Meet Black House. It is a bi polar overweight (640 pgs) nine year old kid. It has all the brilliance of unfocused genius, and all the dark tendencies of an unbridled imagination. It doesn't know who or what it wants to be, Mystery, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller, Epic, Science Fiction, Drama, so it just decides to be all of them.
Stephen King and Peter Straub's 2oo1 New York Times Bestselling squeal to the Talisman is a very mixed bag. What's good is extremely good, what's bad is down right rotten. Seriously, rarely have I had such utterly mixed feelings about a book.
The story is not huge, the book, however, is. For some reason King and Straub decided to take a table spoon of taught Fantasy/Thriller fusion novel and spread it over about eight loves white fluff bread. The story could have easily been half the length without loosing a thing.
It seems the pitfall of many a successful author is to kick back and just write. This book came off as unfocused and indulgent, often taking whole chapters and dozens of pages to just talk. As if the pair really just liked the sound of their own voices and sorta forgot that they where telling a viscous story about a cannibal serial killer.
The protagonist Jack Sawyer (haha LOST) isn't even introduced until several lengthy chapters in. The plot however, when it isn't being drowned in prose, is a 'good' one (more on that in a second). A mysterious serial Killer, known only as 'The Fisherman' kidnaps, kills and cannibalizes children, not light subject matter, and a lost and found former detective is the only one with a chance at catching him and saving the life of his latest target, young Tyler Marshall.
Interesting themes of insanity, true personality, and imagination populate ever single character to one degree or another. Sometimes this is compelling, while at other times it is confusing.
It is difficult to create truly original character these days. At a glance it would seem all possible villains, heroes, ani heroes, side kicks, and you name it have been birthed, re birthed, and then cruelly dragged though fiction's meat grinder until they resemble the kind of hamburgers you would not eat. However, every so often you find one, who, for anybody to copy them would out right plagiarism. They are too unique, too singular.
In Black House you find one such character. Henry Leyden, the multi-personality infested blind genius is the backbone of the story. While neither it's protagonist or villain, he kicks it off and provides the most necessary hooks to push this lugger along.
Peter Straub
The experience of reading the book is like King and Straub grew a huge corn maze, and said go on in and have fun. You may make it to they other side with a tangible plot and message, but it is too big, too grand for any certainty.
The negatives however, far outweigh the positives, making this book, alas, completely unrecommendable. If it was merely too long, or only a little wandering, the writing and characters would more then justify a read. However, the shear foulness of The Fisherman is too much. It's hard not to sound unreasonable or old fashioned saying that, and, believe me, i like a good villain, but this was just too much.
The subject matter is very grim. Cannibalism is truly horrible, one of the most horrible things a human being can do. But add to that the fact that this is children hes cannabalizing, oh my, you'd better tackle this with care. Cannibalism, tragically, does happen. I think these two must have forgotten that, in the way they just jump on in and frolic in the complete filthiness and depravity of it. The scenes involving The Fisherman are way too long, way too graphic and way too unmerciful.
I think the ethics of writing about such things are fragile, like rape, you don't dangle and wave such black things out as entertainment. You just don't, and it is a sad testament that this book didn't offend more people. If King and Straub had had something to say, if they had wished to address this, and had done it with taste, well, but they didn't.
That combined with the unrestrained language in the book, from every single character, good or bad make the book just dishonest and cheap. I haven't read any of Straub's other books, but I know that King is capable of much more restraint, saving such grit for the truly gritty, but in this book everyone is dirty and everyone is base, on some level.
Stephen King
Thus, i give the book one star, and that is for Henry Leyden and a few very nifty scenes. Other then that, this book is a dirty little miser, making Fishermen of us all. Audiobook:
While the audio version can proudly boast of the same core problems as the book, i must say that it was outstanding on a production level. Very well paced and super tight editing added to one of Frank Miller's best performances ever. His masterful emphasis and character voices where breathtaking. Unfortunately it just kind of made the whole thing more sickening, like ice cream on a pile of poop.
Following are rated 0%=Not an element to 100%=A screaming element
Spirituality 70%
King's weird pseudo Biblicaly allegorical world of the dark tower series is present. However, his Jesus Man, and other good characters are limited and the Abbolah and Gorg and Mr Munchun are the principal players here, leaving a very dark and demonic overall tone.
Sexuality 50%
Although no real sexual scenes are present here, dozens of references, clean and crude populate the book from start to finish. It is implied that two sets of characters have sex.Language 100%
Every word you can think of and some you can not (except a few British ones) make appearances, encore appearances, and then just stay on the stage in a horribly annoying way. More swearing then any book or movie i have ever seen or read.Blasphemy 100%
Much of the above mentioned language is all the varieties of God's name. Positivity 15%
The story is a bleak, depressing one. Good wins, but only barley and with maximum casualties. Imagination and beauty are praised, but comes out as one drop of rainbowish oil on top of a twenty gallon tank of tar. Importance 5%
The book points a limp finger at law's reliance on itself, not on a higher power, but the higher power doesn't seem to be God, or even people. Murky at best.
