Book Reviews

[Theli]

I know you just watched it. It is quite solid, but I prefer the book by quite a bit, which isn't unusual I guess. Oddly enough though, I prefer Double Indemnity the movie to the Cain novel *shrug*. Pretty rare, for me at any rate.

[RonClinton]

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE is one of my top three books of all time. Congratulations on the beautiful edition. I have the cheaper, but still leather with gold gilt, edition from, I believe, Franklin Library. I've upgraded the book a bit, though, by laying in a signed postcard by Cain. :-)

[Theli]

^That's damn cool!

[bugen]

Yeah, I'd call that an upgrade. Nice!

[srboone]

Easton Press books are top-notch. Great catch!

[c marvel]

I just finished reading Carnival of Fear and I was quite disappointed with this book. I found at least one character description to be very disturbing. While the plot is sound I noticed more than a few times a word was left out of a sentence. I can not give Carnival of Fear a good review.


Cap

[bugen]

In the age of science there lived a small boy, trapped in the body of an oafish man. The boy read like a wolf howls, like a moon beams, but one day his attention was caught by another interest, as so often happens with small boys.

The boy went on an epic quest through film noir, spanning many great masterworks, before he neared the end and felt it wise to stretch out the remaining, curated titles. For while this was a prodigious period in Hollywood, there are only so many artistic masterpieces allowed in the world at any given time.

So the boy set his film collection aside and returned to his one, true love: magic.

Blind Voices – Tom Reamy

“Let them enjoy each other for a while. Let him be happy before he has to battle for our lives.”

Told from a few different perspectives, the most delightful of which are two youngsters, wonder in the their eyes and mischief in their hearts, a traveling circus visits a small town in Kansas and disrupts the lives of its inhabitants. Mr. Haverstock runs a freak show, but the exotic creatures are so real and the show so spectacular that some believe there’s actual wizardry at work.

A second key perspective is that of Evelyn, an 18 year old girl who’s grappling with life decisions such as the choice between arranged marriage or the shrinking possibility of college. Evelyn develops a crush on one of the performers at the same time her more sexually promiscuous friends are entertaining others, and over a few short days the circus has taken over the waking lives of nearly everyone. When one of the performers is unable to control his urges, things go south quickly.

Despite the implications of a childlike experience with a traveling circus, the book is decidedly adult, featuring a little sex and occasional bouts of strong violence. Much of Blind Voices is coming-of-age fantasy, but it’s got roots in the horror world as well.

The book was published after Mr. Reamy’s death. There's speculation it wasn't quite finished, and it’s true the book may have benefited from additional polish, but the story is there as is the evocation of wonder. The relatively short novel gets a little dark in a few sections, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Most importantly, it successfully transports the reader through time and space, not just giving you the circus, but giving you back that span of life where such things were the stuff of creation itself.

We’re all adults here, which means the magic died for us long ago. When we left the infinite realms to burden ourselves with adult responsibilities, the trade was permanent. Sometimes, we can very nearly brush up against the ancient world and almost remember. Should you choose to reach for that indefinable starburst that left forever the day you payed your first bill, you may rest assured the cold, grey world will be waiting for you when you return.

If you return.

4+ stars

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[Brian861]

Nice looking book.

[Theli]

Great review, it sounds interesting. Looks like a great edition too.

[RonClinton]

Great review as always. I debated about this one for sooo long...I've meant to read it for years and years, and then this new deluxe edition appeared...it sure made me stop and consider it (as does -- again -- your review). It didn't hit my budget right at the time, though, so I ended up passing, thinking I'll just pick up a 1st ed HC on eBay for cheap (have seen several for ten bucks or so). But I never did, and it's because I want *this* very striking PS edition. I hope to pick it up at a deal on the secondary market, so with a bit of luck I'll have it soon, too.

[bugen]

Thanks, guys. PS did a great job with this one--it's definitely among my favorites from them. I don't read as many limited editions as I should, too often going for electronic versions out of portability and convenience, but this book was a real pleasure.

[bugen]

Nightmare Alley - William Lindsay Gresham

“I've given ‘em mentalism and they treat it like a dog walking on his hind legs. Okay. They're asking for it. Here it comes.“

As a young man, Stan finds himself joining a carnival. He begins learning the ropes of selecting marks, prying money from their hands, and finds himself a natural at it. He rises to fame, conning everyone around him, and quits the carnival life to set up his own business as a spiritualist. Betraying his friends and lovers and constantly trading up as a way of life, his skill at separating a fool from his money continues to increase to the point he’s ready to take on that final, major score that will set him up permanently.

Not only does this story wind through the underbelly of the circus, exposing all the dirt and grime you find whenever you look at anything too closely, it finely details human greed, human gullibility and the human need to reach past what we know to be true—to hope.

“Folks are always crazy to have their fortunes told, and what the hell—You cheer ‘em up, give ‘em something to wish and hope for. That’s all the preacher does every Sunday. Not much different, being a fortune-teller and a preacher, way I look at it. Everybody hopes for the best and fears the worst and the worst is generally what happens but that don't stop us from hoping.”

We hope there’s more than what we see, something better, and we put our lives into it. The Washington Times has a 2012 article citing research that 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religion. Some figures go as high as 9 in 10, and if that’s not proof of the human need to hope, nothing is.

We devour ourselves and each other, as Nightmare Alley demonstrates with its floodlight narrative, and most of us hope to make it to the point where that no longer happens. It’s a worthy goal, something to reach for. Something to reach for here.

Near the end of the story, as our anti-hero is lamenting his fate, philosophical concepts arise that not only directly challenge Higher Power concepts, but between the lines they demand we take a little responsibility for ourselves and not foist our troubles off on the mystical.

“But the purpose back of it all—why are we put here?”
“Way I look at it, we ain’t put. We growed.”
“But what started the whole stinking mess?”
“Didn’t have to start. It’s always been doing business.”

This is a real argument out there in the world today. Some say God created the universe, and He (She/It) was always there. But if we’re going to consider a stretching concept such as He always existed, isn’t a bit less of a stretch to consider the concept that the universe itself always existed? Doesn’t this second idea fit in nicely with current, known universal laws, such as matter can neither be created nor destroyed? The universe is expanding outward, but gravity says we’ll contract someday, then expand out again in another Bang. Wouldn’t that, poetically almost, illustrate the constantly recurring theme of the circular, looping nature of time itself?

It’s deep stuff, fit for the religious, psychologists, philosophers, scientists, bartenders and stoners. And let’s not forget readers, who possess many of the characteristics of all of these.

Nightmare Alley is a journey through the life of a man with few scruples, so it can be a cautionary tale. It exposes weakness in pretty much everyone, so it’s a perfect example of cynical, noir storytelling. Even within known reality, it descends to terrifying depths; so it’s horror as well. While there’s a ton of philosophy between the lines, and you could pick it apart just for that, it’s also a razor-honed slice of life from planet Earth. When the aliens visit one day, wondering about the previous inhabitants, they'll read this book and shudder. And probably leave.

As for the big questions, I don’t know; I just live here. Over and over again, apparently.

See you next time.

5 stars


“There is no weapon you can use against malicious envy except the confidence in your way of life as the moral and righteous one, no matter what the envious say.”


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[Theli]

Wonderful review! And interesting thoughts on belief, I pretty much agree.

[bugen]

Thanks, brother. Touchy subject!

This was a dangerously brilliant book, and I'm looking forward to watching the film.

[TacomaDiver]

This is in my ever growing to be read like. Not sure how I came across it but I tracked this (and his short story collection, also from Centipede) down.

It might move up in line after this review - thank you. (It'll move even faster if I can figure out if it fits into my Read Harder challenge.)

Thanks, brother. Touchy subject!

This was a dangerously brilliant book, and I'm looking forward to watching the film.