the whole way through, making the reader privy to nearly every dark path Heming goes down in both thought and action. Some sections of the novel deal with Heming’s childhood and young adulthood, and although they give an often disturbing glimpse into how he turned out the way he did, they stay away from the why of it. He’s affable enough in his own way, but sometimes the cracks in his facade start to show. He seems to have roughly the same emotions as most people, but the connections between them are twisted out of their ordinary shape. When it comes down to it he’s simply Other, an enigma, almost a force of nature at times. He’s one of the most intriguing literary figures to come along in a long while.
There are a lot of things here that make for an uncomfortable read, including some bizarre yet understated sexual undertones, and the obvious invasion of privacy that Heming sees as the only way to live a fulfilling life. Perhaps most uncomfortable is the realization that, in the tenser moments, when he’s most in danger of being caught, we’re still behind Heming all the way. Despite everything, he’s distressingly easy to root for. It’s the mark of Phil Hogan’s skill as a writer that the hero and villain are one and the same, and it feels perfectly natural.
A Pleasure and a Calling is a well-paced, atmospheric, and absorbing novel that brings to mind classic mystery stories while still feeling fresh. Its twists and turns, whether subtle or otherwise, make for a thrilling read, and one you won’t soon forget. Recommended.
