The Book of Harold
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“Only Owen Egerton can create a new religion around a former computer salesman and make you want to up and take a pilgrimage to Austin with the rest of the Haroldians. Egerton has the gift of walking that fine line between hilarity and heart with grace. Follow.” — Elizabeth Crane
The Book of Haroldis as profound and deeply respectful a novel as it is irreverent in its wild, often hilarious take on a modern messianic movement. The titular hero of this masterful satire is Harold Peeks, a quirky middle-aged suburbanite living a lonely if typical modern life in the outskirts of Houston, Texas. His world feels bland and pointless until one evening at a mundane office party he announces to his stunned co-workers that he is the Second Coming of Christ. Oddly enough, people start to believe him.
Blake Waterson, Harold’s closest friend and narrator of the novel, is as skeptical as anyone of this disheveled and disconcertingly bawdy Savior and yet this would-be Judas is compelled to follow Harold on his two hundred mile walking journey to Austin with a mismatched group of equally puzzled disciples. On the road this motley crew of witnesses to the holy get to experience misguided converts, violent possums, and the ungrateful recipients of off-kilter healings. They also discover the inherent paradoxes, humor, and dangers within spirituality.
Throughout The Book Of Harold, Egerton gives us glimpses into a very plausible future and makes the formalized, often ridiculous religious rites that grow out of the adventures of these unlikely pilgrims seem more than possible. Iced sherbet becomes a sacrament, a misquote becomes scripture, and Waffle Houses everywhere are declared holy ground. Even as the reader laughs, there is a disquieting truth to both the absurdity and the longing of the human heart. Quite unlike any gospel ever written, this darkly comic novel simultaneously satirizes religion and explores faith, revealing a world full of wonder, beauty, murder, betrayal, and, above all, humanity.
Owen Egerton authored the short story collection How Best to Avoid Dying (Dalton Publishing 2006) and the novel Marshall Hollenzer is Driving (iUniverse 2000). Based on these books, Egerton was voted Austin’s favorite author in 2007 and 2008 by readers of the Austin Chronicle. His writing has been featured in American Short Fiction, Puerto del Sol, Killing the Buddha, Tiferet, Word Riot, and elsewhere.
Egerton co-wrote the irreverent Dadlabs Guide to Fatherhood: Pregnancy and Year One (Quirk Publishing 2009) as well as a series of award winning Web videos found at Dadlabs.com. He has also written several comedy screenplays including Bobbie Sue (Warner Brothers) and Henchmen (MRC).
A reoccurring commentator on NPR stations, Egerton was co-creator of the award winning comedy hit The Sinus Show at the Alamo Drafthouse Theater, and for several years was the artistic director of Austin’s National Comedy Theatre.
Praise for The Book of Harold
I love every word that Owen Egerton writes or utters and “The Book of Harold” bumps my admiration up to a new level. It takes a brave author to attempt satire these days. But it takes Owen Egerton to make it the wise, hilarious, finely-observed, and, ultimately, compassionate ring-tailed delight that “The Book of Harold” is. -Sarah Bird
Only Owen Egerton can create a new religion around a former computer salesman and make you want to up and take a pilgrimage to Austin with the rest of the Haroldians. Egerton has the gift of walking that fine line between hilarity and heart with grace. Follow. -Elizabeth Crane
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