Bartholomew Fair

by Eric Basso

Fiction. Set in London during a killing heat wave, Eric Basso's 1982 novel, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, unfolds as a terrible cataclysm is about to devastate the city. Begun in the Middle Ages as a religious festival in commemoration of St. Bartholomew the Great, over the centuries Bartholomew Fair passed through several metamorphoses. Now it has gone underground. Its lone survivor recounts the story of the Fair's final, sordid incarnation, and the bizarre odyssey which brings him face-to-face with the unspeakable. Rich in texture and atmosphere, this extraordinary novel is also a stylistic tour de force, in which the history of Bartholomew Fair, whose long-dead voices come to life in these pages, haunts the clandestine activities of its modern-day performers and their obsessed patrons.

Genres: Weird Fiction, Fiction

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Eric Basso was born in Baltimore in 1947. His work has appeared in Asylum Annual, Bakunin, Central Park, Chicago Review, Collages & Bricolages, Exquisite Corpse, Fiction International, and many other publications. His novel, Bartholomew Fair, is available from Asylum Arts. He is the author of twenty-one plays. His critically acclaimed drama trilogy, The Golem Triptych; the complete short plays, Enigmas; his play The Sabbatier Effect; a book of short fiction, The Beak Doctor; and five collections of poetry, Accidental Monsters, The Catwalk Watch, The Smoking Mirror, Catafalques, and Ghost Light, are available from Asylum Arts, along with Decompositions: Essays on Art & Literature 1973-1989 and Revagations: 1966-1974, the first volume of a book of dreams. Basso's most recent previous collection of poems, Earthworks, was published by Six Gallery Press in 2008.

Reviews

[Nate D · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can it be that this is the first review of this splendid, strange, totally gripping novel? Concerning a traveling troupe of "prodigies", a stifling heatwave, entertainments gone underground in several different senses, ecclesiastical history, an off-the-ledgers murder trial, various implausible yarns, feverish descriptions of otherworldly subterranean spaces, and possible end times, all delivered from behind a demoniacal grin and mysterious motives. The plot unfolds in fits and disconnected starts, gradually elaborating the characters and intrigues that will be needed for the climax, leaving much barely feathered into place in the story, to be mulled continuously later for half-realized significances.

Written in 1982 but unpublished until 1999, This is the sole novel of Baltimore-born poet and playwright Eric Basso, apparently, which is a shame because it's completely unique and excellent. However, I found this via a novella in the back-issues of Atlas Press' "Printed Head" series, so other shorter fiction from that era, thankfully, exists. But Basso still really needs to write more novels if this is any indication.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been nearly five years since Nate D reviewed this book and, aside from Sarah's objection to the commas last year, it continues to languish unread and unreviewed. Eric Basso appears to be a consummate outsider writer, ignored by or unknown to most adventurous fiction readers, perhaps in part due to his limited, though still very much in print, fiction output (aside from this, his only novel, there is only his collection of short fiction: The Beak Doctor). Basso has been much more prolific in poetry and drama, the latter being where he has placed the most importance regarding his work in interviews. That said, his fiction is nothing to trifle with. This novel is consistent with the high quality of work found in The Beak Doctor, that is to say a continuation of the heavy, immersive, Gothic atmosphere he appears to effortlessly create within the pages of his stories. Here, the various members of an underground carnival sideshow of sorts ply their trade in the shadows of the doomed region of London known as Smithfield, a popular site of public executions. As in his shorter fiction, Basso prefers to linger in ambiguity as he spins his tale, preferring the slow, partial reveal above any more obvious form of exposition. Weaving medieval religious history with modern decadence, Basso creates a fully formed world suspended halfway between two vague points in time. The enjoyment here is in the telling, an obvious writerly labor of love, but of what exactly is being told we are somewhat less certain.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many commas.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely bewildering, enchanting, and quite disturbing; yet once into the gist of the story with the slang and jargon it does make for a bizarre and memorable reading.

[Toran · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was pretty good. Very, very gothic. I was following the story decently right up until the end which did not make much sense to me though. Despite this it was fun to read, just my kind of prose