The Hair of Harold Roux: A Novel

By Thomas Williams

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.

"Williams's novel is terrific: it is sweet, funny and sexy ... Williams is an accomplished magician."-Newsweek

"Everywhere the language flows from the purest vernacular to the elevations demanded by distilled perception. Our largest sympathies are roused, tormented and consoled."-Washington Post Book World

"A wonderfully old-fashioned writer ... that dinosaur among contemporary writers of fiction, an actual storyteller."-John Irving

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Release date: Jun 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781608197286

Thomas Williams

Thomas Williams was a curator of the major international exhibition Vikings: Life and Legend in 2014 and is now Curator of Early Medieval Coins at the British Museum. He undertook doctoral research at University College London and has taught and lectured in history and archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews for The Hair of Harold Roux

[dogberryjr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are books out there that serve to remind us how many books we haven't yet read, and this is one of them. Closing the book, I realized that I now had another author I would need to explore further. The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams was first published in the 1970s and returns decades later as fresh as if written today. Williams succeeds in writing the novel-within-the-novel without seeming solipsistic or overtly navel gazing. Credit Williams' clear writing for the reader being able to follow a number of different story lines without confusion.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful book! The author has used stories nested within stories to create a marvelous portrait of his protagonist: Aaron Benham is a university professor in the 1970s, writing about college students in the 1940s. As the stories progress, the we explore themes of love, friendship and loyalty. Beautifully written and crafted. Excellent characters who will stay with you, and a story that resonates.

[lmgrim · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While I'm not a particularly slow reader, it took me a very long time to read this book. The reason? Partly I didn't want the story(ies) to end, but mostly I was savoring the language. The description of a long, overnight motorcycle ride and a detailed catalog of tools in a workroom are amazing. Thomas Williams captures the feel of the time (early nineteen seventies, mid-nineteen forties) in a way that reminds me of Richard Yates. It's a real shame that more people don't know this book. His characters are complexly drawn, their voices pitch perfect. The Hair of Harold Roux should be read by any aspiring writer.

[rosecityreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thomas Williams won the 1975 National Book Award for The Hair of Harold Roux, a novel within a novel about balancing a writer's creative impulse with the domestic needs of family life. Specifically, Williams wrote a novel about a college professor writing a novel about a college student writing a novel about a man who wrote a novel. It sounds more confusing than it is. Williams uses this nested structure to ponder big issues like love, fame, violence, responsibility, and madness, and fills in the spaces with anecdote, humor, and astute observations.

[griff_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Story within story within story. So many layers, so many opportunities to confuse and frustrate, yet Williams manages to be piercingly clear while he delights. Simultaneously a coming of age story and a retrospective view from middle-age that is filled with elements of regret and cynicism.Aaron Benham, university professor and author, is struggling to write his latest novel while he also struggles to make sense of his current life. The novel unfolds before our eyes, a story seemingly based on events in Aaron's early life. Williams' novel takes its name from a physicial attribute of a character in Benham's novel, one Harold Roux. Harold, most confident and comfortable while briefly living in Lilliputown, an illusion filled creation of his eccentric landlord couple, has his world view and self image shattered, while Benham's alter ego (Allard Benson) moves deftly from his novel to become a springboard for Benham's reflections on his life, marriage, family, and career.This novel won the National Book Award in 1975, deservedly so. There are many passages I took time to read multiple times, to mark down, to share with friends. It is a book well worth reading - and well worth the current re-publication.

[handy1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You have to admire the intricate construction of this layered novel of nested stories which confirms a long held suspicion that writers are well-served by the mining of their own lives. Happily, the author does not rely on clever devise alone, as the writing is strong, with well-drawn, believable characters struggling with life's challenges. The story-within-a-story design allows the author to explore the various themes from a multitude of perspectives, deepening the narrative. In less deft hands, this novel could easily have become muddied and confused, but Thomas Williams has a firm hold of his reins throughout.

[osbaldistone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

[this review is of the Bloomsbury USA 2011 reprint edition, as part of the LT Early Reviewers program]A book that certainly deserves to be back in print. With a deft hand, Thomas Williams gives us a story of a writer giving us a story; weaving story on story until the reader is happily lost in the layers. In these pages is childhood, youth, coming-of-age, adulthood, responsibility, recklessness, struggles to keep things from changing, struggles to move on, and struggles to make the world live up to our dreams. If I started to describe the stories, I'd never stop writing. William's is a master craftsman and this work left me with that rare but delicious sense of coming out of a dream that, for me, marks the best of fiction. Thank you Bloomsbury for bringing this back, and for giving us the brilliant afterword by WIliams' daughter, author Ann Joslin Williams.Os.

[sean191 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thank you early review program! If you've never heard of Thomas Williams, you're not alone. Although his novel won the National Book Award years ago, he seems to have passed into obscurity in the years following his death. Fortunately, someone realized what the world was missing and at least this book is back in print. Even though it's outlandish, everything in it seems possible. The characters are bigger than life, yet believable. The story (or stories) are compelling and the writing is masterful. I will be tracking down other works from Williams (even if they're out of print) if they come close to measuring up, the effort will be well worth it.

[readaholic12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thomas Williams wrote his National Book Award winning novel The Hair of Harold Roux decades ago, yet it remains a richly fascinating and relevant work of literature today. There are stories within stories, 5 in all, woven together to create a ponderous exploration of life's struggles and mysteries. From the opening sentence - Aaron Benham sits at his desk hearing the wrong voices. - to the touching afterword written by his daughter, this book was captivating. There were so many intricate details to absorb, words and ideas to ponder, character motivations to analyze, fictions versus realities to discern, symbols of warm fires and the chill of absolute zero, twists of fate and luck, all written by a master. I took pages of notes as I read, not so much to help me write a review as to help me remember the unique and meaningful prose.I was often reminded of the rich detail and style of John Irving, and was not surprised to learn he was a former student and friend of Williams. Thomas Williams never achieved Irving's commercial success in his lifetime, but based on this work, he should have. This is a highly recommended, well written novel.

[stevesmits · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book won the National Book Award in 1975, but has largely been forgotten since,a shame for it's an excellent novel thankfully now being reissued. It is a complex, multi-layered work that touches on many themes that despite the nearly forty years since first published are still evocative (true, I suppose, of all significant works of fiction). Aaron Benham is an English professor at a New England college and an author struggling to focus on a novel he's writing. As he goes through two days of angst he tells in increasing detail the story of Allard Benson, a WWII veteran attending college on the GI Bill. Benson aspires to be a writer as does his friend, Harold Roux. Harold, also a vet, is distinguised by his obvious toupee and his diffident, priggish manner. The story of Benson, Roux, and their classmates, especially the two women Benson is seeing is Benham's retelling of his college days. In his current life, Benham is continually drawn away from writing by somewhat self-imposed interruptions such as his attention to a colleague struggling to complete his doctoral dissertation to avoid being canned from his teaching post. His fascination with "other" women though more constrained than Benson's is still possesses him.The novel speaks to the creative process, to memory and its reconstruction, to finding one's identity, to relations between the genders and much more. The power of stories in our lives to define us and our connections with others is a key message Williams conveys and he does so with impressive skill and subtely.Why has this novel of such richness become obscure? It's hard to understand, although William's death in 1990 might have dropped him from public literary consciousness. It is admirable that a publishing house has chosen to reacquaint us with this fine work. Do not anticipate a light read, but it's worth your time to discover this excellent novel.

[faceinbook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In reissuing the novel "The Hair of Harold Roux" publishers have answered a question I've been asking for quite some time, "Which books, published during my life time, will become the classics of the future ?"We have our shelves of beloved classics, books that have stood the test of time and surely some of what we read today will endure.The Hair of Harold Roux is one such title. Written in the 1970s the subject matter is as relevant today as it was when it was first published.The story within a story concept was intriguing and because I have a passion for fiction, the subject matter was even more so. Williams gave a little insight into the mind of a novelist and a much greater appreciation for the "truth" within the fictional stories that we read and love.I have great appreciation for the publishers who make the effort to bring us great literature from the recent past, books we may have missed but are important pieces of writing none the less.Take the time....read this book. It is a wonderful story and will no doubt endure the test of time....this title will be around for a long time.

[mclane_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

THE HAIR OF HAROLD ROUX by Thomas Williams was first published in 1974, and won the National Book Award for fiction in 1975. It has been republished this year by Bloomsbury USA with an introduction by Andre Dubos III and an afterword by novelist Ann Joslin Williams, the author's daughter. It is an excellent choice for republication, for it is a fine novel which needs to be brought to a new generation of readers. By writing this novel, Williams becomes an author writing about an author writing about an author and the friends of those authors and all their lives and stories and how they influence one another. Although the novel has many varied incidents, and a rich cast of characters, both "real" and "fictional", it is basically a reflection on the writing process and on how authors, particularly novelists, use their own histories, friends and families as grist for their work. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in this process, as well as in an excellent novel about writers, scholars and teachers.

[samfsmith_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Harold Roux is a minor character in this re-printing of a literary novel from 1974, but he and his hair stand as a symbol for what happens to the major characters. Harold is bald, at 24, and desperately hiding that fact with a bad toupee. He is intent and learning and embracing the finer, higher, things in life, but is assaulted on all sides by the other young WWII veterans at college. Ultimately Harold loses his toupee, and and is violated and assaulted to the point that he flees.He is a symbol, of course, for what happens to the Catholic virgin freshman Mary, and to some extent all the other characters. The book is a strange mix of novel-within-novel. At the top level is Aaron Benham, writing a novel – “The Hair of Harold Roux”, about Allard Benson, himself a writer and friend of Harold Roux, who is also writing a novel. All these fictional worlds collide and mirror each other. It’s clear that Aaron Benham is chronicling his own life as he writes, which makes the reader wonder if the real author, Thomas Williams, is doing the same with the entire complex construction of stories within stories.It’s a reprint of a novel that first appeared in 1974 and which won the National Book Award, deservedly brought back to life. Warning: there are some really nasty jokes and smutty incidents – typical of college humor, but which may be highly offensive and shocking to some readers.

[oregonreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First published in 1974, The Hair of Harold Roux won the National Book Award in 1975. I had never heard of Williams and feel like I’ve just made a great discovery. Williams is an amazing story teller and this novel is layered with story within story, each one as interesting and compelling as the others.The narrator is Aaron Benson, academic and author, struggling to write a novel of his youth. He is married with two children and while he loves them and sees his need for them, he seems incapable of focusing on them and giving them the attention they need. He is struggling with his novel, working to recreate an unpleasant time in his life. The main character in his novel is Allard Benson, at university after time spent in the military during WWII. He is clearly based on the young Aaron. Aaron does not romanticize his young self and looks at him with the same analytical knife that he uses to consider his current life. Allard meets Harold Roux, also in school after the war, who acts as Allard’s moral compass. Roux has high standards, is highly principled, and naïve. He has one weakness, his hair, which affects his entire experience at school. Both love Mary Tolliver, a beautiful, young student. Harold sees her as perfection, pure and to be protected. Allard also is drawn to her great beauty and sets out single-mindedly to win her. Allard is basically so self-centered that while he might be drawn to friends, and tells himself he loves Mary, all his actions are directed toward the goal of getting what he wants. He wants Mary but plans to change her to be more like him. There is a lack of empathy in him; he might see that he is causing pain but that is something he observes and doesn’t really change anything for him. The final disaster of the novel within the novel is a result of his inattention to what is going on with the people around him.Ultimately, the novel is about time, how we pass through it, carry experiences forward through it, and how eventually all our friends and family move away from us in their passage. A wonderful book.

[boobalack · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book written by Thomas Williams about Aaron Benham, a college professor who is writing a novel apparently based on his own life and is already a published author. Aaron is writing about Allard Benson, who dabbles in novel-writing and hopes someday to be a published author, and his friends, among whom is Harold Roux. Harold is writing a novel apparently based on his own life. Are you confused, yet? Don’t worry. So was I, but it was only a small while before I had all the characters sorted in my mind. By the way, the title is taken from the toupee worn by guess who. Right! I am left to wonder if the character by the name of Aaron Benham, except for his being a college professor, is based on the man by the name of Thomas Williams, a novel-writer who has been published. Unfortunately, Mr. Williams is no longer among the living, so I cannot ask him. About half of the people in the book by Allard Benson are military veterans going to college on the GI Bill. Some of the veterans are cruel and delight in causing trouble. One of their favorite things to do is to pick on persons who are not as strong as they are. Harold Roux is one of them. He eventually moves off-campus to get away from them.This book explores the fantasy life of several of its characters, along with various characters’ real life – well, as real as it can be in a work of fiction. Aaron Benham has a wife and two children. He adores his children and loves his wife, but they, as do most couples, have some rough spots in their relationship. He lusts after almost every woman in his life, even his best friend’s wife, but has remained physically faithful to his wife. She suspects his feelings and does not like them. He seems to have had college experiences similar to those of Allard Benson. He has made up a story, which he tells to his children quite often a chapter at a time over a period of several nights. They know the story so well, they will not let him change it. I think this story was about as good as the rest of the book. Allard Benson is several years older than your average college freshman, as he has been away at war. He is having a hot affair with a girl/woman and begins to fantasize about her roommate, an innocent eighteen-year-old girl named Mary. She is very religious, and he works slowly, gently and deliberately to seduce her. Naturally she falls for it. Sigh. He seems to think at times that he loves her and wants to marry her, yet he keeps drifting back to her roommate. I’m not so sure Mary is quite as innocent as she appears in one way. True, she wasn’t promiscuous, but I’d be willing to bet she was secretly glad to fall for Allard’s line. At any rate, she certainly seemed to enjoy “sinning” with him.Harold Roux loves Mary. He shows Allard his attempt at novel-writing. Allard realizes that the story here is about Harold and Mary, but he doesn’t mention this to Harold. Instead he gives Harold his honest opinion that the story is a tad juvenile. This was also my opinion of Harold’s book. Harold comes to hate Allard because he hates the way Mary is acting about and with him, and he wants to protect Mary – from her self as much as from Allard. Poor Harold.The people of the various books and stories contained in the main book have lives which are intertwined and very complicated. But it is because of the talent of Mr. Williams that one is able to follow all of it without much trouble.The Hair of Harold Roux was originally published in 1966 and was out of print for years. Some wise person decided it needed another introduction to readers and it was reissued in 2011, this year, thus the inclusion in ‘Early Reviewers’ by Library Thing. For that I am glad.Even though this book was written forty-five years ago, it is relevant today. Not much is different today, but one would probably find it very difficult to find a college student as naive as Mary, and the college drug of choice is probably no longer alcohol. Many veterans still attend college after coming home from war. Things do change in time, just not that much.The book ended rather abruptly and left some loose ends, but that’s a good thing. I enjoy books that don’t wrap up everything and tie it with a ribbon. My imagination does a pretty good job of deciding what happened after the last page has been read.This book was an easy read and was entertaining and pretty realistic. I would recommend it to anyone.

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In The Hair of Harold Roux a professor and writer on sabbatical, Aaron Benham, is home alone for three days and assesses his life while writing a novel. Thomas Williams uses the device of having Benham forget a planned family trip. Consequently his wife and two children attend her parent’s out of town anniversary celebration without him. Solitary, Benson drinks a lot, comforts a colleague about to lose his job because he has failed to complete his dissertation, crashes his motorcycle, visits an old girlfriend, and betrays his colleague in a meeting. He even manages to write a little.Benham’s closely autobiographical character, Allard Benson, is studying on the G.I. Bill. Self described as “a cherub’s face, a reptile all the rest,” Benson spends most of his college time stringing along Mary, a devout catholic, while seeing her campus radical roommate Naomi on the side. Balding, serious minded Harold Roux is the conscience of the story and is Benson’s foil. The manipulative Benson eventually learns that “power that never damages the object it is used upon! That is the gift!” Benham learns this also, from writing it. Winner of The National Book Award in 1975, The Hair of Harold Roux is a thoughtful story of regret and resilience. An introduction by Andre Dubus III and an afterward by Thomas Williams’ daughter, Ann Joslin Williams, puts Williams’ writing and life in a richer perspective.

[steventx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When an author writes a novel about an author writing a novel about an author writing a novel... it isn't surprising that the principal theme of the work is how we shape the events of our lives into stories, and how we attempt to reshape the truth about ourselves. Aaron Benham is an English professor at the University of New Hampshire. He has been granted a year's leave to write a novel which he will title The Hair of Harold Roux. Over the two day span in which the story takes place, however, Aaron is beset by crises and distractions, some of his own making. His friendships, his professional integrity, his family ties, and his marital fidelity are all tested. Many of these conflicts are echoed in the novel he is composing.In the novel within a novel we meet Harold Roux. Harold is a discharged serviceman after World War II who has, with many of his fellows, gone to college on the G.I. Bill. His acute insecurity isn't helped by the fact that he has gone prematurely bald. When he buys a hairpiece, Harold unwittingly only makes things worse, as he lives in terror that someone will discover his secret. But, still, he manages to fall in love with the agonizingly beautiful Mary Tolliver. It soon emerges, however, that the principal character in this drama is not Harold Roux, but his friend Allard Benson, the obvious alter ego for Aaron Benham. Both Harold and Allard are English majors at the University of New Hampshire and aspiring novelists. Before long, however, Allard puts his friendship with Harold at risk by falling in love with Mary Tolliver, and his relations with Mary in peril by having a simultaneous affair with Mary's roommate, Naomi Goldman. There are other stories within stories in this novel, all beautifully meshed to portray and reflect upon Aaron's mining and reworking of his own feelings and memories for the prose he writes. In one of the embedded stories, yet another Aaron Benham alter ego asserts, "We use each other, the materials of reality, our experiences, everything.... I will use [him] and all the rest for my own purposes, use them coldly and without mercy, more coldly than their own warm needful selves could ever understand." But Aaron's bitter realization is that he cannot manipulate his own reality quite so coldly and mercilessly.The Hair of Harold Roux won the National Book Award in 1975. If you like the writings of J. D. Salinger, John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth, then you will probably appreciate this novel by Thomas Williams.