Mr. Toppit by Charles Elton is about the fallout of being the inspiration for a famous fictional character. Loosely based on the life of Christopher Milne and his fictional counterpart in the Winnie the Pooh books, this book follows the life and times of Luke Hayman after the death of his author father and the ways in which he can't escape being compared to his father's creation, Luke Hayseed.

The book is told from multiple points of view, namely, Luke, an American who brings the Hayseed books to California (and inadvertently makes them world famous), Luke's troubled sister who wants to know why she was never included in the books. The events of Luke's life and the explosion of his alter ego's rise in fame come out of order, though there is somewhat of a progression forward in time. This mixture of points of view and moments in time make for an unnecessarily confusing narrative.

When I read the book, I was unaware of the author's work with the Milne estate but the similarity to Christopher Milne's life is unmistakable. That said, knowing now about that connection, I find myself less pleased with the added drama (namely Arthur's violent death and the American making posthumous fame possible). These elements don't ring true and in light of the source material, there is already enough there to make a compelling character study while still being fictional. ( )

I was initially attracted to this book by its tagline, that it is a book about how a book broke a family. The summary on the back tells about a book like those about Narnia, written by an author who is also a father and husband.
That writer is Arthur Hayman, who has written a couple of books about Luke Hayseed (named after his own son Luke), and his adventures in the Darkwood behind their house with the mysterious and elusive Mr. Toppit. Arthur is hit by a car while in London. The first one on the scene to comfort him is Laurie, an overweight American woman looking for direction in her life and has come to London on holiday. She follows him to hospital and alerts his wife. When Arthur dies she joins the family in their house in the country. Arthur is buried by his wife Martha, his daughter Rachel and younger son Luke. The rest of the book follows the four survivors for the next decade, and the influence, both for the good and for the bad, that the Hayseed Chronicles have on their lives. Luke has to live with not being the Luke from the books. Laurie grabs the books to give her life purpose. Martha wrestles control of the books back from the publisher who first published them. And Rachel has to deal with not being in the books at all.
The idea of the story sounded good, and the story is not bad per se. But it doesn't seem to flow right. The start of the book is pretty slow, and then suddenly a lot of events and consequences get lumped together in quick succession. It is a nice read, but I can't help but feel that Elton could have done so much more with his ideas. Three out of five stars. ( )

I was intrigued by the blurb on the back cover ('... jangly with secrets'), but the secrets were pretty few and far between. I couldn't warm to any of the characters apart from the main narrator, Luke, and I wanted the book to end for all the wrong reasons. In my opinion there was virtually no character progression there, and instead the reader gets treated to lots of incidental, irrelevant and distracting background for some of the minor players, including a Round Robin letter from Laurie's radio station boss-turned-manager. The author does make the occasional valid, thought-provoking point, and Luke's voice is suitably wry and dead-pan to raise the occasional smile, but those are not enough to save the book. One for the charity shop, I'm afraid. ( )

On the whole it's bit of a slog and yet there are some parts that grab hold of you and keep hold of you but then... not long afterwards... along comes another slog ( )

I could only sustain a mild interest in this convoluted tale. It concerns the life of Luke Hayman, whose life is forever defined by the character of Luke Hayseed--the child hero his father wrote about in "The Hayseed Chronicles", which gradually becomes a bestselling series of children's books. Luke's father dies in an accident when he is a teenager, and his family is plunged into chaos. His sister roams the world and eventually suffers a total mental breakdown. His mother retreats from the world. And a family friend, who was present at his father's death, takes her connection to the family and creates hew own fame and fortune. Behind it all is the speculation about what "Mr. Toppit"--the dark, shadowing "evil" character of the book--is meant to represent.
While some may enjoy the mirror this book holds up to modern society, it just seemed to drag on as listened to it. I never felt that attached to any of the characters, and I don't even recall much about how it was all resolved. It may be a great read for someone else who enjoys reflective stories with a British connection. ( )