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Valerie and Other Stories
With the nine stories of this collection, Colin Insole conducts a fantastic pavane that depicts human folly and the protracted immolation of dream and ambition. In nineteenth-century Paris, Doctor Colbert, stifled by bourgeois expectations, longs for a life purified by art, but his inept adventure with the easel leads him only into degradation and tragedy; in a village in Southeastern Europe, children drum and dance in sinister rites to propitiate a malignant, all-seeing moon; a fey and curious orphan, Valerie, is fostered in a dour and repressed English vicarage, and soon reveals to the vicar’s daughter all the ghostly secrets sequestered in the back lanes and whispering shadows of the market town.
Through all these worlds of grotesquerie, enchantment and menace, Colin Insole portrays the irrepressible workings of inhuman reprisal, ever returning to dismantle, with subtle but vicious talons, the schemes of the uncomprehending human protagonists.
Through all these worlds of grotesquerie, enchantment and menace, Colin Insole portrays the irrepressible workings of inhuman reprisal, ever returning to dismantle, with subtle but vicious talons, the schemes of the uncomprehending human protagonists.
244 pages, Paperback
First published July 3, 2018
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About the author
Colin Insole
54 books50 followersColin Insole lives in Lymington, on the edge of the New Forest, in England. He has contributed to a number of anthologies, including tribute volumes to Bruno Schulz, Arthur Machen and Emil Cioran. His first collection of stories, Elegies and Requiems, was published by Side Real Press (Newcastle upon Tyne) in 2013. His second collection, Valerie and Other Stories, was published by Snuggly Books in 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 2, 2020
These varied stories drawn from various themed collections and deploying a variety of styles also varied dramatically in quality.
I first became aware of the author via his story "Dancing Boy" in A Book of the Sea, which was the highlight of that collection. And so I thought I knew what I'd be getting into when I started this: it would be a collection of psychologically astute, empathetic tales of misunderstood people who are led astray by folklore, the elements, their own poorly understood motivations, other people, the world itself. The writing would be evocative, the themes subtly introduced, the prose precise.
The themes do remain intact; all artists will bring their personal perspectives to their works, and those perspectives are processed via the themes they choose, or that perhaps appear unconsciously. And so Valerie and Other Stories details the journeys of various outsiders, people misunderstood and who lack understanding of their identities. They are led astray or afar by many things: the moon and the woodlands, their emotions and lusts, their faith in other people, the lack of clarity in their own intentions. Fragile things, one and all.
What I didn't expect was how much of a chameleon Insole turned out to be! The man has a wide range of skills, no doubt. I think most of these stories were tailored to reflect the subjects of the collections where they first appeared. And so there are stories about stars and temples, faerie and films, philosophical ideas. The wide differences in both subject matter and story style can be jarring and a bit off-putting. At times, Insole overreaches, and sometimes overwrites.
The differences between three stories were particularly noticeable to me: "The Binding" and "A Blue Dish of Figs" and the title story are all about mortal incursions into strange otherworlds (and vice versa). I felt that the "The Binding" was the more traditional and unsurprising of the three but also the most resonantly mythic, and the most successful. This story of a changeling and her mother who seek to break a cycle of exploitation is perfectly told. "Blue Dish" is more challenging, more experimental in its style, and overall is an absorbing but flawed, at times frustrating piece; it is about a schoolteacher following her fey student into places unknown. And I often quite disliked the stilted, artificial "Valerie" which concerns itself with a haunting childhood friendship (although for some, other readers consider this to be one of the stronger stories). I also was not a fan of Insole's more explicitly referential stories: "The Slaves of Paradise" uses the marvelous film "Children of Paradise" as a starting point and "Salammbô and the Zaïmph" is obviously indebted to Flaubert; I thought both were beautifully written but strained, overdone, and rather pointless.
My favorites were the first and last pieces, "The Binding" noted above, and "Dance for a Winter Moon". "Dance" is a haunting depiction of the cruelty of fate and the perhaps inevitable destiny of those who become part of a culture but in the end, do not truly understand that culture. "The Abdication of the Serpent" channels the master Clark Ashton Smith in its gorgeous descriptions of a fascinating society, the romanticism of its elderly hero's quest, and its almost overripe, hallucinatory dreaminess. And the brilliant "The Hill of Cinders" - the star of the collection - is a novella both mysterious and mordant, perfectly paced, full of dire irony. It is, essentially, about the evils that men may accomplish if nihilism and self-interest are their guides, the cyclical quality of those evils as they reappear again and again throughout time, the lack of understanding within such men of why they do these things, and the ashes of failure that are the appropriate ending for such lives. Curiously enough, fellow readers saw a certain neutrality in this tale that I did not, as if the author perhaps sympathized with the repugnant protagonist and his battle against systems of power, against his home, country, the family of mankind. I did not see any such thing; to me, the moral stance on display was crystalline.
Insole's spiritual interests are decidedly pre-Christian, so I thought I'd amuse myself by using Biblical verses to synopsize each story:
I first became aware of the author via his story "Dancing Boy" in A Book of the Sea, which was the highlight of that collection. And so I thought I knew what I'd be getting into when I started this: it would be a collection of psychologically astute, empathetic tales of misunderstood people who are led astray by folklore, the elements, their own poorly understood motivations, other people, the world itself. The writing would be evocative, the themes subtly introduced, the prose precise.
The themes do remain intact; all artists will bring their personal perspectives to their works, and those perspectives are processed via the themes they choose, or that perhaps appear unconsciously. And so Valerie and Other Stories details the journeys of various outsiders, people misunderstood and who lack understanding of their identities. They are led astray or afar by many things: the moon and the woodlands, their emotions and lusts, their faith in other people, the lack of clarity in their own intentions. Fragile things, one and all.
What I didn't expect was how much of a chameleon Insole turned out to be! The man has a wide range of skills, no doubt. I think most of these stories were tailored to reflect the subjects of the collections where they first appeared. And so there are stories about stars and temples, faerie and films, philosophical ideas. The wide differences in both subject matter and story style can be jarring and a bit off-putting. At times, Insole overreaches, and sometimes overwrites.
The differences between three stories were particularly noticeable to me: "The Binding" and "A Blue Dish of Figs" and the title story are all about mortal incursions into strange otherworlds (and vice versa). I felt that the "The Binding" was the more traditional and unsurprising of the three but also the most resonantly mythic, and the most successful. This story of a changeling and her mother who seek to break a cycle of exploitation is perfectly told. "Blue Dish" is more challenging, more experimental in its style, and overall is an absorbing but flawed, at times frustrating piece; it is about a schoolteacher following her fey student into places unknown. And I often quite disliked the stilted, artificial "Valerie" which concerns itself with a haunting childhood friendship (although for some, other readers consider this to be one of the stronger stories). I also was not a fan of Insole's more explicitly referential stories: "The Slaves of Paradise" uses the marvelous film "Children of Paradise" as a starting point and "Salammbô and the Zaïmph" is obviously indebted to Flaubert; I thought both were beautifully written but strained, overdone, and rather pointless.
My favorites were the first and last pieces, "The Binding" noted above, and "Dance for a Winter Moon". "Dance" is a haunting depiction of the cruelty of fate and the perhaps inevitable destiny of those who become part of a culture but in the end, do not truly understand that culture. "The Abdication of the Serpent" channels the master Clark Ashton Smith in its gorgeous descriptions of a fascinating society, the romanticism of its elderly hero's quest, and its almost overripe, hallucinatory dreaminess. And the brilliant "The Hill of Cinders" - the star of the collection - is a novella both mysterious and mordant, perfectly paced, full of dire irony. It is, essentially, about the evils that men may accomplish if nihilism and self-interest are their guides, the cyclical quality of those evils as they reappear again and again throughout time, the lack of understanding within such men of why they do these things, and the ashes of failure that are the appropriate ending for such lives. Curiously enough, fellow readers saw a certain neutrality in this tale that I did not, as if the author perhaps sympathized with the repugnant protagonist and his battle against systems of power, against his home, country, the family of mankind. I did not see any such thing; to me, the moral stance on display was crystalline.
Insole's spiritual interests are decidedly pre-Christian, so I thought I'd amuse myself by using Biblical verses to synopsize each story:
"The Hill of Cinders" - Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.A totally trifling thing I noticed: the author repeatedly uses the image of saliva running from mouth to pillow as a way to denote a debauched or deluded character. C'mon, Colin! Doesn't everybody drool in their sleep? At least a little bit?
"The Binding" - You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.
"The Slaves of Paradise" - Good were it for that man if he had not been born.
"Dance for a Winter Moon" - The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes.
"A Blue Dish of Figs" - The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
"Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit" - For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality...
"Dreams from the Apple Orchards" - Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors...
"Valerie" - Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me.
"The Abdication of the Serpent" - For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
February 9, 2020
It's become so commonplace that it's almost laughable - short story collections are, for the most part, labelled "uneven". And, I get it, this is usually true. Pick up just about any short story collection and you're going to find at least one story, possibly more, that you will consider a dud. Such is human taste. And I'm a frequent user of the "uneven" label in my reviews, as well.
But this collection isn't "just about any short story collection". And when I use the term "uneven" to describe this collection, I am most explicitly not referring to the quality of the stories. Every one of the stories in this collection is remarkable and most of them are exceptional. The word "uneven" only refers to the tonal differences between each tale. They are all "of a piece" in that there is a thread of "voice" that sings throughout, but that voice is sometimes a distant echo, sometimes a ghostly shout in the ear - but a quietened shout, like the muffled sound of someone being smothered with a pillow combined with wind chimes down a country road. There is a quaint quality to the despair, more than just a veneer to the rot underneath - a kind of sprightly rural squalor, red agaric mushrooms whose consumption produces both mind-opening beauty and horrific shadow creatures in equal measure. The combination is alluring and repulsive at the same time, not just in the vivid descriptions that Insole unfolds, but in the emotional spaces of raw feeling that the characters inhabit. We are taken in by them because they are us in all our complexity of shameful ugliness and triumphant beauty, shouting our heady defiance at a cosmos that will, ultimately and inevitably, crush our life-force from us.
This is quickly evident in the first story, in which a mystical experience leads to self-deceit and a multi-layered betrayal in "The Hill of Cinders," which took several unexpected turns; many of them of an emotional bent that left me reeling when i thought back on some of the more foolish choices of my own youth. Five red stars falling from the sky for this weird tale.
I am rarely stunned by fables, and "The Binding" is no exception, though the writing is exceptionally good. I like the witchiness of it, but I am so over the tone of "fabulism" that I can't get too excited about it any more. I'm waiting for a fable that will prove the exception. Perhaps I was jaded by so many stories as a child. Nevertheless, I am not so jaded as to give this story less than four stars. So it is. This was the first big tonal switch in the collection, as I mentioned above. It threw me, at first, because of its seeming abruptness, but then Insole's storytelling carried me along to a satisfactory conclusion.
"The Slaves of Paradise" is a lush story of anguish told by an artist who accidentally, clumsily betrays his lover and the French resistance. The imagery in this story shall haunt me for some time. It is beautiful and tragic, in equal measure. The horror of stupidity and lack of attention to detail are on stark display here. This story will make you feel uncomfortable for every time you've accidentally hit "reply all" or forgotten an important appointment or made an unguarded remark to the wrong person about someone close to you - but in this case, the embarrassment is fatal. Five stars of utter shame.
"Dance for a Winter Moon" is heartbreaking, even when you know exactly what's coming. There is a strong sense of foreshadowing and inevitability, and you'll find that you were right all-along about what was going to happen. Still, the emotional impact is gut-wrenching. And getting there is half the fun. Read this paragraph and tell me you aren't going to enjoy the horrid ride to the bitter end:
The night had given up its pretence of glamour and beauty, its tinsel tricks of moonbeam and sentimental star glow. Little flurries of frost or dirty snow scudded in the air, as if the firmament was swollen with their filth and they dropped like lice from an old mattress. She remembered her father pulling away the roof slats and painted wooden fascias at their home in England. They were rotten and stinking, riddled with the nests of vermin and choked with chewed paper and scraggy tufts of wool. The churning escape of the creatures had sent ti all floating down like ash into her hair. Scrape away the cheap veneer, the inky indigo of the sky and it would peel and flake like chewed wood or wallpaper to root out the hiding places of the stars and reveal them in all their monstrosity and malevolence."
The title of the next story, "A Blue Dish of Figs," evokes the image of a carefully-crafted still-life painting that contains far more symbolic meaning than its banal subject matter. One can say the same of the protagonist and her life. It is crude and shapeless, awaiting the touch of an artist's hand to add color and give life. That artist is a child who teaches hidden wisdom to her Teacher. Five stars for a story where pedantry is turned inside out and the inversion of the social order creates a passageway to meaning.
"Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit" is a masterful tale in the decadent strain of Huysmans. Beauty is a fair mistress, but jealousy is more adamant. Like all good decadent tales, sumptuousness ends in nightmarish squalor. Five stars
"Dreams from the Apple Orchard" is a story of beautiful decay, of fissures in social unity (a theme that Insole revisits often), the beautiful, frightful interstices between the sanguine constructs of friendship and fruitfulness. Set in Eastern Europe right before WW II, this is a solemn foreshadowing of things to come. Brilliant and brutal. Five stars. I loved this story.
"Valerie," shows a world of mystique, beautiful and terrifying, in the lanes and hedges, the interstices; magical portals. What a darkly-beautiful, beautifully-dark story. I am reminded of Rikki Ducornet's The Jade Cabinet and The Fountains of Neptune, tonally speaking. Yet another shift!
It is in the lengthy denouement of "Valerie" that some aspects of the tale come into clear focus, while others are blurred. The effect is like looking through binoculars at a hazy distant landscape. The broad strokes may be beautiful, but on closer examination, there is rot beneath. But the rot holds it's own beauty. This was an amazing novella, and the only piece original to the collection. It is for good reason that it lends its title to the book. I found myself, again and again, revisiting my own childhood (though it was quite different from the narrator's experience, at least in terms of my family life - thankfully!) and the wonders of discovery. On further reflection, though, I thought "what if this is an unreliable narrator"? And the thought exploded in my head like a literary kaleidoscope! If true, this story gains multiple levels of meaning and emotional depth that I had not considered on my first read-through. The implications are staggering and left me intellectually dizzy, drunk on possibilities.
In the middle of the final story, "The Abdication of the Serpent," I admit, I asked where this story was headed, doubtful of its outcome. But by the end, the meandering labyrinth finally made sense. It's a murder-mystery undergirded by myth-building, and a coming-of-age, but not the age typically associated with such stories. It is a coming-of-age for a character that has reached old age. It is, in summation, a fine, fine story. One that deserves a reread and will stick in my head for some time, especially for the "release" of the ending, which opens up a sea of vistas and gently pushes the reader's ship out into the soft waves - a fitting end to the book, which felt like a new beginning.
But this collection isn't "just about any short story collection". And when I use the term "uneven" to describe this collection, I am most explicitly not referring to the quality of the stories. Every one of the stories in this collection is remarkable and most of them are exceptional. The word "uneven" only refers to the tonal differences between each tale. They are all "of a piece" in that there is a thread of "voice" that sings throughout, but that voice is sometimes a distant echo, sometimes a ghostly shout in the ear - but a quietened shout, like the muffled sound of someone being smothered with a pillow combined with wind chimes down a country road. There is a quaint quality to the despair, more than just a veneer to the rot underneath - a kind of sprightly rural squalor, red agaric mushrooms whose consumption produces both mind-opening beauty and horrific shadow creatures in equal measure. The combination is alluring and repulsive at the same time, not just in the vivid descriptions that Insole unfolds, but in the emotional spaces of raw feeling that the characters inhabit. We are taken in by them because they are us in all our complexity of shameful ugliness and triumphant beauty, shouting our heady defiance at a cosmos that will, ultimately and inevitably, crush our life-force from us.
This is quickly evident in the first story, in which a mystical experience leads to self-deceit and a multi-layered betrayal in "The Hill of Cinders," which took several unexpected turns; many of them of an emotional bent that left me reeling when i thought back on some of the more foolish choices of my own youth. Five red stars falling from the sky for this weird tale.
I am rarely stunned by fables, and "The Binding" is no exception, though the writing is exceptionally good. I like the witchiness of it, but I am so over the tone of "fabulism" that I can't get too excited about it any more. I'm waiting for a fable that will prove the exception. Perhaps I was jaded by so many stories as a child. Nevertheless, I am not so jaded as to give this story less than four stars. So it is. This was the first big tonal switch in the collection, as I mentioned above. It threw me, at first, because of its seeming abruptness, but then Insole's storytelling carried me along to a satisfactory conclusion.
"The Slaves of Paradise" is a lush story of anguish told by an artist who accidentally, clumsily betrays his lover and the French resistance. The imagery in this story shall haunt me for some time. It is beautiful and tragic, in equal measure. The horror of stupidity and lack of attention to detail are on stark display here. This story will make you feel uncomfortable for every time you've accidentally hit "reply all" or forgotten an important appointment or made an unguarded remark to the wrong person about someone close to you - but in this case, the embarrassment is fatal. Five stars of utter shame.
"Dance for a Winter Moon" is heartbreaking, even when you know exactly what's coming. There is a strong sense of foreshadowing and inevitability, and you'll find that you were right all-along about what was going to happen. Still, the emotional impact is gut-wrenching. And getting there is half the fun. Read this paragraph and tell me you aren't going to enjoy the horrid ride to the bitter end:
The night had given up its pretence of glamour and beauty, its tinsel tricks of moonbeam and sentimental star glow. Little flurries of frost or dirty snow scudded in the air, as if the firmament was swollen with their filth and they dropped like lice from an old mattress. She remembered her father pulling away the roof slats and painted wooden fascias at their home in England. They were rotten and stinking, riddled with the nests of vermin and choked with chewed paper and scraggy tufts of wool. The churning escape of the creatures had sent ti all floating down like ash into her hair. Scrape away the cheap veneer, the inky indigo of the sky and it would peel and flake like chewed wood or wallpaper to root out the hiding places of the stars and reveal them in all their monstrosity and malevolence."
The title of the next story, "A Blue Dish of Figs," evokes the image of a carefully-crafted still-life painting that contains far more symbolic meaning than its banal subject matter. One can say the same of the protagonist and her life. It is crude and shapeless, awaiting the touch of an artist's hand to add color and give life. That artist is a child who teaches hidden wisdom to her Teacher. Five stars for a story where pedantry is turned inside out and the inversion of the social order creates a passageway to meaning.
"Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit" is a masterful tale in the decadent strain of Huysmans. Beauty is a fair mistress, but jealousy is more adamant. Like all good decadent tales, sumptuousness ends in nightmarish squalor. Five stars
"Dreams from the Apple Orchard" is a story of beautiful decay, of fissures in social unity (a theme that Insole revisits often), the beautiful, frightful interstices between the sanguine constructs of friendship and fruitfulness. Set in Eastern Europe right before WW II, this is a solemn foreshadowing of things to come. Brilliant and brutal. Five stars. I loved this story.
"Valerie," shows a world of mystique, beautiful and terrifying, in the lanes and hedges, the interstices; magical portals. What a darkly-beautiful, beautifully-dark story. I am reminded of Rikki Ducornet's The Jade Cabinet and The Fountains of Neptune, tonally speaking. Yet another shift!
It is in the lengthy denouement of "Valerie" that some aspects of the tale come into clear focus, while others are blurred. The effect is like looking through binoculars at a hazy distant landscape. The broad strokes may be beautiful, but on closer examination, there is rot beneath. But the rot holds it's own beauty. This was an amazing novella, and the only piece original to the collection. It is for good reason that it lends its title to the book. I found myself, again and again, revisiting my own childhood (though it was quite different from the narrator's experience, at least in terms of my family life - thankfully!) and the wonders of discovery. On further reflection, though, I thought "what if this is an unreliable narrator"? And the thought exploded in my head like a literary kaleidoscope! If true, this story gains multiple levels of meaning and emotional depth that I had not considered on my first read-through. The implications are staggering and left me intellectually dizzy, drunk on possibilities.
In the middle of the final story, "The Abdication of the Serpent," I admit, I asked where this story was headed, doubtful of its outcome. But by the end, the meandering labyrinth finally made sense. It's a murder-mystery undergirded by myth-building, and a coming-of-age, but not the age typically associated with such stories. It is a coming-of-age for a character that has reached old age. It is, in summation, a fine, fine story. One that deserves a reread and will stick in my head for some time, especially for the "release" of the ending, which opens up a sea of vistas and gently pushes the reader's ship out into the soft waves - a fitting end to the book, which felt like a new beginning.
March 20, 2019
So... I must applaud Snuggly Books for publishing a collection of Colin Insole's wonderful stories and making them much more accessible than they were previously. The majority of the stories contained in this collection are stories previously published in now very expensive and very out of print anthologies or gorgeous hardback books (generally published by the amazing Ex Occidente Press). I happen to be one of those patrons that has supported Ex Occidente press from close to their inception, and have been greatly rewarded with being able to read amazing literary explorations by authors like Colin Insole, George Berguno, John Howard, Damian Murphy, etc. These are all authors greatly deserving of wider readership... and voila... thank you Snuggly. Please continue to republish these treasures... Insole has many other novellas and short stories that would make another wonderful collection... =)
Ok... that out of the way... I really really enjoyed this collection... although I wouldn't consider every story here a major work by Insole... but all of them were thought provoking and/or deeply evocative of brilliant and vibrant numinous elements sprinkled throughout. In fairness though... it was not just the collection and its contents, but I happened to have read this through a buddy read and was compelled to put more thought into what I was reading as well as listen to some incredibly insightful comments from the small group I was reading with. A special thanks to Mimi, Sean, and Bill for creating a wonderful reading experience with this collection.
As for the stories, contained therein are a shorter novella (Hill of Cinders) a longish novella (Valerie) and all sorts of different short stories that cover themes like patriotism and war, treason and subversion of societal convention, piercing the veil of a magical fey world, getting lost in a dream, folkloric magic, reason or rationality vs old world magic, etc.
I think the diversity of the kinds of stories in this collection is double edged, in that it gives a reader a very good introduction to the range of theme and literary references that Insole employs in his writings. That being said, I can also see how it can be a little overwhelming and in some ways detracts from any kind of continuity of a short story collection. I have read nearly everything Insole has published, so... for me, my ear has been attuned to his authorial voice and I was mesmerized by how well he developed key themes and used vibrant literary devices in such a myriad display.
I think those stories that had the greatest impact on me were the Machen tribute story, Blue Dish of Figs as well as the titular story, Valerie. Aside from perhaps Rhododendron Boy (another amazing Insole novella), I think Blue Dish is one of those stories that doesn't just pierce the veil of a hidden world, but ultimately takes the reader down the rabbit hole... more explicitly than many of his other works.
Valerie was a wonderful faery changeling story... ideally presented as a longish novella. This story had plenty of space to develop multiple themes (abusive and dysfunctional parenting to the extreme, effects of a toxic environment on a child, skirting of the real world and the numinous, etc) and the story was both poignant and melancholy. For those of you who have read Insole's full oeuvre, the bonus to this collection is this new novella exclusive to this collection... and yes... definitely worth the price of admission, even if it's just for this piece.
Other stories that closely held my attention were the poisonously and decadently barbed conte cruel, Salammbo and the Zaimph of Tanit, as well as the shortish and very subversive novella, Hill of Cinders.
This is a wonderful collection and really demonstrates Insole's full talents... importantly, these stories are now monetarily accessible to more folks... hardback and paper back available via Snuggly.
Ok... that out of the way... I really really enjoyed this collection... although I wouldn't consider every story here a major work by Insole... but all of them were thought provoking and/or deeply evocative of brilliant and vibrant numinous elements sprinkled throughout. In fairness though... it was not just the collection and its contents, but I happened to have read this through a buddy read and was compelled to put more thought into what I was reading as well as listen to some incredibly insightful comments from the small group I was reading with. A special thanks to Mimi, Sean, and Bill for creating a wonderful reading experience with this collection.
As for the stories, contained therein are a shorter novella (Hill of Cinders) a longish novella (Valerie) and all sorts of different short stories that cover themes like patriotism and war, treason and subversion of societal convention, piercing the veil of a magical fey world, getting lost in a dream, folkloric magic, reason or rationality vs old world magic, etc.
I think the diversity of the kinds of stories in this collection is double edged, in that it gives a reader a very good introduction to the range of theme and literary references that Insole employs in his writings. That being said, I can also see how it can be a little overwhelming and in some ways detracts from any kind of continuity of a short story collection. I have read nearly everything Insole has published, so... for me, my ear has been attuned to his authorial voice and I was mesmerized by how well he developed key themes and used vibrant literary devices in such a myriad display.
I think those stories that had the greatest impact on me were the Machen tribute story, Blue Dish of Figs as well as the titular story, Valerie. Aside from perhaps Rhododendron Boy (another amazing Insole novella), I think Blue Dish is one of those stories that doesn't just pierce the veil of a hidden world, but ultimately takes the reader down the rabbit hole... more explicitly than many of his other works.
Valerie was a wonderful faery changeling story... ideally presented as a longish novella. This story had plenty of space to develop multiple themes (abusive and dysfunctional parenting to the extreme, effects of a toxic environment on a child, skirting of the real world and the numinous, etc) and the story was both poignant and melancholy. For those of you who have read Insole's full oeuvre, the bonus to this collection is this new novella exclusive to this collection... and yes... definitely worth the price of admission, even if it's just for this piece.
Other stories that closely held my attention were the poisonously and decadently barbed conte cruel, Salammbo and the Zaimph of Tanit, as well as the shortish and very subversive novella, Hill of Cinders.
This is a wonderful collection and really demonstrates Insole's full talents... importantly, these stories are now monetarily accessible to more folks... hardback and paper back available via Snuggly.
September 1, 2018
Colin Insole continues to be one of the top-tier current writers in the Symbolist-Decadent tradition. Through his almost complete association with small presses, often as an anthology contributor, he is also one of the least known. Valerie, like the previous Elegies & Requiems (Side Real Press; 2013) presents readers with the chance to savor a full collection of his poetic, intriguingly allusive work, this time through Snuggly Books, a publisher whose excellent and affordable catalog seems like a Who’s Who of brilliant but overlooked writers from the late-Victorian period through today.
Valerie’s nine tales include some previously published in various anthologies, as well as ‘The Hill of Cinders,’ published as a stand-alone short story by Ex Occidente Press. Many of these previously published works appeared in short-run titles that, by their rarity, command high book market prices. Kudos to Snuggly Books for their efforts at making writers like Insole available to a wider readership.
Valerie’s nine tales include some previously published in various anthologies, as well as ‘The Hill of Cinders,’ published as a stand-alone short story by Ex Occidente Press. Many of these previously published works appeared in short-run titles that, by their rarity, command high book market prices. Kudos to Snuggly Books for their efforts at making writers like Insole available to a wider readership.
April 10, 2019
2.5 stars
Interesting but uneven collection. Insole's rather lush prose is frequently lovely and he has a fine way with describing a landscape, but too much of this is tired and played out, and the lack of anything fresh or unexpected makes some of these tales a chore to read. Only the title story really took my fancy and even it seemed to peter out to nothing. Disappointing.
Interesting but uneven collection. Insole's rather lush prose is frequently lovely and he has a fine way with describing a landscape, but too much of this is tired and played out, and the lack of anything fresh or unexpected makes some of these tales a chore to read. Only the title story really took my fancy and even it seemed to peter out to nothing. Disappointing.
Want to read
July 14, 2018This hardcover is limited to 60 copies.
October 19, 2020
Valerie is my first contact with Colin Insole, a name that I kept seeing in the weird fiction circles during the past months. Most of his stories have been published in very limited editions, and as a result Valerie is his only easily obtainable book (thank Snuggly books for that). After my first complete read-through (there are definitely more coming) I can say that the hype is totally well-deserved.
Insole's is a rich, evocative prose, fixed on eroding the borders between imagination and reality, between the self and the world, revealing an almost animistic worldview. The writer does this by keeping a close watch on the way the world is revealed to his heroes, while also putting the landscape on the foreground. Indeed, in many of the stories, the vivid, multifaceted and utterly awe-inspiring landscape is the main protagonist.
The settings are usually liminal places, on the edge of civilization and historical events (interwar Europe is prevalent), mirroring the characters' dissatisfaction with the forms and bonds of society; here lie dreamers and exiles, outsiders in more than one meaning of the word.
Beware that Insole's language is lush and like any exquisite beverage needs to be taken in small doses - an overabundance leads to drowning in images and words. An example of his prose, from the Hill of Cinders:
"Every step was an act of rebellion, of unpardonable treason, and several times he nearly turned back. But the hill glowed under a full moon; a dark cauldron enticing him on. Occasionally, a light from the summer meteor shower fizzed and danced before its vapours were extinguished. In the stillness, he sometimes heard the slight hiss of its brief descent. And he pictured the fall of Lucifer, the bright angel, plummeting through the skies; his wings scorched black by fire, wind and retribution."
Do take into account that Valerie is a collection of previously published stories (only the namesake is a new story). As an obvious result the book's main focus is not on cohesiveness but on giving the reader a good indication of Insole's breadth of style.
As for the individual stories:
The Hill of Cinders: Concerning a man's return to the school of his childhood (bringing to mind Algernon Blackwood's A Secret Worship) and the way evil seeps through the landscape and the psyche of (modern?) man. Simply amazing celestial imagery. 5/5
The Binding: Concerning a family curse and the Good People, the demands and expectations of society. Pacts, illusions and otherworldly beauty. A folk horror masterpiece. 5/5
The Slaves of Paradise: About two lovers in the French resistance and the tragic whimsiness of fate/chance(you can take your pick). This seemed to me somewhat lost in its revery prose, becoming unnecessary hazy in texture, viscous to traverse. 2/5
Dance for a Winter Moon: Of a Balkan winter night, uncanny local customs and the interplay between two kinds of outsiders. An amazing story that glides through an enchanting landscape's natural, folkloric and societal aspects. My favorite moment of the book. 5/5
A Blue Dish of Figs: Of a strange, uncanny girl and her school-teacher, of normality's bonds and the hidden power of the wondrous. This is a hommage to Machen's White People (written for a Machen tribute collection) and it does show - in parts it does stray a bit too close to the original. It also makes some forays into the Dunsanian/Dreamlands sphere which are not entirely in sync with the rest of the material. It could be tighter, but still it's very enjoyable and graced with a highly satisfactory ending. 3/5
Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit: A young doctor's obsessions in disease-ridden Victorian Paris; a glorious intertwining of past and present, as myth intrudes upon reality. Written as a tribute to Huysmans and full of truly gorgeous, carnal and sensual prose, this is enchanting literature. 5/5
Dreams from the Apple Orchard: A fable-like little story set in inter-war rural Yugoslavia, in which a girl discovers a dark local secret. Ancient myth and family history blend into the landscape as human and non-human persons take on a multitude of aspects. 5/5
Valerie: Of the seven months that the young protagonist spends with Valerie, a foster child; in which different layers of the unnamed city are revealed to the two girls. A bit protracted in places, Valerie is not perfect; however, it is highly atmospheric and enchanting, with some amazing insight into the different lenses through which we view the world - also, the idea of the back paths that run parallel to the normal town is mesmerizing. 3/5
The Abdication of the Serpent: A majestic temple and the priestly life surrounding it, full of intrigues and passions - both human and divine. An awe-inspiring (awe in the divine sense) fantasy story reminiscent of the pulp era's more elegant fruits (Clark Ashton Smith came into mind) that doubles over as murder mystery. A bit lengthy in certain moments, it nevertheless slithers magnificently. 4/5
Insole's is a rich, evocative prose, fixed on eroding the borders between imagination and reality, between the self and the world, revealing an almost animistic worldview. The writer does this by keeping a close watch on the way the world is revealed to his heroes, while also putting the landscape on the foreground. Indeed, in many of the stories, the vivid, multifaceted and utterly awe-inspiring landscape is the main protagonist.
The settings are usually liminal places, on the edge of civilization and historical events (interwar Europe is prevalent), mirroring the characters' dissatisfaction with the forms and bonds of society; here lie dreamers and exiles, outsiders in more than one meaning of the word.
Beware that Insole's language is lush and like any exquisite beverage needs to be taken in small doses - an overabundance leads to drowning in images and words. An example of his prose, from the Hill of Cinders:
"Every step was an act of rebellion, of unpardonable treason, and several times he nearly turned back. But the hill glowed under a full moon; a dark cauldron enticing him on. Occasionally, a light from the summer meteor shower fizzed and danced before its vapours were extinguished. In the stillness, he sometimes heard the slight hiss of its brief descent. And he pictured the fall of Lucifer, the bright angel, plummeting through the skies; his wings scorched black by fire, wind and retribution."
Do take into account that Valerie is a collection of previously published stories (only the namesake is a new story). As an obvious result the book's main focus is not on cohesiveness but on giving the reader a good indication of Insole's breadth of style.
As for the individual stories:
The Hill of Cinders: Concerning a man's return to the school of his childhood (bringing to mind Algernon Blackwood's A Secret Worship) and the way evil seeps through the landscape and the psyche of (modern?) man. Simply amazing celestial imagery. 5/5
The Binding: Concerning a family curse and the Good People, the demands and expectations of society. Pacts, illusions and otherworldly beauty. A folk horror masterpiece. 5/5
The Slaves of Paradise: About two lovers in the French resistance and the tragic whimsiness of fate/chance(you can take your pick). This seemed to me somewhat lost in its revery prose, becoming unnecessary hazy in texture, viscous to traverse. 2/5
Dance for a Winter Moon: Of a Balkan winter night, uncanny local customs and the interplay between two kinds of outsiders. An amazing story that glides through an enchanting landscape's natural, folkloric and societal aspects. My favorite moment of the book. 5/5
A Blue Dish of Figs: Of a strange, uncanny girl and her school-teacher, of normality's bonds and the hidden power of the wondrous. This is a hommage to Machen's White People (written for a Machen tribute collection) and it does show - in parts it does stray a bit too close to the original. It also makes some forays into the Dunsanian/Dreamlands sphere which are not entirely in sync with the rest of the material. It could be tighter, but still it's very enjoyable and graced with a highly satisfactory ending. 3/5
Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit: A young doctor's obsessions in disease-ridden Victorian Paris; a glorious intertwining of past and present, as myth intrudes upon reality. Written as a tribute to Huysmans and full of truly gorgeous, carnal and sensual prose, this is enchanting literature. 5/5
Dreams from the Apple Orchard: A fable-like little story set in inter-war rural Yugoslavia, in which a girl discovers a dark local secret. Ancient myth and family history blend into the landscape as human and non-human persons take on a multitude of aspects. 5/5
Valerie: Of the seven months that the young protagonist spends with Valerie, a foster child; in which different layers of the unnamed city are revealed to the two girls. A bit protracted in places, Valerie is not perfect; however, it is highly atmospheric and enchanting, with some amazing insight into the different lenses through which we view the world - also, the idea of the back paths that run parallel to the normal town is mesmerizing. 3/5
The Abdication of the Serpent: A majestic temple and the priestly life surrounding it, full of intrigues and passions - both human and divine. An awe-inspiring (awe in the divine sense) fantasy story reminiscent of the pulp era's more elegant fruits (Clark Ashton Smith came into mind) that doubles over as murder mystery. A bit lengthy in certain moments, it nevertheless slithers magnificently. 4/5
September 27, 2019
Pure reading excellence by a masterful writer.
more to come
more to come
January 4, 2021
This book is a major collection of rich story-telling prose to be treasured, not only to be felt deeply with a sense of darkness but also to be mutually harnessed by some yearning for an inexplicable joy.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is its conclusion.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is its conclusion.
May 13, 2021
3.5 stars: evokes beautifully (usually) the legacy of a pre-Christian era living on through the centuries, here are enchanted forests, wolves and pony and traps in England, middle Europe. The first story is fierce and engaging, as are others, stories of decay, fairy tales hammered into new shapes, people dribbling on to their pillows, betrayals, grudges passed down, orphans and hidden sisters, set in the 19th C, or the 1920s, 40s, 60s, but never now, but some I found trod the same ground, and while I acknowledge the skill and vision involved – wonderful description, perfectly creepy atmosphere – they were not my kind of story (at least not in quantity).
October 4, 2018
[I will write a review... but I just have to think a little first.]
June 3, 2019
I’m on my way to work now but I really enjoyed this. Very elegiac and haunting all the way through. Even the weaker more plotless stories have this great dreamlike quality to them.
The centrepiece novella Valerie is so absorbing that it will likely remain in my thoughts throughout my monotonous workday and beyond.
The Hill of Cinders - 8/10
The Binding - 8/10
The Slaves of Paradise - 4/10
Dance of the Winter Moon - 8/10
A Blue Dish of Figs 7/10
Salambo and the Zaimph - 3/10
Dreams From the Apple Orchards - 5/10
Valerie - 9/10
The Abdication of the Serpent - 7/10
The centrepiece novella Valerie is so absorbing that it will likely remain in my thoughts throughout my monotonous workday and beyond.
The Hill of Cinders - 8/10
The Binding - 8/10
The Slaves of Paradise - 4/10
Dance of the Winter Moon - 8/10
A Blue Dish of Figs 7/10
Salambo and the Zaimph - 3/10
Dreams From the Apple Orchards - 5/10
Valerie - 9/10
The Abdication of the Serpent - 7/10
July 4, 2023
Luscious stuff.
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