Book Review: Grendel by John Gardner

What if Holden Caulfield was a monster?

That's the major theme of John Gardner's Grendel, which tells the tale of Beowulf but from the monster's point of view.

Grendel is great at pointing out the flaws in everything. He laughs at the hypocrisy of mankind, needles the underground monster society he comes from, offers scathing analysis of King Hrothgar's society. Everything is stupid and annoying him and doomed to failure.

So what does Grendel do about it? Mostly complain, while occasionally bursting into Hrothgar's meadhall to kill and eat a few people (what's a monster supposed to do?).

Gardner uses the mythical setting to really drill down to that most useless of people - those that complain incessantly about the dire state of the world, while not only doing nothing to try to inject some goodness into their society, but also continuing to contribute to that darkness under the guise of "everyone's doing it" or "what do you want me to do?".

When the Geats fimally land on the beach at the end of the book, Grendel clearly sees Beowulf (unnamed in the book) and recognizes that his bill has come due - he vows to fight it, but understands that his destiny is just around the corner. So it usually goes for those who do nothing to make things better.

Nine out of ten hot dogs.