The Port-Wine Stain

American Novels #3

by Norman Lock

A young surgical assistant faces his doppelgänger in a chilling tale featuring Edgar Allan Poe and a “lost” Poe story. In his third stand-alone book of The American Novels series, Norman Lock recounts the story of a young Philadelphian, Edward Fenzil, who, in the winter of 1844, falls under the sway of two luminaries of the nineteenth-century grotesque Thomas Dent Mütter, a surgeon and collector of medical “curiosities,” and Edgar Allan Poe. As Fenzil struggles against the powerful wills that would usurp his identity, including that of his own malevolent doppelgänger, he loses his mind and his story to another. The Port-Wine Stain is a gothic psychological thriller whose themes are possession, identity, and storytelling that the master, Edgar Allan Poe, might have been proud to call his own.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Gothic, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Norman Lock has written novels, short fiction, and poetry as well as stage plays, dramas for German radio, a film for The American Film Institute, and scenarios for video-art installations. His plays have been produced in the U.S., Germany, at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, and in Turkey. His work has been translated into Dutch, German, Spanish, Turkish, and Japanese.

He received the Aga Kahn Prize, given by The Paris Review, the Literary Fiction Prize, given by The Dactyl Foundation of the Arts & Humanities, fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and from the National Endowment for the Arts. (source: http://www.normanlock.com/)

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5* of five

My rave review of The Port-Wine Stain is live today The Small Press Book Review!

I’ve read other reviews in the book-blogosphere that were, shall we say, indicative of a certain disappointment in the blogger’s experience reading The Port-Wine Stain. I am not among these bloggers.

Poe’s proffered friendship has a profound impact on Edward in so many ways. As Edgar introduces Edward to every strange corner of the city of Philadelphia, he (deliberately?) changes the young man forever. It's a shivery good read.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

like a 3.5 for star rating (which I just hate).

This novel is really getting the short end of the stick from early reviewers here and over at LibraryThing, and I think that's just plain sad. What I've noticed is that some of these people have picked up this book expecting a Poe clone and didn't get it, thereby allowing their expectations to guide their reading experience. I learned a long time ago that if you assume one thing and get another, well, newsflash , you're going to be disappointed -- so the trick for me has been to sit back and let the book take me where it's going to go. Someone once told me that "assume" makes an ass out of you and me, so I just let my books speak to me on their own. And this one spoke to me about just how easy it is for someone already quite impressionable to be pushed from sanity to madness. That transition lands this book squarely into my reading wheelhouse.

The quotation beginning chapter one of this book is from Poe's "William Wilson," an apt start to this novel since somewhere down the line the main character/narrator (a physician) is going to encounter what he feels is his own doppelganger. The story is told from his perspective to a friend, looking back from present (1876) to thirty years in the past. He captures the attention of his friend by promising to reveal how he "came to know" Edgar Allan Poe and how Poe "initiated" him into the occult, ushering him "to the iron door of the tomb" where "he bid me knock;" the story of "the winter months I spent with him." He also reveals that for a short time, he was a "principal character in one of his horrors."

However, there's a catch: as the narrator states right up front,

"I'm a careful observer of the body's minutest motions, its fevers, crises, maladies, disturbances, but however clearly I seem to see my past, I can't be certain that what I remember of it is the truth. Memory is as liable to blight as the soul ..."

giving us our first clue that perhaps this narrator is going to be less than reliable.

Very, very briefly, young Edward Fenzil is an assistant to the famous Dr. Mütter, who in 1844 Philadelphia is already famous for his successes in reconstructive surgery. One day Mütter receives a visitor who, as he reveals to Fenzil, is none other than Edgar Allan Poe. Fenzil has never heard of Poe, nor has he ever read any of his work. A week later, Poe returns, "fascinated" by Mütter's collection -- his specimens -- and Mütter gives Edward the task of showing Poe around and giving him "every assistance." The relationship between Fenzil and Poe intensifies as time goes on, as they spend long nights together and as Poe begins to bring young Fenzil into his rather bizarre world. But things take a very weird turn when Poe and his friends from the Thanatopsis Club decide to "initiate" Edward into the group, starting a sequence of events that lead to a most horrific tragedy and an unexpected ending that blew me away.

Here's the thing: as I said, if you're expecting a Poe-centric story or Poe clone here, you're going to be disappointed. Yes, he's in the book, and yes, the author does take you into his sad, dark world, where he finds a "strange beauty in suffering." But here the narrative firmly belongs to Fenzil, not Poe, so Edward is most definitely the one to watch. Another thing: many readers have complained about the style and the prose of this novel, but anyone who reads widely in 19th-century literature will have no problems with it. I suppose that many of the negatives may come from people who do the so-called "fifty-page rule," and who didn't find it punchy or exciting enough within that space to continue reading or at least to give the book more of a chance. It's not that I think the book is great, because I don't (like a 3.5 on a 5-star scale) but it is very dark and examines how the sanity of a seemingly-normal yet impressionable person can be so easily tipped over the edge, making it a book that is right up my alley.

My thanks to LibraryThing and to Bellevue Literary Press for my copy.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are certain themes of which the interest is all-absorbing, but which are too entirely horrible for legitimate fiction.

This is the third in Lock’s American Novels series, in which he bases his ideas around a major literary character, or book. It is the first I have read, but some of the others look enticing also.

This is structured as a memoir of an aging doctor, Edward Fenzil, working in New Jersey in 1876. Fenzil tells a story about his life in Philadelphia 32 years earlier, when he worked as an assistant to Thomas Dent Mütter, a surgeon and collector of medical oddities, which Fenzil is put in charge of. He then also became acquainted with Edgar Allan Poe.

Poe’s charisma and preoccupation with death and the grotesque drag Fenzil into the occult despite his protest, and, significantly, into the mind of a killer who was the exact lookalike of Fenzil. All the while, Poe observes, scribbling and observing the “strange beauty in suffering.”

It’s a homage to Poe, written in his style, with frequent references to work like William Wilson, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Premature Burial, the latter from which the opening quote is from.
That quote has become important to me over the years, since I first read Poe, and that story in particular, at the age of 15. It has in many ways shaped my reading since.

I’ll finish with another favourite Poe quote, from William Wilson..

…I have been, in some respects, the slave of circumstances beyond human control.

[Daffney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being a librarian and a bit of an Edgar Allen Poe fan, I was pleased to see I won an advance copy pf “The Port-Wine Stain by author Norman Lock. Though it was an uncorrected proof of the book, I was pleased nonetheless. All things being equal, this should have been the book for me. It is a tale about an impressionable young man, Edward Fenzil, a surgical assistant, who spends the gloomy gray winter of 1844 Philadelphia in the thrall and intellectually spell of two dynamic men; each man an luminary of the nineteenth- century grotesque. The first man is Thomas Dent Mutter, a surgeon and collector of medical “curiosities,” the other man, is none other than the master of things that go bump in the night, Edgar Allen Poe. What more can a thanatopsis ask for? Perhaps, knowing who our narrator is? Is it Edward or his supposed doppelgänger? And who is this Moran person? And why is he the person being told the story?
Part one of the book begins with a quote from Poe’s short story, William Wilson. A story initially published in 1839, which follows the theme of the doppelganger and is written in a style based on rationality. Lock begins his story with the narrator (Edward?) speaking to Moran about the Thomas Eakins painting of, “Dr. Gross’s Clinic,” that resides at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and how it has always given him “the horrors.” Yet, Edward refers to the painting or subject of the painting throughout. As if he somehow mesmerized or drawn back to it again, and again, and again!! Thus, the reader must otherwise endure having to hear about how horrific the painting and subject matter is, yet both the narrator and the reader cannot escape from it. I have to be honest and say that by the end of part one, I had to take a parachute and pull the ripcord on this novel. I just couldn’t continue on! My brain was screaming at me to end this misery at once. So, I did. I stopped at the end of part one of the book. Why you may ask?
Because it was horrible! From the very beginning it was confusing, as if you were asleep and suddenly woke up in the middle of a conversation. And it wasn’t even your conversation to begin with! Having read a great deal of Poe, including the short story William Wilson, Premature Burial, The Port-Wine Stain, feels like a poor man’s version of some of Poe’s classic short stories and novels. Lock’s novel is chalk full of incoherent back and forth ramblings of characters, so we the reader are not clear as to who is speaking and who is being spoken to. Further, the author tries to invoke Poe himself as a main character in the novel; while trying to copy and doing a poor job of it as well. I hope Edgar Allen Poe could forgive me for bailing out on this book, it was just so bad I couldn’t waste another minute of my life on finishing it (the horrors, the horrors!!).

[Dayle (the literary llama) · Rating 4 out of 5]

RATING: ★★★★☆/ 4.5 mesmerizing stars.

REVIEW: This book just reminded me why I love reading. It was a completely unexpected story with language that speaks to the greats and rhythm that speaks to the soul.

The entire book is essentially a monologue. In fact, as I was reading it, I started staging it in my mind. I could see the aged thespian on stage, speaking to the audience as if we were the unheard recipient of Fenzil's tale. It was magnetic. The cadence was perfect. The story builds slowly and you soon lose yourself in the book. I didn't want to put it down and break the spell that the words had woven. Therefore, I let myself be captured and read till the book came to a perfect end.

Now if you're imagining or expecting a new age mimic of Edgar Allan Poe, then you would be disappointed or more accurately, you're wrong to make the comparison in the first place. Because, while The Port-Wine Stain features Poe and has a dark Gothic undertone, it never endeavored to be a Poe-like tale. It is it's own book with it's own writer and deserves to be read without that preconception. That being said, I do think that it would appeal to Poe fans, as well those who love to discover great literature.

I highly recommend.

[Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

The fundamental purpose of writing is to communicate or to clinically create similar neurological events in the readers or listeners mind. It is not a means intended to display the scope of the writer's vocabulary or to teach others obscure multi-syllable words by causing the readers or listeners to research the dictionary or thesaurus at the the turn of every page.

In this regard, good writings and authors I firmly believe should follow the Winston Churchill's wise advice - " I like my words, old, small and charming" and in so doing the chances of achieving the writer's primary communication goals have a greater chance of being successful.

I would hence tell the author in this case - to go back and rewrite this whole self-serving monologue and drop the obscure or multi-syllable words - and as further experiment write another version that also drops the secondary or ancillary adverbs and adjectives. Among these versions I believe a much more effective work and synthesis (sic) could be achieved, appreciated and comprehended by the readers or listeners of a now charming monologue.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of both Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Mutter. So when reading the description of The Port Wine Stain I was very excited to dive into this book. Unfortunately I was ultimately disappointed. I felt none of the wonderful eeriness that I get when I read Poe, the plot didn’t drive anything forward and honestly it felt like nothing really happened. One of Poe’s great talents to me is his ability to make the mundane seem creepy and thereby holding my attention while he builds to the ultimate fate of the characters. Norman Lock’s book had none of that, it was just simply mundane reading.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this guy is a really good writer. I underlined several passages because I thought they were beautiful. But, this reads like a children's historical fiction book with a few adult themes thrown in to age it up. The cause and effect in this book is kind of odd - one thing will happen, and the characters react in such an over the top way that I feel like I missed something. I feel like if this was longer, the secondary characters more developed to give the reader a better sense of context, and the author controlled himself better when it came to historical name dropping, this would have been better.

[Elle]

May change my mind on this DNF later but I'm not feeling this anymore and am finding myself skimming. Some great thoughts/philosophies/concepts to ponder, but I was hoping for more darkness and decay of the mental state and don't feel I'm getting that and it's not going to way I was hoping or expecting. So I'm not really into it.

Good if you're looking for something that can give you some things to ponder and if you read lots of old literature the writing style won't bother you at all. TBH its a pretty easy read, just not my vibe apparently.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I didn't like it quite as much as other books by Lock. It's written in the style of Edgar Allen Poe and the protagonist is a doctor who is living in the 1880s and telling about times that he spent with Poe when Poe was still alive. It is an entertaining send-up of Poe, but it isn't as thought provoking as some of Lock's other works.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars A noble attempt to write in the style of EAPoe, but lacked the rhythm and precision. Should have been a short story emulating that which Poe excelled. Needed to be much edited and the small story built up while eliminating the existential verbosity

[K.H. Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never would have read this book if an unexpected copy hadn't appeared in my mailbox one day.

The premise intrigued me. A middle-aged doctor reminisces about his youthful encounters with Edgar Allan Poe, and reveals the impact the master of macabre had on his psyche.

As a fan of 19th-century literature, I found Lock's dedication to the language and style of the period admirable. However, this was simultaneously my favorite and least favorite thing about the book. In moments of misstep, and there were a few, the illusion shattered. Certain passages felt completely out of place, and even if they weren't technically anachronistic, they gave me enough pause to remind me this book was published in 2016, not 1876. To Lock's credit, these flaws would not have been so startling had the rest of the text not been written so convincingly.

There were two other historically accurate tropes I wish Lock had done without. First, the use of an unseen "listener" to the narrator's tale - in this case, a stranger named Moran who was invited to the protagonist's house to hear about his past relationship with Poe. These frequent cutaways were more of a distraction than an enrichment.

Second, the lack of any kind of intense climax. I fully expected Edward to murder Moran in the end, and was frankly disappointed that he didn't. Not only would this have justified Moran's existence in the story, but it would have elevated it beyond Victorian sensibilities, where everybody faints from fright or scandal at even the suggestion of impropriety, and into something that modern readers could really sink their teeth into. The juxtaposition of a 19th-century setup with a 21st-century finale would have been immensely satisfying.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was... good. I got it as a bonus book from the publisher when I received an ARC, though for the life of me I can't remember which one. I probably would have picked it up in store, had I seen it. It's one of those books that really LOOKS good and SOUNDS pretty decent from the synopsis, so you don't feel bad about picking it up.

I wasn't terribly thrilled with it as a whole. The narrator was a bit verbose and a bit neurotic, although I understand why he was made to be as such. He felt like a character out of a Poe story, which was the whole point. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat at times, mostly because it had a tendency to cause the story to drag. The 200-some pages felt like far more, strictly because of the repetitive nature and slow course of the story.

I wasn't a fan of how Poe was portrayed and, for such an important character, it felt like the man himself appeared very little in person. His presence was felt through out, but I guess I just expected him to play a more prominent role in the flesh. I also expected a little more out of Dr. Mütter since he seemed to be such an important person to the narrator. Unfortunately, it felt like he just floated in and out, much like Poe, with very little development.

All in all, however, it was a pretty good story and I did enjoy it, even if it took me longer to get through than I'd have liked.

[Nora Peevy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mesmerizing and dark, haunting psychological novel about what it means to confront madness. Is there such a thing as evil? I don't believe in the devil, only malevolent acts perpetrated by mankind, but if there were true evil, I would imagine it to be the malignant forces that break Edward's psyche. In his acknowledgements, Lock writes about wanting to write American novels in the tradition of the authors that came before him. I think Edgar Allan Poe would enjoy this macabre, psychological tale of terror on a cold winter's night with a glass of ether, huddled up beside a crackling blaze hearthside as the wind howled through bare tree limbs, punctuated only by the rhythmic beating of his own heart and the ticking of an old clock on the mantel. Perhaps, he'd even see his own doppelganger staring back at him from the pages of The Port-Wine Stain. What a wonderful, chilling introduction to Norman Lock's storytelling. Beautiful imagery. This is a novel that will stay with me for a long time.

[RhS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. For lack of a better way to say it, this book is a trip.

If you're a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, The Port-Wine Stain is a must read, not only because a fictionalized Poe is a character in the story but because Lock absolutely nailed the style, mood, and subject matter associated with EAP.

I won't pretend to understand all the literary allusions, but Lock is clearly a master scholar deep in his element.

Reading this book is like walking into a fun house where reality is doubled and slightly distorted. What we see is real, but not exactly right ... but then again, what makes something real?

It's not simply a short, creepy read. It raises interesting questions of sanity and success. Must the two go hand in hand?

Well worth the read.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like how this author spins a tale getting into the psyche of Poe.

[Brian Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

My next book was going to be S., but I was having a hard time deciding how to read it (you'll understand if you decide to take the plunge). The Port-Wine Stain by Norman Lock, was recommended by Paul due to my love of Edgar Allan Poe, so I cracked that open instead. It it a contemporary novel, but its setting is in the 1800s (and is written as one would have spoken in that era). I've been reading so much contemporary language that I found it difficult at first to concentrate on this style. I powered through, however, and I'm glad I did. The narrator is an old doctor recalling his early days working for Dr. Thomas Mütter in Philadelphia. He meets Edgar Allan Poe through Dr. Mütter's insistence, and his life is forever changed because of it. If you're versed in the classics, you'll most likely enjoy this one. If you have a hard time with 19th-century prose though, you may want to skip this one.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to LibraryThing, I won an uncorrected proof copy of this book to read and review. This book was excellent! It was a well researched and written work of literature. In 1876 New Jersey, Edward Fenzil relates the time in 1844 Philadelphia when he maintained a brief friendship with Edgar Allen Poe. Fenzil was still a teen at the time and very impressionable. Poe introduced Fenzil to many dark and disturbing ideas and people, including a dead doppelgänger , which lead him down a frightening path towards insanity. I was also very impressed with author Norman Lock's writing style from that time period which greatly added to the believability.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are complaints that it is slow and it is but I didn't mind that so much. What was more annoying is that it was the narrator telling the story to some rando and he would interject with "do you need to go?" "do you want some tea?".

I liked being able to pretend he was friends and colleagues with Dr. Mutter and Edgar Allen Poe, they were a little silly but that just humanized them and made it seem more possible. The "story" itself only got spooky towards the end but it was Poe-esque and well done in my opinion.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. Mutter's assistant driven insane by Edgar ALAN pOE

[Kasey Cocoa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't able to read the entire book, but based on what I did read it's not exciting or exceptional. I looked over the odd punctuation in places even though it stood out to me. The book feels like you're reading a recording of someone rambling on about their past. It gets confusing sometimes just who is supposed to be speaking as part of the book has quotations around speech. There are parts where it's just one side of the conversation which muddles the read a bit. It's not that I dislike first-person POV, it's just difficult to do well and I don't feel this book did that well. I'm a Poe fan but I didn't begin this read expecting anything Poe-like since I don't believe anyone can write like Poe except Poe. Overall, it's not a terrible read but I didn't like it enough to read the entire 217 pages. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow this book ended up on my TBR (I don't remember adding it), but I'm glad it did! I really enjoyed this. It's written in the style of 19th century literature, and is essentially a monologue by our main character Edward, so I can see that being off-putting for some. But I have a soft spot in my reading heart for unreliable narrators, and so I enjoyed following Edward's story every step of the way. It's also a good historical fiction read, and includes two wonderful historical characters in Edgar Allen Poe and Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter. Poe is great, but the real treat here is Dr Mutter, who I've found fascinating since reading Dr Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz. (I can't figure out how to get the umlaut on my keyboard ... sorry, Dr. Mutter!)