Sides

by Peter Straub

Over twenty years in the making, SIDES represents the first ever collection of non-fiction by bestselling author Peter Straub. Featuring introductions, essays, afterwords, and even a "frivolity" along with the collected works of Putney Tyson Ridge, Straub's "self-invented human speed bump and alter ego" this collection presents a rare glimpse into the author's tastes and personal musings on topics ranging from The Stepford Wives and Dracula to Lawrence Block and Stephen King.

Also included is "The Fantasy of Everyday Life", Straub's Guest-of-Honor speech at the 1998 International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, and "Mom", an essay that appeared in a book that combined short stories written by mother-son partnerships with essays written by male writers about their mothers. The "frivolity" here "Why Electricman Lives in New York" was written for an anthology celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of New York Is Book Country.

This long awaited collection closes with Putney Tyson Ridge's reviews and commentaries on every Peter Straub book published since the 1970s.

SIDES is a unique and exclusive Cemetery Dance book, with no other editions planned anywhere in the world!

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Horror

310 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub.

Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.

Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally

After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.

In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.

In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.

Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).

Reviews

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

eponymous sentence:
p37: When the literally internal is recognized as the literally central, a radical democracy asserts itself on all sides, and we occupy an egalitarian universe.

spelling:
p26: Salmagundi Desvernine... stares through broken panes across the corrugated rooftops toward front gates padlocked and chained against the world outside... strains to steal a gimpse beyond the road that winds through other abandoned industries, disappears, finally, between high gneiss and granite bluffs, boulders pollution-scarred and spray-paint tagged, wrapped in fog the color of rust.

?:
p110: The third and longest section of Dracula runs from Chapter XVII through Chapter XXVVII and covers the last half of the book.

ocr:
p260: Our authors include Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, PetemStraub, William Peter Blatty, Justin Cronin, Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, Joe R. Lansdale, Norman Partridge, Richard Laymon, Michael Slade, Graham Masterton, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, William F. Nolan, Nancy A. Collins, Al Sarrantonio, John Skipp, and many others.

This has the most apt title I've seen in recent times.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Straub is an interesting case.

Of Ghost Story fame - a novel Stephen King (probably coked out at the time) called one of the best horror novels ever written - it is probably unfair to attribute any lasting success to his collaborations with the above-mentioned author. All the same, Straub's output does seem obscure compared to his friend. This is due, in part, to the fact Hollywood has had little engagement with his work. The only one I'm aware of is the mediocre if atmospheric Ghost Story adaptation in 1981. I'm sure there are some others, but I doubt they are any more popular than this not-that-popular one.

Also, Straub has always struck me as more literary than King. His work (of which, most of what I've read is good) isn't as catered towards mainstream readers. His books are often plodding, full of in-depth characters and dauntingly thick in the hands. His post-Vietnam War thriller Koko is brilliant in parts, but is also sometimes a bit of a slog. His famous Ghost Story is a jumbled, messy burger of horror tropes you can't help spilling over yourself as you try to devour it. My favourite book of his is, I think, also his shortest, and one of his more recent: Lost Boy Lost Girl.

Anyway, he's an author who never seems to have been in the spotlight all that much, yet his career has been a kind of distinguished one. His lower number of fans seem to be a loyal and loving legion, some of which do not take kindly to having his magnum opus criticised. But I have never been anything more than a mildly interested reader - never really an actual fan - of his. I just drop in occasionally, to see what Stephen's friend is up to.

This book, therefore, was a more random output from him - being a non-fiction - and so, a few years back, I would not have been interested in it. I generally just buy any of his books whenever I see them cause he's a hard one to come across, at least in Australia. This is one of those books, in other words, I only purchased because of the author's name (at a used-book store, of course). But having gotten around to reading it this year, I can now tick it off and pass it back into circulation.

So then ...

Putting aside the extremely unappealing cover (the back-jacket image of a tubby Peter turning meats on his barbecue is even worse), this book is a random collection of writings from Mr. Straub. For a large part, it is an accumulation of introductory essays he has written for publications of other writers' books. While this might seem a bit of an opportunistic cop-out, these were actually the most engaging things on offer. His exploration of the nihilist themes in Wells's Island of Dr. Moreau and the lightning-in-a-bottle achievement that was Bram Stoker's Dracula are very interesting.
There's also a very vivid recount written in honour of the author's mother, titled simply Mom.

On the other hand, the part I was most excited for - the Putney Tyson Ridge section where Straub reviews (well, tears apart) his own books from the perspective of his ever-critical alter ego - was far from satisfying and came off as annoyingly pretentious. Then there was the silly, digressional essay he wrote about Stephen King. You can see why these two are such friends. They both turn into rambling assholes when they talk about each other. The way they try to mimic each other's idiosyncratic style of writing just comes off like them jacking each other off.

In conclusion, Sides is a great acquisition for fans of Peter Straub. For those of a more mild interest, it is merely readable. To those who don't care for him or the horror genre in general, it might be still less.

[Mike Kazmierczak · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it had not been that long since I read a Peter Straub book, I was still looking forward to reading SIDES. Straub is always a huge treat to read. Even though I knew that SIDES was a collection of Straub's non-fiction over the last twenty years and not a new fiction story, I figured that I would be amazed as I always him with his quality of writing. In that regards, I was not disappointed. His writing was lyrical and poetic and beautiful as it always is. However, the content of what he was writing about was a hit and miss with me.

Straub primarily broke the collection down into three sections: Encounters where he provided Introductions or Afterwords to other author's books, "Two Essays and a Frivolity" or as I thought of it "Miscellaneous" and then Observations by Putney Tyson Ridge, Straub's alter ego and a fictional critic. The Encounters section was fabulous! As Straub would discuss the different books, I would yearn to read or reread the book in question. THE STEPFORD WIVES. DRACULA. THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. And to seek out more books by some of the authors mentioned: Richard Laymon, Graham Joyce, Caitlin R. Kiernan. (Granted I read most of Laymon's and Joyce's book already but it made me want to reread them.) Straub was a little too complete in his discussion because he would discuss the entire book and I would realize that I no longer need to read them anymore. At least not for the story. The middle section though is where Straub started to lose me. His piece entitled "Mom" was fabulous and will make most people appreciate their own mother. The other two pieces were fine but not as interesting. It was the last section with which I became bored. The writings of Straub's alter ego were boring and very uninteresting. There was not enough insight to offer anything new nor enough humor to make them funny. I'm sure that Straub was poking fun at himself but it was a poking that did nothing for me. Overall I would recommend stopping halfway through but at the same time, I know that I would not be able to do so myself.

[Isadora Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some great essays in this collection of non-fiction by one of the most literary gothic writers writing today, Peter Straub. I especially enjoyed Straub's riff on Milwaukee in "My Fantasy of Everyday Life," and impassioned discussion of Stephen King's development as an author in "Secret Windows." Other good essays to watch for are "Stepford Wives" (Ira Levin) and "Hope to Die" (Philip K. Dick).

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What I prefer are writers like Robert Aickman, Thomas Tessier, John Crowley, and Jonathan Carroll, who are after larger game. (My own efforts at deliberate indirection have led to indictments on several counts of Unnecessary Obfuscation, Aggravated Slowness, Assault With Intent to Stupefy, Irresponsible Neglect of Reader, and so on, all cases currently under appeal.)"


Sides by Peter Straub (1943-2022) is a brief - too brief - 2007 collection of occasional prose. When I tell you it is dedicated to John Clute, you'll know questions are going to be explored at a very high level.


The introductions and prefaces to classic and contemporary fiction in the collection are fascinating. To give one example, the way Straub takes apart The Stepford Wives and explains how it achieves its effects is dazzling. Writings about Stephen King, Caitlin Kiernan, and Lawrence Block have a contagious enthusiasm: Straub has read, reread, and thought deeply about these writers' fictions, and explains his thinking with care and clarity.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some mightily insightful and entertaining thoughts here on the writing of horrific, uncanny, and/or weird fiction.

[Casey]

This was a delightful read. Mr. Straub wrote plainly & intelligently while being brave enough to thoroughly skewer the industry he was part of. His wit and pen will be missed.