Book Review: Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell

A fifty year old missing horror movie resurfaces after the persistent effort of a historian, but on the screening night he dies and the film goes missing again. Sandy Miller, his good friend takes on herself to solve the mystery by going after the film, on the same trail that he pursued. She finds out that the movie was suppressed by someone powerful to prevent anybody from viewing it. But it is too late when she realises that the horror movie is just the tip of iceberg and behind it there are sinister plans of terror and bloodbath by an ancient evil alive for centuries. 

I am not a regular reader of horror. I like reading short stories of the genre- from Poe, Doyle, Lovecraft and had even read a great one from Maupassant titled Horla. But I had mostly disappointing experiences from novels. I like Dracula for it's artistic merit and great narration rather than the horror element. I have tried Stephen King, Joe Hill and a few others, but horror novels always failed to bowl me over. 

I realized its reason while reading Necronomicon, a story collection by Lovecraft. I like the tension in the atmosphere, I like the built up, I like the human drama that unfolds when the paranormal strikes the characters, but the ultimate reveal always disappoints me. The appearance of the monster or whatever evil the novel puts forward, is never sufficient to terrorize me. 

That was why, I went into Ancient Images, a novel by acclaimed British writer Ramsey Campbell without much enthusiasm. The only interest I had was the mystery of the missing movie which starred Karloff and Lugosi, two actors who featured in some movies that I watched before. There was a time when I dabbled in watching riffs of bad movies through MST3K and Rifftrax. Bela Lugosi was a regular in old British horror (he had famously portrayed Count Dracula in some), but I loved him in Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space. 

In UK there were periods when horror movies were looked down upon. Horror movies, however well made they were, used to be considered low brow entertainment. They were censored and kids couldn't watch them. Movies with scary content were termed Video nasties and posession was illegal for some time. The novel alludes to several such historical tendencies in its plot. 

But the real strength of this novel is the atmosphere. The paranoia that the protagonist feels, the constant feel of being spied, the constant presence of danger behind every curb and after every turn, most of this she suspect about, but we as readers are already let in on the danger by the author after feeding us on two small chapters that makes us aware of the horrors that lay ahead for her in her road. We are turned to blood hounds, always smelling danger and always on the lookout of potential evilness. 

The most difficult task for an author in a long horror novel is the sustenance of tension without depending on gore. Only a master can sustain reader's interest and attention through pages and pages of investigating new characters while revealing tiny bits of plot every while and keep them guessing where the evil will strike next. Ramsey Campbell is definitely a master of horror and I would like to read more from him. 

EBook received from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. 

Something to Answer For: The First Booker Winner

 "The British might deliberately give a man breakfast before shooting him. The Egyptians would intend not to and then forget to warn the kitchen."

Something To Answer For is a novel by P H Newby, which has the distinction of being the first book awarded with the Booker. I looked about the book on internet out of sheer curiosity. The reviews that I found there were not at all flattening. The book had received some appreciation during it's publication, but time hasn't been that appreciative of it. 

I decided to read the novel as an exercise to quench my curiosity, and on completing it confirm most of the complaints of the reviews that I read before. The plot is not at all accessible and will find difficult to resonate with today's readers. The story that happens with the Suez canal crisis as the background, is strictly of it's time and doesn't contain anything of universal appeal. The plot, whatever threadbare one that we find in it is inconclusive and doesn't provide any respite to the casual reader. 

But I cannot deny that it is beautifully written. The prose is crisp, characterisation is sharp and the narration is Kafkaesque. It is the story of a conman named Townrow, who is called on to Egypt by a widow who believe her husband is killed. Townrow is an ultimate unreliable narrator who is even confused about the country from which he is from. The surreal adventures that he stumbles on makes us wonder what his intention is, what his motives are and where his allegiance lies. 

While reading Something To Answer For, I felt that the situation of the protagonist basically alludes to the ideologically and morally dubious stand of UK in the Suez canal crisis. It tries to compare such activities done by an elected government with the immoral ways of an individual when both are trying to profit from a crisis situation. 

Book Review: We Are A Haunting by Tyriek White

 

The smallness of the present: the beat before you say a word. The quiet between breathing in and breathing out. That is as large as any turning point in history.

Three persons from three generations of a family of East New Yorkers has a unique ability to speak with the dead. In a thirty year spanning story about the struggles against angst, disdain and systemic neglect, they try to connect with their history. Audrey is on the verge of losing her housing. Her daughter Key, a practicing doula who uses her ability to connect to the dead and talk for them, loses to cancer. Her son Colly recognises his ability after this and gets the support of Key to navigate his life.

We Are A Haunting is the debut novel of Tyriek White. He attempts to weave a coming of age plot married with social critique with elements of magical realism thrown in. Magical realism is very effective in the hands of expert writers. Stalwarts like Marquez and Rushdie uses magical realism to enhance the ability of readers in comprehending the reality. When tried by lesser writers, it gets limited to a gimmick. The supernatural themes of this novel fails to complement the historic underlining of the plot or the systemic disparity faced by the characters.

The plot is non linear, running back and forth in time between three main characters. Chapters from the POV of Audrey is in third person, that of Key is in first person and that of Colly is a mixture of first and second person, the latter one addressing the dead mother. This structure is the saving grace of the novel as the gradual unfolding of events from different perspectives and from different time periods makes it interesting. Another important factor to note is the cyclic nature of events that subtly suggest that these characters are in fact thrust in a loop of similar events occurring repeatedly to them.

My biggest issue with the novel is the narration itself. Even when different chapters are narrated by different characters, there is no variation in their voices. And that common voice that narrates the whole story is very monotonous. The author tries to bring a very poetic and lyrical quality to his prose. He succeeded in the attempt by sacrificing the tightness of the plot. I never felt the impact on any characters of many life changing events that happens on the course of the story. I feel the main culprit is the obesity of the prose.

As a debut novel, We Are A Haunting provides an interesting plot that deserves a reading, but be prepared to endure a monotonous experience.

Received this eBook from Netgalley for an honest feedback.

Book Review: The Best American Magazine Writing 2022

 As an Indian reading a collection of American magazine articles of last year, I was prepared to be annoyed and underwhelmed. The image that USA and all its institutions project on this side of the globe is that of a non-existant superiority complex- on geopolitics, technology and global economics. The movies, novels, political maneuvers and even a recent memoir of a retired diplomat coming out of USA stamped this implied projection. Like one Indian TV anchor put it- four Americans sitting in a room, smoking cigars and solving global issues. 

To be honest, a few articles in this collection of the best American magazine writing of 2022 reeked of this guardian attitude towards the world outside US. But most of the writings are neutral and balanced, some of them are enriching and opens up new perspective to an outside reader. The content is extremely varied, sometimes disturbingly so. You read about a deeply personal and moving account about the relationship between a writer and a cancer patient and immediately you are hurled into space in the next one. I had to pause between some articles to come out of the mental state that the previous article put me in. 

My personal favorite writing is the one by Ann Patchett. It started like a celebrity name dropping game and suddenly transformed into a very deep and touching character study. The one about James Webb telescope made me feel proud of our achievements as humans. Our horizons are widening in a scale that we never believed was possible before. But then the piece about the abuse of guardianship industry tossed some of the excitement and pride out of the window and served as a bitter pill. Another strong writing was the illuminating first hand account of the power transfer in Afghanistan when US vacated. 

But on the downside, there were essays that failed to elicit a response in me and served as vanity pieces. The opening essay about dancing at the time of pandemic was underwhelming when compared to the rest of the collection. Another one about the need of social reforms above biochemical prevention of diseases was outright stupidity. Take the case of how India, a land of extreme social variation, fought the war against the pandemic and lived to tell the tale. It was more on the strength of biochemical preventions that India did it. The one about an ornithologist's struggle to find peace with his adoration of a racist bird watcher devolved quickly into farce. The last piece curiously was a fictional account- with very low literary aspirations- of a boy finding himself attracted to his male friend in rural India. I am not sure about its significance of its inclusion in this book. 

A luxury that the reading of this collection now, in 2023, gives to its readers is that of hind sight. Though not much time has passed, not even a year, some of the drama that is developed in these writings have climaxed. I checked the result of the boxing match for which prominent social media influencer Jake Paul was preparing and found it on YouTube. James Webb has started gathering images from far reaches of time and our scientists are rewriting the history of the universe. Taliban has tightened its clasp on Afghanistan and is ruling the country with iron grip. Contrary to the suppositions, their rule is pretty uneventful though within predicted lines. 

After completing this collection of 19 essays, I like it for its balanced selection of writings, love it for the extreme diversity of the topics and recommend it for the wealth of emotional and intellectual experiences that it offers.