What are you reading? — Page 55

Lee, Edward - Operator “B”

Not bad SciFi thriller finds retiring test pilot offered a final gig.
A mission involving the highly experimental craft.
Novella is strewn with aeronautical and military jargon. No idea if any is accurate or if Mr. Lee is letting his imagination run wild. It works, though.
Like I said, not bad. Alright way to spend an hour.
What is bad is how Lee spends so much of his efforts in Horror where he is a mid tier writer.

Bukowski, Charles - Hot Water Music

Chinaski attends the reading by a rival poet, untalented yet wildly popular. One masterpiece proceeds:

“East of the Suez of my heart
begins a buzzing, buzzing, buzzing
sombre still, still sombre
and suddenly Summer comes home
straight on through like a
Quarterback sneak on the one yard line
of my heart!”

Thirty plus stories from 1983. The majority are funny, though often fading at the end like a drunk passing out.
Chances encounters in the cheap bar. Arguments over breakfast. Fistfights in the alley
Winning on the horses, losing everything. Wading from one stinking cesspool of a job to another.
How hard does your own life blow, loser?

Oliphant, Margaret - The Library Window

The young girl is recuperating at her Aunt Mary’s in Edinburgh.
While we are never directly told what her ailment is, in time one might infer it is a nervous condition. Overwrought emotions necessitating peace and quiet. Or a change of scenery.
Aunt Mary and her friends are older, a merry lot, and while the young woman overhears conversations, she refuses to be drawn in.
Besides, she is preoccupied with staring at the window across the street.
As summer days lengthen, she begins to discern the interior of the room across the way. Furniture, paintings, bookshelves packed with volumes, perhaps even an occupant?
This is the gradual unfolding of a haunting. Not a ghost, nor supernatural, but this is a finely crafted tale of things seen, and unseen.
This is not one that packs a punch or delivers a jolt, but leaves the reader with a held breath of the unexplained.

Harsch, Rick - Wandering Stone: The Streets Of Old Izola

Part travelogue, part history and anecdotes of the small Mediterranean town in Slovenia off the turista radar. For better for or for worse.
A working class town, rough from the fringes to the core, plagued with motor cars, indifference, and thoughtless modernization.
Mine is the 2nd edition, and photos and comments do not always correspond. Adapt.
Literally packed with photos – black n white – so work your imagination to envision pastel colored buildings amidst bold blue skies.
This book should appeal to travelers who routinely trek beyond the familiar destinations. Say Vulcano, rather than Capri or Stromboli.

Ghahwagi, Karim - Civilian

Three children are kidnapped. All trauma victims of shocking violence. Their kidnapper? The children’s counselor, now comatose following a failed suicide.
Speculative yarn plays out as a cross between thriller and horror, with a dose of SciFi babble. One could imagine Hollywood sniffing at this. Or this being pitched to a studio.
A degree of soft core torture porn for gorehounds, a race against time for thrill seekers, and dialogues about pervasive surveillance for the intelligentsia.
Main protagonist Jennifer Marshall deep dives into psyches for answers. Observant government handlers study her methods, learn the ropes, to better serve society later.
Her character, background, and concerns are well drawn, a highlight of the novel.
Helen Murbler, the comatose adversary, is less delineated, which is a shortcoming.
The book could have benefited from an English proofreader. Common mistakes such as loose for lose would have corrected. I might have punctuated a few sentences differently myself, though that is no complaint.
Overall, a strong, thought-provoking novel.

Gould, Glenn (editor Tim Page) - The Glenn Gould Reader

Culled from an untold amount of essays, interviews, liner notes, this collection ranges from insightful, to controversial, to funny.
Many of the musical explorations in the first section were beyond me. Pages of staves and notes support explanations, but those are best for sight-readers.
Gould’s essays on Schoenberg are passionate and persuasive, even though I still have limited appreciation and understanding of this composer.
His position towards Beethoven is far more dismissive, which I gather is genuine and not merely provocative posturing.
Recollections of Stokowski and Rubinstein make for highly entertaining reading.
Other essays are completely off the track. Praising the combo of Petula Clark and Tony Hatch while pooh-poohing the flash-in-the-pan group, The Beatles. Thing is, for me, Pet evokes Swinging London better than any other artist.
The stray interviews with himself prove laugh out loud funny.
Gould also crafted radio plays of which I was unaware. Owing to his articles on “The Idea Of North” and “The Latecomers” I now intend to track these down and give a listen.
Altogether an engaging book and certainly not just for Gould fans or Classical enthusiasts. Gould’s predictions of recording and editing techniques are downright uncanny in their accuracy.

Keene, Brian - The Girl On The Glider

This reads as part diary, part writer’s journal.
Keene lives hard by an accident prone road. Fatalities are frequent.
After one deadly mangle, a victim appears to linger.
What follows are Keene’s thoughts and fears on the unusual activity.
Keene is honest enough, confessing he earns his living as a prolific, if mid-tier, author.
This novella comes across as a spec assignment.

Fracassi, Philip - Don’t Let Them Get You Down

Even with therapy, Peter is taking a long time to recover. One soon wonders if he will ever truly get over the death of his wife two years earlier.
Anxiety attacks and disassociation from his previous normality are increasingly routine.
Peter is a trifecta of bad choices, bad decisions, bad luck. Meds, meant to help, cloud his judgment, impair his physical abilities.
Fracassi’s tale is unsettling, if not downright harrowing, likely to play havoc with grief stricken survivors, or those who have tumbled so deep into their pit that there is no view of the rim.
For all Peter’s missteps and calamities, and they seem to multiply, his character is not necessarily a one-note loser. Again and again, he does take chances. He attempts new directions.
His past, however, his previous life, holds him tight – then tightens.
Despair that overwhelms.
Fracassi’s style is brusque, clinical, almost journalistic. For readers, he does not bother with quotes, leaving them to figure who is talking, or if it is an internal dialogue, or a description.
For me, this is lazy writing. As more and more writers chase fewer and fewer readers, please ask yourself how many books you want to read lacking punctuation.
Yes, I know, artistic license. Or the continuing dumbing down of writing.

Tuttle, Lisa - The Dead Hours Of Night

A truly capital selection of choice stories here.
“Objects In Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear”, the opener, launches on a high note and things climb from here. A woman, her ex, and a house spied but not found twenty years earlier. Enter modern technology, satellite imaging. Those more wise understand that warnings to the curious cross cultures and centuries. A very Aickmanesque tale.
So how do you react to loathsome creatures on the sidewalk? No, not the vomit splashed drunk. The cockroach twitching on its back, the quivering, obviously sick rat. Do you ignore? Do you squash it underfoot? How about if your partner brings it home, as in “Replacements”? Are you empathetic?
Precious little to explain in “My Pathology”. To paraphrase an old co-worker of mine, “it’s just another typical tale about the Philosopher’s Stone and a teratoma.” Love and obsession, not in that order.
“The Dream Detective” spurred an annoyed reaction, I’m afraid. Friends arrange a blind date at their home, but the forced couple never hit it off. No chemistry. Or they suffer standards. Besides, the female, Grace, confesses to an ability to enter dreams. Intervene, interfere, or so she says. The narrative goes deeper still, becoming absorbing with each page – only to come to an abrupt stop! This was going full steam. Where’s the rest?
To fellow gardeners who have fought the persistent invader, “Vegetable Love” will flick your fury. Tuttle’s character deals with Japanese knotweed. For us in Dixie, the beast is Kudzu.
At one time or another, if we are lucky or unlucky, we receive “The Book That Finds You”. Here, the roots of Aickman are again evident, along with a glimpse of Tuttle’s personal history.
This is really an excellent, well-chosen collection, and since it is a Valencourt Book, reasonably priced.

Brossard, Chandler - The Wolf Leaps

His pale face looks out of place in the Harlem bar. A tourist, slumming? Or a prospect? One of the hookers sizes him up, approaches. After a few comments, he follows her to a grimy room. Money is exchanged and the bed soon squeals. And at that point, the priest develops a taste for dark meat.
Back at the parish house, the wife of our Episcopalian priest contemplates her miserable existence. Awful neighborhood, disgusting residents, not to mention her husband, a male with “needs”. How happy she had been in the days of her all-girls school, with soft female companions. Sappho beckons.
Then there is the pimp, sweet talking charm to the friendly waitress. She’s wasting her life on her feet all day when she could earn so much more on her knees or on her back. He’d pocket half, and promise her it’s for them, their future. Just have to coax her away from her family, her boyfriend. Easy.
Chandler’s style is lean, not a sentence wasted. Not surprisingly, after this novel of adultery, lesbianism and prostitution was written in 1962, publishers shunned it. When it was finally published in 1973, few in white bread America bought it.
Headlong rush down grubby Harlem backstreets.

Malfi, Ronald - Cradle Lake

A deceased father ignores his own offspring and bequeaths his rural North Carolina home to nephew Alan. City dweller.
Except the city hasn’t been going so well. After two miscarriages, his wife is despondent. Both blame stressful NYC. Free home in a new state might mean a new start!
Soon, soon, soon, events eddy and Alan realizes the new community conceals secrets. The biggest being … what’s the name of this novel again?
Time and again, Malfi reveals an angle or plot turn and I think, “too early for this.” Only the disclosure is OK because he has a sackful of narrative twists in reserve.
A Cherokee journey took me unawares and was an original detour, much appreciated.
Unfortunately, entering the final act, professor Alan seems to lose his common sense along with his bearings. Levels go over the top. “Things” besieging the home, within and without, disappear in the rearview mirror, unexplained. I found the conclusion dissatisfying.

Phillips, Thomas - Interiors (with Alcebiades Diniz)

Small volume of troubled souls.
In the oddly narrated “Pagan Dread”, driver and passenger head into the woods as far as their car will take them. Next, on foot, to a rendezvous with transfiguration.
This reads like a sketch, a pitch, and I wish Phillips had fleshed the narrative more fully.
“Living With Literature” is hardly that. Instead, this is the misery of the teacher or professor, evaluating yet another pretentious, insipid student paper. His voice oozes sarcasm in a tale funny yet barbed.
“Abattoir” explores boundaries. One’s home, and the implied, perhaps wistful assumption, of the safety within one’s home.
Finishing, Diniz offers an overview of the Utopia of Infra-Noir, useful for readers who come across similar publishers who reference this movement, but seldom provide historical details.

Cantwell, Adam - A Forest With Its Mouth Open Wide

This gathers numerous stories that previously appeared in a chancy Eastern European press, along with two from Egaeus and two from Raphus. All, I believe, are OP.
“Orphans On Granite Tides” essays the collector, the procurer, and the madman. A legendary journal, pages doled out in scraps, charts the departure from a far West paradise into – what? – bitter knowledge? There’s the puzzle. The original scribe could be gaining and sharing tortured wisdom, or could be rationalizing delusions. The collector has his own points, the procurer less.
In any event, this is one of the longest and most accessible tales.
Several stories come across as fragments. Perhaps they connected with adjacent works in the themed tomes from Romania. No idea.
“The European Monster Part 2” seems a cautionary parable of the powerful corruption of the omnipotent despot. And those who curry favor, or furtively retain their position. This was possibly a fantasy when originally published. Now the horizon looms darkly.
The closer, “The Chamber In The Universe”, studies the traveler, the banker, the investor, stranded at the pagan monument. In the middle of the broiling wastes. Will he be missed in time? Will someone even bother with a rescue attempt? Or will he, like the monument, become part of dust and discarded memories?
This hailed from the legendary And The Whore Is This Temple and, while it fittingly closes this collection, it may have been even stronger in that book.
Good to see these titles collected, and as of 2023 02, still available.

Radić, Vesna - Tendrilopolous

Rado abandons wife Branka for the English rose, Margaret. Accompanies her to England where he dies under suspicious circumstances.
The two women, Branka and Margaret, exchange a flurry of letters.
Asking, accusing, venting, flirting, libeling, competing, threatening.
This novella is uproariously funny, along with vulgar, graphic-pornographic, crude, and yet somehow sweetly revealing.
Vesna Radić is a self-confessed pseudonym, although the writer strikes me as a construct. I wonder if behind the façade is a male hand, or hands. Time and again, a clipped phrase, a chopped sentence, had me thinking, “only a guy would phrase it that way”.
Nevertheless, this is a hilarious read, a shaggy dog in and out.
Another one of a kind absurd gem from Corona/Samizdat.

Rucker, Lynda - Now It’s Dark

I recall reading Rucker’s previous You’ll Know When You Get There a few months after publication. A worthwhile collection that I enjoyed, it put Rucker on my radar as someone to keep an eye out for.
That book did not prepare me for this set.
Throughout, the tone is more seasoned, wearied, characters written as resigned or fatalistic.
Sylvia accompanies John to the cabin campground he has been visiting since childhood. As a couple, they are spent. Sylvia sidesteps confrontations and arguments, while John is bossy, argumentative, inattentive. Why does she – why do people – endure such martinets? In “The Dying Season” Sylvia asks herself just that, before recognizing the trap.
Searching the fringes led to disappearance. Adam liked the broken lands. Places between civilization, battered rubble and empty wastes. As if there was a rent in the fabric there. After Adam goes missing, his sister contacts a friend in “The Other Side” and they try to track his steps.
“Knots” will resonate with those who have slipped into the unequal relationship. One where identity dwindles, along with one’s ability to make decisions, even simple decisions such as what to wear, to eat, where to go for a walk.
David encounters Anna on the train in Romania. Just as well, since he has lost his passport, his money, and she offers to “fix things” with Customs officials. From that point onward, in “The Vestige” David becomes the proverbial stranger in a strange land.
Anyone who has traveled on their own, not part of a group, in the foreign land, ignorant of the language, without reservations, without phone, will relate. And yes, that is exactly how I travel.
Into “The Unknown Chambers” Catherine goes, questing for the forgotten pulp writer. Probably best left forgotten. This one is Lovecraft territory.
I’m leaving the rest for fresh discoveries. Rest assured, this is a carefully chosen and arranged collection, the stories building in intensity and emotional impact.
Swan River titles do not stay in print forever.

Little, Bentley - The Summoning

“Classic” horror from the 90’s heyday of the genre.
A tent preacher is called by Jesus to build a church in Rio Verde.
The congregation grows along with the building, and deaths multiply.
As ever, no one quite makes the connection.
Mr. King praises this author, and for good reason; it’s a page turner. Formula, but the pace is full steam ahead. More than that, it reads like a King novel – or Koontz – or Laymon.
Three clusters in the yarn. Preacher Wheeler and his intimates, brothers Robert (sheriff) and Rich (newspaper man), and their assorted family and colleagues, and Sue Wing and her friends and Chinese family. Other characters that crop up from time to time? Dinner is served.
Oh yeah, vampire saga. Sucking dry humans, armadillos, cacti. And the locals? They seem to stick around instead of hightailing their behinds to Vegas.
Empty headed fun, reminiscent of a drive-in movie.
Neither here nor there: I preordered a posh version of this back in 2014. Nine years later, it finally arrived in my mailbox.
May all your preorders arrive, children. If not sooner than mine, at least arrive, period.

Sunnen, Florence - Archetypes

The Centaur. Two chests, human and equine. Does it feel twice the emotions? Perhaps you never considered the centaur. Unlike our author who reflected and wondered how the creature felt about itself.
A beautiful book that contains twenty archetypes, from classic myths to more modern abstracts. From Mermaids to Robots. Gorgon and Angel.
The Gorgon, art school student, drawn to sculpture because of the permanence of the form. She who shuns transitory arts: music or dance. The Gorgon possesses the gift of immobilizing things, life, making them easier to sculpt. Making friends, keeping friends, proves more difficult. She is lonely, also a chronic downer who thinks too much.
Humanity misunderstands the Mandrake, attributing magical powers, not grasping the danger of the root, nor the inevitable disappointment it brings.
Stories weave from thoughtful to sad to humorous. Each archetype is imaginatively, often erotically, illustrated by Dolorosa De la Cruz.
Final thought goes to the Minotaur. With the head of the bull, the body of the adult male, yet the beast is actually a child. Villagers offer meat in the form of sacrifices, but it longs for green grass – and sunshine. It is utterly misunderstood, and unhappy with what Fate ordains.
Such is the magic Sunnen invokes in these clichéd fables. Insight, another perspective, drawing them nearer to our own experience, hoping the reader possesses a trace of humanity, enough to recognize our kindred, no matter the shell.

Ewing, Frederick - I, Libertine

“Gadzooks, but here’s a saucy bawd!”
BANNED IN BOSTON.
With credentials like that, I knew this must be good.
Rollicking historical adventure, the sort you seldom find anymore, and certainly will not read.
Lance, 18th century hustler, advances up the social rank via romantic dalliances.
Schemes and steam aplenty. Those of faint heart, beware.
Believe it or not, this was a bestseller at one point.
Also a favorite of Jean Shepherd (“you’ll shoot your eye out”) and SciFi great Theodore Sturgeon.
Ideal book for lovers of spring, particularly April.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Libertine

Allen, Grant - The Type-Writer Girl

Juliet, daughter of an officer, raised to be a lady.
Until her father dies, in circumstances leaving her without a pension; casting Juliet adrift and in economic straits.
She does own a typewriter, however, and knows how to take dictation. In the City, there are openings aplenty.
Exciting, picturesque novel dashes through condescending adventures, demanding situations, and into the gardens of romance. Juliet, as a “woman”, then and now, must navigate the “man’s world”.
Amusing, ofttimes funny, this showcases Juliet as a clear eyed pragmatic. She knows her worth, her value, as well as her situation. Also recognizes that in her Edwardian era, class still weighs heavily.
An engaging adventure, well suited for fans of this period. For bright eyed Janeites, ever yearning for Romance, brace up!
Note: My copy was a Broadview edition. As ever with this press I advise you DO NOT read the Introduction first. Every Intro consists of a spoiler filled synopsis, typically found in a 5th Grade book report. Read their Introduction AFTER concluding the book.

Garton, Ray - Vortex

Our author must have been on a fueled bender with this one.
The famed horror novelist (author with looking glass) rehires his usual private eyes to check out spooky goings on up around Mount Shasta.
Situations and tropes are hurled into the blender.
A ravenous beast, the lost continent of Lemuria, telepathy, mercenaries, the Illuminati, the secret academy, a megalomaniac.
One turns pages, waiting to see what Garton will add, and you neglect to hone in on the plot.
Because the plot is as watery as a bowl of guppies.
Worst cliché he adds is children in danger, a sign of the truly stunted imagination.
Sheer folly.
Resembles a pitch for a cheap FOX Horror film.

Asamatsu, Ken - Inverted Kingdom: Tales Of The Hidden Gods 2

The opener, “The Horror In The Kabuki Theatre” is the longest and most challenging work in this collection. Challenging because it is filled with names I was not familiar with. Aside from the artist Hokusai, most were playwrights and performers, along with a producer or two. The story explains how evil or misguided souls misused the theater to crack a fissure into another reality, allowing older gods a foothold back into this world. Fans of HPL will recognize this all too well. And hey! The title seems like a riff on “The Horror In The Museum.”
“Taste Of The Snake’s Honey” is a decadent stroll into drugs, slavery, debauched sex, and jaded attempts to relieve excruciating ennui. Our protagonist inherits his father’s international trading firm, as well as his father’s long time Shanghainese partner. All is permitted, including the corpse.
I imagine all cultures share certain taboos. Such as, no matter how cheap the rent, living next to the cemetery may not be wise. Or, once family members exhibit deteriorating symptoms, do not tarry departure. Of course, many horror franchises rely on individuals ignoring warnings, as does our hero in “Summoned By The Shadows.”
He is an overworked, unlucky taxi driver. As his wife spirals, he clutches the hope things will improve, that they will save enough money to move. Just a little more time.

Stallings, Penny - Flesh And Fantasy

For an ever dwindling demographic, this fat volume will be the equivalent of a jumbo bag of potato chips.

Stories, gossip, rumors, tell-alls, pertaining to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Primarily the 1940’s and 1950’s, albeit touching on the 1930’s and 1960’s.

Before and after retouched glamor photos. Stand-ins. Wannabees lingering to seize a petulant star’s role.
Dirt, along with magic of gauze.

Thing is, Boomers may have been the last generation to grow up with these films and faces, so routine on the late show or afternoon matinee.
Who watches now? Buffs and geriatrics.

Packed, packed, packed with photos. Obscure photos, the sort one could only find in the memorabilia shops scattered along Hollywood Boulevard, once upon a time.

Kiernan, Caitlin - The Ammonite Violin And Others

Generous collection of stories that first appeared in Kiernan’s (still ongoing) Sirenia Digest. Most seem to have roots in fable, once upon a time, old wives tales. Deep roots, at that.

“Bridle” touches upon Irish myth. Not the Silkie, but the Kelpie. Harnessed to the obscure pond in the city park. Restraint leashes yearning. A trapped force, making promises and threats.

The Silkie takes stage in “For One Who Has Lost Herself.” She is downtown Manhattan, amidst chaos and rabble. She seeks, she has a claim, for a possession that has been stolen from her, something precious. This is a deeply satisfying work, encompassing quest and bitter life lessons.

“The Ammonite Violin” is conte cruel. The obsessive collector, ever hunting, raking, seizing if necessary. Repulsive, yet he does pay so handsomely. He has a unique violin constructed, then hires the abandoned musician. As with many stories here, loss is spliced with tear-stained discovery.

We eavesdrop in “Scene In The Museum (1896)”. The uncomfortable exchange between an old woman, curator, now blind, and a wharf prostitute, who sees more than she reveals, yet still permits herself to be exploited. Listening, overhearing, often incurs the same cost as observing, witnessing. Ask Odysseus, ask Orpheus.

With each issue, Kiernan tightened her lens, selecting works that would best serve Sirenia. Stories grow in strength and clarity, making this a choice ADULT collection to track down.