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The novel that inspired the movie from Artisan Entertainment concerns an ordinary suburban husband who is able to read the minds of his neighbors and learn their sordid secrets. He is also haunted by the apparition of a mysterious woman, which forces him to uncover the truth behind a long-forgotten tragedy. Movie to star Kevin Bacon.
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First published January 1, 1958
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About the author
Richard Matheson
759 books4,791 followersBorn in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of whom (Chris, Richard Christian, and Ali Matheson) are writers of fiction and screenplays.
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,055 reviews
May 6, 2020
We are all monsters underneath, so a remarkable quote in the novel. Since Tom Wallace got hypnotized by his brother-in-law at a party he has premonitions. Then the ghost of a strange woman, Helen Driscoll, appears in his home. What is going on with his neighbors Elizabeth and Frank? What role does his landlord play here? An intriguing mystery goes supernatural goes crime story awaits you as a reader. You get deep insight into the values of a typical 50s American family. Besides you learn that everyday occurrences are enough to create a setting of fear and horror. Extremely compelling novel, convincing and well plotted. A modern classic by Matheson. Highly recommended!
December 10, 2017
When Tom Wallace's brother-in-law hypnotizes him at a party, he inadvertently wakens something in Tom. Now, Tom sees the ghost of a woman in a black dress and can sense peoples' thoughts. But who is the woman in the black dress...?
Sometime in that half-forgotten time before Goodreads, I went on a Richard Matheson binge and this is one of the books I read. I thought I'd unloaded it at the local used bookstore years ago but I stumbled upon it in my basement while looking for something else. Since I'd forgotten most of it in the eons since I originally read it, it was like a whole new book.
A Stir of Echoes is a ghost story but it's also about the secrets people keep hidden from one another. Tom Wallace lives in a neighborhood in the suburbs with a wife, a baby, and another baby on the way. When he suddenly becomes a medium, things slowly go pear-shaped.
It's a fairly creepy tale, told in Richard Matheson's all meat, no filler style. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find a ghost in your house. Still, the biggest horrors are his neighbors and what they're capable of. I had a vague idea of how things went down but the twists still caught me off guard. As always, Matheson's prose is as smooth as bar of soap and just as slippery.
A Stir of Echoes was really hard to put down, even on the second read. One of these days, I'll have to watch the Kevin Bacon movie. Four out of five stars.
Sometime in that half-forgotten time before Goodreads, I went on a Richard Matheson binge and this is one of the books I read. I thought I'd unloaded it at the local used bookstore years ago but I stumbled upon it in my basement while looking for something else. Since I'd forgotten most of it in the eons since I originally read it, it was like a whole new book.
A Stir of Echoes is a ghost story but it's also about the secrets people keep hidden from one another. Tom Wallace lives in a neighborhood in the suburbs with a wife, a baby, and another baby on the way. When he suddenly becomes a medium, things slowly go pear-shaped.
It's a fairly creepy tale, told in Richard Matheson's all meat, no filler style. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find a ghost in your house. Still, the biggest horrors are his neighbors and what they're capable of. I had a vague idea of how things went down but the twists still caught me off guard. As always, Matheson's prose is as smooth as bar of soap and just as slippery.
A Stir of Echoes was really hard to put down, even on the second read. One of these days, I'll have to watch the Kevin Bacon movie. Four out of five stars.
March 13, 2020
An enjoyable novel about a man hypnotized at a party who then begins to exhibit psychic powers--including the recurrent appearances of a woman who may or may not be a ghost.
Matheson--author of I am Legend, numerous classic creepy short stories and many of the best Twilight Zone episodes--has written better things, but this still kept my interest.
I am a fan of the movie with Kevin Bacon, and was surprised by how much different the atmosphere and setting is in this, the original. The movie is set in a gritty working class Chicago neighborhood in the '90's, among average Joes skeptical of psychic abilities; the novel is set in the '50's in a tract of post-war prefab housing that in spite of its blandness, newness and all American wholesomeness still provides a home for viciousness and a few dark secrets.
I think this would have made a very good novella. But even at a mere 200 pages--it is a little too long.
April 3, 2017
I want you to pretend you're in a theater, an enormous theater. You're sitting near the front....
It is completely black inside. the walls are dark velvet, the floors are covered with dark velvet rugs. It's black inside, absolutely black...
Except for one thing. In the whooooole pitch-black theater there's only one thing you can see. The letters on the screen. S-L-E-E-P. You're very comfortable. Veeeery comfortable. You are just sitting there and looking at the screen, looking, loooooking at that single word. Sleep...sleep...sleeeeeeep...
The story takes place in Hawthorne California in the 1950s. Tom Wallace is living in a rented house with his pregnant wife -Anne- and his son- Richard. Things are going pretty smoothly until the day his brother-in-law -Phil- visits, and the three adults go over to a neighbor's house for a little get together. After a few drinks the topic turns to hypnotism- and after some gentle ribbing- Phil convinces Tom to be his subject. What was supposed to be just party trick- turns dark and frightening when Tom starts to have visions of a strange women in his house- and that is just the beginning...
A STIR OF ECHOES is my first experience with a Richard Matheson novel. And all I kept saying to myself was -why I hadn't read him before!!? I would have given this 5-stars if not for one teeny tiny little issue I had with what I will call "The Scooby-Doo" ending- where the killer explains in great length the reason for the murder and the way they went about it...Other than that it was a perfect, creepy, hair-raising read!
It is completely black inside. the walls are dark velvet, the floors are covered with dark velvet rugs. It's black inside, absolutely black...
Except for one thing. In the whooooole pitch-black theater there's only one thing you can see. The letters on the screen. S-L-E-E-P. You're very comfortable. Veeeery comfortable. You are just sitting there and looking at the screen, looking, loooooking at that single word. Sleep...sleep...sleeeeeeep...
The story takes place in Hawthorne California in the 1950s. Tom Wallace is living in a rented house with his pregnant wife -Anne- and his son- Richard. Things are going pretty smoothly until the day his brother-in-law -Phil- visits, and the three adults go over to a neighbor's house for a little get together. After a few drinks the topic turns to hypnotism- and after some gentle ribbing- Phil convinces Tom to be his subject. What was supposed to be just party trick- turns dark and frightening when Tom starts to have visions of a strange women in his house- and that is just the beginning...
A STIR OF ECHOES is my first experience with a Richard Matheson novel. And all I kept saying to myself was -why I hadn't read him before!!? I would have given this 5-stars if not for one teeny tiny little issue I had with what I will call "The Scooby-Doo" ending- where the killer explains in great length the reason for the murder and the way they went about it...Other than that it was a perfect, creepy, hair-raising read!
November 24, 2019
Richard Matheson was a master of the horror genre.
This is about psychic powers and telepathy and all rolled up into a classic ghost story. Published in 1958, it is refreshing to read a minimalistic work in an age of sensationalism and graphic detail. It is obvious how influential he has been to generations of writers after him, I think Stephen King must have put this book down and kept it close before writing The Dead Zone.
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This is about psychic powers and telepathy and all rolled up into a classic ghost story. Published in 1958, it is refreshing to read a minimalistic work in an age of sensationalism and graphic detail. It is obvious how influential he has been to generations of writers after him, I think Stephen King must have put this book down and kept it close before writing The Dead Zone.
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June 27, 2021
My search for a great ghost story brought me to A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson. Published in 1958, I imagine that this novel made a greater splash in its day, when ghosts haunted manors, usually in Europe where there was foul weather. Staging his supernatural tale in a suburb of sunny Los Angeles with young couples was probably a stroke of genius on the part of Matheson, an author whose devotion to dark fantasy and high concept I love, but whose stories and characters fall further down the list. I took a long break in the middle of this and another week to write this review.
The novel is the first-person account of Tom Wallace, who works in publications at an aircraft plant in Inglewood. He's just moved in to a two-bedroom tract house in the city of Hawthorne with his pregnant wife Anne and their young son Richard. Tom returns home to find his twenty-year-old brother-in-law Philip, a psychology major at UC Berkeley, visiting. The Wallaces invite him to a party being thrown by their neighbor Elsie, the social butterfly of the block with an invisible robot husband Ron. Also at the party are Tom's cynical friend Frank and his pregnant wife Elizabeth.
Phil brings up one of his favorite subjects: hypnosis. He eggs Tom on to volunteer and after hours of horsing around, Tom relaxes and slips away. He wakes up hot and the center of attention. Anne tells her husband that Phil made him regress to the age of twelve and dredge up childhood occupations like his family or his dog. Then without being prompted, Tom takes off his left shoe and sticks it in the refrigerator, just as Phil instructed him to under hypnosis. The Wallaces return home and Tom finds himself restless. He walks the house to check on his son, then settles into the easy chair in his living room. He senses something is wrong.
Until that moment I had never known what it was to be so afraid my breath stopped, my body functionless, myself incapable of doing anything but stare in helpless shock.
She was in her thirties, pale, her hair in black disarray. She was wearing a strange, dark dress with a single strand of pearls at her throat. I sat rooted to the chair, my limbs dead. I stared at her.
I don't know how many minutes passed while that woman and I looked at each other. It didn't occur to me to wonder why it was I could see her so clearly in the darkness, why there was a sort of sourceless light on or rather, in her.
Telling Anne and Phil about his encounter, Tom's brother-in-law assures him that an aroused mental state resulted in a hallucination that seemed real. Phil goes back to school and Tom's headaches persist. He begins to pick up on the feelings of his neighbors; Ron's hostility toward his wife and Elsie's flirtations toward Tom. At work, he feels something strike him on the head and rushing home, discovers that Anne had been knocked unconscious in the kitchen at the same moment he felt that pain.
Tom and Anne's marriage begins to experience stress as the pregnant Mrs. Wallace has to cope with the sudden instability of her husband. He refuses to see a doctor or admit that he's having any sort of breakdown but rather heightened senses. She remembers Phil telling Tom that is mind was free, absolutely free while he was under hypnosis. This leads Tom to concluding he's functioning as a medium. Taking his wife out on a date, Tom has a premonition that their son is in danger and they return home early to find their babysitter attempting to abduct him. His nocturnal encounters with the woman in his living room continue.
Anne reaches the end of her rope with Tom's "telepathy business" when she receives a call that her mother has died and Tom admits that he knew. The couple patch things up and he agrees to see a hypnotist to reverse his spell, but his visions only become more focused. Intrigue in the neighborhood builds when Tom's premonition of Frank being shot at home comes true and it's his wife Elizabeth, fed up with his infidelities, who pulls the trigger. Tom decides to confront their landlady and her surly husband when he concludes that the ghost in his house is Mildred's missing sister Helen Driscoll, who it seems never left the house for New York but is still lurking around.
A Stir of Echoes has flaws, some of which are Richard Matheson's fault and some due to a novel written in the 1950s being read in the 2010s. It's all over the shop, with Tom Wallace able to read thoughts and view remotely and have premonitions and pick up signals by touch and see a ghost. Much of this is injected into the book in a haphazard way. Weird stuff just happens with little application to the story. The characters are all white, all very young (what a time it was when a single income family in their early twenties could lease a home in L.A.!) and forgettable. The seeping toxicity of suburbia may have been radical to readers of 1958 but comes off as overdone today.
Matheson, who wrote sixteen episodes of The Twlight Zone in its original run ("Nick of Time" and "A Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" both starring William Shatner being my favorites), certainly knows economy, how to hook a reader and resolve things in a thrilling way. There's not a lot of fat in this book, but it is thrown together and not particularly menacing. The ghost story is simply one of several weird things occurring around Tom, who for some reason, never thinks to get his idiot brother-in-law on the telephone to undo his spell. Still, I appreciate the novel for trying to what at the time was breaking a mold.
David Koepp adapted and directed a feature film version in 1999 that improves on the story, relocating it to Chicago and casting Kevin Bacon as a phone company lineman whose woo-woo sister-in-law (played by Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party. He encounters a decomposing teenage girl in his living room who his son is able to see and hear as well. Bacon determines the only way to get rid of the ghost is to find out what she wants. The movie has all the chill and menace the novel lacks, as well as characters firmly rooted in blue collar America. It had the misfortune of opening in theaters four weeks after The Sixth Sense but I think it's a better film.
The novel is the first-person account of Tom Wallace, who works in publications at an aircraft plant in Inglewood. He's just moved in to a two-bedroom tract house in the city of Hawthorne with his pregnant wife Anne and their young son Richard. Tom returns home to find his twenty-year-old brother-in-law Philip, a psychology major at UC Berkeley, visiting. The Wallaces invite him to a party being thrown by their neighbor Elsie, the social butterfly of the block with an invisible robot husband Ron. Also at the party are Tom's cynical friend Frank and his pregnant wife Elizabeth.
Phil brings up one of his favorite subjects: hypnosis. He eggs Tom on to volunteer and after hours of horsing around, Tom relaxes and slips away. He wakes up hot and the center of attention. Anne tells her husband that Phil made him regress to the age of twelve and dredge up childhood occupations like his family or his dog. Then without being prompted, Tom takes off his left shoe and sticks it in the refrigerator, just as Phil instructed him to under hypnosis. The Wallaces return home and Tom finds himself restless. He walks the house to check on his son, then settles into the easy chair in his living room. He senses something is wrong.
Until that moment I had never known what it was to be so afraid my breath stopped, my body functionless, myself incapable of doing anything but stare in helpless shock.
She was in her thirties, pale, her hair in black disarray. She was wearing a strange, dark dress with a single strand of pearls at her throat. I sat rooted to the chair, my limbs dead. I stared at her.
I don't know how many minutes passed while that woman and I looked at each other. It didn't occur to me to wonder why it was I could see her so clearly in the darkness, why there was a sort of sourceless light on or rather, in her.
Telling Anne and Phil about his encounter, Tom's brother-in-law assures him that an aroused mental state resulted in a hallucination that seemed real. Phil goes back to school and Tom's headaches persist. He begins to pick up on the feelings of his neighbors; Ron's hostility toward his wife and Elsie's flirtations toward Tom. At work, he feels something strike him on the head and rushing home, discovers that Anne had been knocked unconscious in the kitchen at the same moment he felt that pain.
Tom and Anne's marriage begins to experience stress as the pregnant Mrs. Wallace has to cope with the sudden instability of her husband. He refuses to see a doctor or admit that he's having any sort of breakdown but rather heightened senses. She remembers Phil telling Tom that is mind was free, absolutely free while he was under hypnosis. This leads Tom to concluding he's functioning as a medium. Taking his wife out on a date, Tom has a premonition that their son is in danger and they return home early to find their babysitter attempting to abduct him. His nocturnal encounters with the woman in his living room continue.
Anne reaches the end of her rope with Tom's "telepathy business" when she receives a call that her mother has died and Tom admits that he knew. The couple patch things up and he agrees to see a hypnotist to reverse his spell, but his visions only become more focused. Intrigue in the neighborhood builds when Tom's premonition of Frank being shot at home comes true and it's his wife Elizabeth, fed up with his infidelities, who pulls the trigger. Tom decides to confront their landlady and her surly husband when he concludes that the ghost in his house is Mildred's missing sister Helen Driscoll, who it seems never left the house for New York but is still lurking around.
A Stir of Echoes has flaws, some of which are Richard Matheson's fault and some due to a novel written in the 1950s being read in the 2010s. It's all over the shop, with Tom Wallace able to read thoughts and view remotely and have premonitions and pick up signals by touch and see a ghost. Much of this is injected into the book in a haphazard way. Weird stuff just happens with little application to the story. The characters are all white, all very young (what a time it was when a single income family in their early twenties could lease a home in L.A.!) and forgettable. The seeping toxicity of suburbia may have been radical to readers of 1958 but comes off as overdone today.
Matheson, who wrote sixteen episodes of The Twlight Zone in its original run ("Nick of Time" and "A Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" both starring William Shatner being my favorites), certainly knows economy, how to hook a reader and resolve things in a thrilling way. There's not a lot of fat in this book, but it is thrown together and not particularly menacing. The ghost story is simply one of several weird things occurring around Tom, who for some reason, never thinks to get his idiot brother-in-law on the telephone to undo his spell. Still, I appreciate the novel for trying to what at the time was breaking a mold.
David Koepp adapted and directed a feature film version in 1999 that improves on the story, relocating it to Chicago and casting Kevin Bacon as a phone company lineman whose woo-woo sister-in-law (played by Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party. He encounters a decomposing teenage girl in his living room who his son is able to see and hear as well. Bacon determines the only way to get rid of the ghost is to find out what she wants. The movie has all the chill and menace the novel lacks, as well as characters firmly rooted in blue collar America. It had the misfortune of opening in theaters four weeks after The Sixth Sense but I think it's a better film.
January 30, 2022
"Sentía cosas, percibía cosas… cosas que no comprendía, cosas que ni siquiera veía con claridad: fragmentos de extraña percepción; percepciones imposibles de comprender, que fluían y centelleaban por mi mente. Era como estar en una esquina, envuelto por la niebla, viendo pasar por mi lado a personas desconocidas: pasaban lo bastante cerca para que pudiera verlas, pero no lo suficiente para que pudiera reconocerlas. Cada vez era más fuerte. La conciencia inundó mi mente. Me había convertido en un canal para un millón de imágenes"
"Las personas no creen en ciertos fenómenos razonables o verificables como la hipnosis, la telepatía o la clarividencia. No, no los aceptan. Sin embargo, ven algo y, de repente, bum, saltan por el precipicio y empiezan a volar. Eso ocurre porque no están preparadas, porque sólo pueden reaccionar con una emoción instintiva. Sus mentes nunca aceptarán algo que no sea razonable. Sin embargo, cuando entran en juego sus emociones, aceptan incluso las cosas más increíbles, porque las emociones carecen de límites de creencia; porque las emociones lo aceptan todo"
"El más espeluznante de los momentos puede desarrollarse a plena luz del día y en el más mundano de los lugares. La noche no es un requisito necesario, como tampoco las tormentas los fuertes vientos ni el azote de la lluvia son el escondite de doctores dementes. Aquí no había monstruos; sólo tres seres humanos. No había criaturas extrañas de la oscuridad"
Luego de una sesión de hipnosis, al protagonista "Tom Wallace" se le despierta involuntariamente cierto "Don" psíquico que albergaba en su interior. Este Don abrirá las puertas de la percepción, dando lugar a enigmas del pasado y del presente, trayendo consigo desafíos y conflictos.
Una historia bastante dinámica, que provoca bastante tensión por la propia trama, hechos en particular y también por algunas actitudes bastante discutibles de los personajes (principalmente "Anne").
Quizá no este en la cúspide de las historias de Matheson pero para mi funciona muy bien.
"Las personas no creen en ciertos fenómenos razonables o verificables como la hipnosis, la telepatía o la clarividencia. No, no los aceptan. Sin embargo, ven algo y, de repente, bum, saltan por el precipicio y empiezan a volar. Eso ocurre porque no están preparadas, porque sólo pueden reaccionar con una emoción instintiva. Sus mentes nunca aceptarán algo que no sea razonable. Sin embargo, cuando entran en juego sus emociones, aceptan incluso las cosas más increíbles, porque las emociones carecen de límites de creencia; porque las emociones lo aceptan todo"
"El más espeluznante de los momentos puede desarrollarse a plena luz del día y en el más mundano de los lugares. La noche no es un requisito necesario, como tampoco las tormentas los fuertes vientos ni el azote de la lluvia son el escondite de doctores dementes. Aquí no había monstruos; sólo tres seres humanos. No había criaturas extrañas de la oscuridad"
Luego de una sesión de hipnosis, al protagonista "Tom Wallace" se le despierta involuntariamente cierto "Don" psíquico que albergaba en su interior. Este Don abrirá las puertas de la percepción, dando lugar a enigmas del pasado y del presente, trayendo consigo desafíos y conflictos.
Una historia bastante dinámica, que provoca bastante tensión por la propia trama, hechos en particular y también por algunas actitudes bastante discutibles de los personajes (principalmente "Anne").
Quizá no este en la cúspide de las historias de Matheson pero para mi funciona muy bien.
June 24, 2013
Richard Matheson (1926 - 2013)
Thanks for the stories.
Before I say anything about this classic bit of horror, I want to put a plug in for the film adaptation. Stir of Echoes starring Kevin Bacon is a truly terrifying ghost story. I always felt it didn't get the attention it deserved because The Sixth Sense was released earlier the same year and stole all the thunder (for the record, I think Stir of Echoes is the better movie). If you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you do. You won't even spoil Matheson's novel because the movie takes a very different approach to the story and the mystery.
Now with that out of the way on to the book! The more Richard Matheson I read, the more I understand why Stephen King touts him as his biggest influence. Twenty years before King ever started writing about small towns and all the ugly things small town residents can get up to, Matheson was writing about horror in the suburbs. He takes the familiar, safe, boring 'burbs and all the white, middle-class people who abide there and introduces monsters. Sometimes the monsters are purely psychological, sometimes ghostly, other times it is an affliction (as with Scott Carey in The Incredible Shrinking Man or Robert Neville in I am Legend).
Whatever "the monster", what you really get as a reader is some pretty keen insight into human behavior. And sometimes it can be a lot uncomfortable to read. People can think pretty ugly, and act even uglier. Tom Wallace is your "every man", your average middle class schmoe attempting to live out the American Dream with his young wife and son. Tom's life takes a turn for the bizarre when he jokingly allows his brother-in-law to hypnotize him. Suddenly Tom's mind is wide open and he begins to "know" things and see things, a forbidden knowledge that throws his life into chaos.
This is a simple story, but it packs a lot of punch. It is a ghost story and a mystery and a peek into 1950's human psychology. It's interesting to read just how the husbands and wives relate to one another in this novel; it becomes quickly apparent that not only is the story set during that time, but that the author is also writing from a pre-Women's Lib perspective. This gives the novel an authentic old-fashioned feel that works extremely well given the subject matter. I loved it.
One note about the reader -- he is fantastic, and I think contributed a lot to my overall enjoyment of the story. He has this wicked bass voice and when he whispers it will give you chills.
Thanks for the stories.
Before I say anything about this classic bit of horror, I want to put a plug in for the film adaptation. Stir of Echoes starring Kevin Bacon is a truly terrifying ghost story. I always felt it didn't get the attention it deserved because The Sixth Sense was released earlier the same year and stole all the thunder (for the record, I think Stir of Echoes is the better movie). If you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you do. You won't even spoil Matheson's novel because the movie takes a very different approach to the story and the mystery.
Now with that out of the way on to the book! The more Richard Matheson I read, the more I understand why Stephen King touts him as his biggest influence. Twenty years before King ever started writing about small towns and all the ugly things small town residents can get up to, Matheson was writing about horror in the suburbs. He takes the familiar, safe, boring 'burbs and all the white, middle-class people who abide there and introduces monsters. Sometimes the monsters are purely psychological, sometimes ghostly, other times it is an affliction (as with Scott Carey in The Incredible Shrinking Man or Robert Neville in I am Legend).
Whatever "the monster", what you really get as a reader is some pretty keen insight into human behavior. And sometimes it can be a lot uncomfortable to read. People can think pretty ugly, and act even uglier. Tom Wallace is your "every man", your average middle class schmoe attempting to live out the American Dream with his young wife and son. Tom's life takes a turn for the bizarre when he jokingly allows his brother-in-law to hypnotize him. Suddenly Tom's mind is wide open and he begins to "know" things and see things, a forbidden knowledge that throws his life into chaos.
This is a simple story, but it packs a lot of punch. It is a ghost story and a mystery and a peek into 1950's human psychology. It's interesting to read just how the husbands and wives relate to one another in this novel; it becomes quickly apparent that not only is the story set during that time, but that the author is also writing from a pre-Women's Lib perspective. This gives the novel an authentic old-fashioned feel that works extremely well given the subject matter. I loved it.
One note about the reader -- he is fantastic, and I think contributed a lot to my overall enjoyment of the story. He has this wicked bass voice and when he whispers it will give you chills.
April 12, 2022
I'll have my echoes stirred, not shaken, thank you.
After reading this, I was inspired to dig out my old Ouija Board which my wife and I had a go at. It spelled out a message that was a derisive comment on my lack of hair, and the dreadful state of my lawn. I think I contacted my departed father!
This book is described as an "eerie ghost story". Hmm. Nope. It's more of a whodunnit with a touch of ghosties and a sprinkling of psychic ability.
I won't rehash the story. It's in the blurb. What I WILL say is: this is typical "genteel" thriller that still packs the ability to be a weeny bit disturbing. It's so typical of the 50s era: no naughty curse words, no graphic sex or real gut-turning violence. It's a bit like watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie. What a change from today's sensationalist violence and fright! (I'm not saying that today's scary books are bad - just different.) Don't mistake this review to mean this was some Bud Light story. It's worth reading because Matheson had talent and it shows. Get those eyeballs of yours into this.
I took a star off, because it's not as good as Matheson's I Am Legend
After reading this, I was inspired to dig out my old Ouija Board which my wife and I had a go at. It spelled out a message that was a derisive comment on my lack of hair, and the dreadful state of my lawn. I think I contacted my departed father!
This book is described as an "eerie ghost story". Hmm. Nope. It's more of a whodunnit with a touch of ghosties and a sprinkling of psychic ability.
I won't rehash the story. It's in the blurb. What I WILL say is: this is typical "genteel" thriller that still packs the ability to be a weeny bit disturbing. It's so typical of the 50s era: no naughty curse words, no graphic sex or real gut-turning violence. It's a bit like watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie. What a change from today's sensationalist violence and fright! (I'm not saying that today's scary books are bad - just different.) Don't mistake this review to mean this was some Bud Light story. It's worth reading because Matheson had talent and it shows. Get those eyeballs of yours into this.
I took a star off, because it's not as good as Matheson's I Am Legend
October 23, 2021
Re-read 10/23/21:
I'm upping my star count on this re-read. I'm giving this a full 5 because it is easily one of the best ghost stories I've ever read.
Why?
Because, if I am to be entirely honest, it's a bit more relatable than the old victorian style or any version of a gothic read. Indeed, it's working-class 1958 with a starter family, friends and neighbors, and it's something of a truly hopeful, innocent time.
That being said, the kinds of psychological horrors that come are not very innocent and the optimism quickly becomes a nightmare. We don't really know what is going on, but I personally love the juxtapositions and the sheer simplicity of the novel.
It scared me. It got under my skin.
In other words, it was a totally enjoyable spooktober read. :)
Original Review:
I loved the book over the movie primarily because of the internal struggles. Coming to grips with telepathy reminded me a lot of Stephen King, which is of course is backward. I see why SK touted Matheson as one of the greats. It's all about magical realism and the details that center everything in regular life, and then pull the character, kicking and screaming, into the fantastic.
It is only a minor complication that the novel was a ghost story. It didn't even need to end up that way, but it did. The resolution only made me think about the unwritten resolutions, and the story continues on in my mind. Any novel that builds a life of its own, despite itself, should be considered a great novel. I still want to keep reading. :)
I'm upping my star count on this re-read. I'm giving this a full 5 because it is easily one of the best ghost stories I've ever read.
Why?
Because, if I am to be entirely honest, it's a bit more relatable than the old victorian style or any version of a gothic read. Indeed, it's working-class 1958 with a starter family, friends and neighbors, and it's something of a truly hopeful, innocent time.
That being said, the kinds of psychological horrors that come are not very innocent and the optimism quickly becomes a nightmare. We don't really know what is going on, but I personally love the juxtapositions and the sheer simplicity of the novel.
It scared me. It got under my skin.
In other words, it was a totally enjoyable spooktober read. :)
Original Review:
I loved the book over the movie primarily because of the internal struggles. Coming to grips with telepathy reminded me a lot of Stephen King, which is of course is backward. I see why SK touted Matheson as one of the greats. It's all about magical realism and the details that center everything in regular life, and then pull the character, kicking and screaming, into the fantastic.
It is only a minor complication that the novel was a ghost story. It didn't even need to end up that way, but it did. The resolution only made me think about the unwritten resolutions, and the story continues on in my mind. Any novel that builds a life of its own, despite itself, should be considered a great novel. I still want to keep reading. :)
February 20, 2020
-Una de las etapas que marca la evolución entre el subgénero “de antes” y el contemporáneo.-
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El último escalón (publicación original: A Stir of Echoes, 1958) nos presenta a Tom Wallece, un hombre casado que, tras ser hipnotizado durante una reunión, comienza a experimentar fenómenos extraños que parecen transmitirle los pensamientos de otros. Según avanza la situación, Tom descubre que quizá solo esté recibiendo la llamada mental de una persona muerta.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El último escalón (publicación original: A Stir of Echoes, 1958) nos presenta a Tom Wallece, un hombre casado que, tras ser hipnotizado durante una reunión, comienza a experimentar fenómenos extraños que parecen transmitirle los pensamientos de otros. Según avanza la situación, Tom descubre que quizá solo esté recibiendo la llamada mental de una persona muerta.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
March 11, 2021
3.5/5*, rounded up to 4* because this all story, no filler and after all, it IS Richard Matheson.
A man is hypnotized by his wife's brother and his life is never the same again.
Written back in the 50's, I imagine this book was quite shocking at the time. Now, not so much.
Still, this tight storytelling makes for compelling reading and even I did not guess how it would end.
I need to see the Kevin Bacon movie now!
*This audio download was included in my Audible membership. *
A man is hypnotized by his wife's brother and his life is never the same again.
Written back in the 50's, I imagine this book was quite shocking at the time. Now, not so much.
Still, this tight storytelling makes for compelling reading and even I did not guess how it would end.
I need to see the Kevin Bacon movie now!
*This audio download was included in my Audible membership. *
November 23, 2022
Full disclosure, I read this book because, recently, I rewatched the 1999 movie adaptation from this book. It was with great surprise that I discovered Richard Matheson had many more books, which I now plan to read. And it was a happy surprise to discover that even so it was first published in 1958, the book is still very readable (and if you haven’t watched the movie, quite twisty).
The story moves quite straightforwardly, we meet Tom Wallace, a middle-class man, who works in Publications at an Aircraft factory in Inglewood, California and, who, together with his pregnant wife Anne and young child Richard, rents a nice little house.
All seems idyllic until, during a neighbor’s dinner party, Tom let’s himself be hypnotized. That’s when Tom begins to see/dream/imagine a presence in his house. At first, the presence, later believed to be ex-resident Anne Driscoll, wakes him up at night. But soon, things get darker as Tom also starts to get impressions of other people’s thoughts. Somehow, he knows things that he shouldn’t know, twisted, nasty, evil thoughts. It’s then than things jump from the mind to the physical world, as when his wife is hit on the head by a can of tomatoes she knocks over at home, and Tom feels it at work.
Friends, neighbors and Anne suspect he’s having some sort of breakdown, but is it a descent into madness? Or is something real haunting Tom?
Stephen King has often claimed that Matheson was a major influence on him, and when reading A Stir of Echoes is not hard to see how King absorbed some of the Matheson’s style and themes of choice. In other words, this book feels very much like an early King’s novel, most succinct in prose but equally atmospheric.
The book may also remind you of The Twilight Zone. That feeling of not knowing what’s real and what’s imagined, the desperation of people around you not seeing what you see, well that is there, too. At this point, it should not surprise anyone to learn that Matheson wrote some of the iconic episodes in the original series, hence the similarities.
The book is compelling and scary enough to keep you reading all through the night. It does a great job at transposing suburban culture, that idea of everything always being perfectly nice, to show the dark underbelly of communities where everyone is expected to behave the same way ad not make ways.
A surprising and very enjoyable read, that is, if you don’t mind looking over your shoulder once in a while… just to be sure.
The story moves quite straightforwardly, we meet Tom Wallace, a middle-class man, who works in Publications at an Aircraft factory in Inglewood, California and, who, together with his pregnant wife Anne and young child Richard, rents a nice little house.
All seems idyllic until, during a neighbor’s dinner party, Tom let’s himself be hypnotized. That’s when Tom begins to see/dream/imagine a presence in his house. At first, the presence, later believed to be ex-resident Anne Driscoll, wakes him up at night. But soon, things get darker as Tom also starts to get impressions of other people’s thoughts. Somehow, he knows things that he shouldn’t know, twisted, nasty, evil thoughts. It’s then than things jump from the mind to the physical world, as when his wife is hit on the head by a can of tomatoes she knocks over at home, and Tom feels it at work.
Friends, neighbors and Anne suspect he’s having some sort of breakdown, but is it a descent into madness? Or is something real haunting Tom?
Stephen King has often claimed that Matheson was a major influence on him, and when reading A Stir of Echoes is not hard to see how King absorbed some of the Matheson’s style and themes of choice. In other words, this book feels very much like an early King’s novel, most succinct in prose but equally atmospheric.
The book may also remind you of The Twilight Zone. That feeling of not knowing what’s real and what’s imagined, the desperation of people around you not seeing what you see, well that is there, too. At this point, it should not surprise anyone to learn that Matheson wrote some of the iconic episodes in the original series, hence the similarities.
The book is compelling and scary enough to keep you reading all through the night. It does a great job at transposing suburban culture, that idea of everything always being perfectly nice, to show the dark underbelly of communities where everyone is expected to behave the same way ad not make ways.
A surprising and very enjoyable read, that is, if you don’t mind looking over your shoulder once in a while… just to be sure.
November 16, 2020
Creo que es una historia poco conocida de Matheson (o al menos yo no la conocía), la verdad me ha parecido muy interesante. Se genera una atmósfera de misterio e intriga y no sabes si se trata de fantasmas, de un problema mental o de alguna especie de "don", lo cual es super atrayente ya que a medida que transcurre la historia cualquiera de las opciones pareciera igual de probable.
Parte del final podría considerarse algo predecible, sin embargo, el final real fue completamente inesperado.
Matheson demostró toda su genialidad nuevamente en esta obra.
Parte del final podría considerarse algo predecible, sin embargo, el final real fue completamente inesperado.
Matheson demostró toda su genialidad nuevamente en esta obra.
September 12, 2021
"Maybe we're all monsters, underneath..."
I have loved the movie for so long that I had a pretty good idea this book would deliver, annnd I was right. This is one you devour in a day, because you simply have to know what happens. Loved it!!!
I have loved the movie for so long that I had a pretty good idea this book would deliver, annnd I was right. This is one you devour in a day, because you simply have to know what happens. Loved it!!!
May 26, 2021
“Nella mente non esistono canali privilegiati per accettare un’improvvisa manifestazione dell’assurdo. “
Dopo Io sono leggenda e Tre millimetri al giorno, nel 1958, Richard Matheson fa di nuovo centro con il romanzo "Io sono Helen Driscol".
Classificato in genere come horror, personalmente ritengo più appropriato definirlo come thriller per la tensione che genera.
Tom e Anne con il figlioletto Richard vivono ad Hawthorne, una piccola cittadina della California. Una vita ordinaria ed ordinata, fatta di piccole cose:
l'erba del prato tagliata ad una giusta misura; portare fuori l'immondizia; la sveglia al mattino per andare agli stabilimenti della North America Aircraft dove Tom fa il pubblicitario; l’attesa di un altro figlio e piccoli progetti per il futuro...
Una vita tranquilla fatta di serate in casa e di buon vicinato destinata ad incrinarsi così come ci viene annunciato fin dalle prime righe.
Un invito dai vicini per una serata assieme a cui si unisce il fratello di Ann che si trovava a passare di lì.
Phil è un brillante laureando in Psicologia all’università di Berkeley.
Così si trascorre la serata assieme e, tra un bicchiere ed una forchettata, si parla un po’ di tutto finché il discorso si concentra s’un tema caro a Phil: l’ipnotismo.
Lo scetticismo dei presenti spinge Phil a proporre di fare un esperimento ma chi vuole fare da cavia?
Tom si sottopone stando al gioco ma ancora non sapeva quanto sarebbe cambiata la sua vita...
Una storia che viaggia sul binario di una continua e crescente tensione per fortuna non rovinata dalla traduzione del titolo italiano che tradisce una scoperta che andrebbe fatta in lettura.
Il titolo originale “A Stir of Echoes” (letteralmente "Un miscuglio di echi") è sicuramente più adeguato ma la scelta editoriale italiana ha mirato ad un’altra tipo di eco, quella che fa cassa ricollegandosi al precedente successo di “Io sono leggenda”....
”Stava crescendo. Qualcosa cresceva dentro di me. Come se fossi stato un vaso dentro il quale venivano riversate nozioni di un sapere sconosciuto. Sentivo cose, le avvertivo: cose che non potevo capire, e che non vedevo in modo definito, frammenti di percezioni a me nuove, impossibili da comprendere. Scorrevano e balenavano nella mia mente. Era come stare fermo in un angolo avvolto dalla nebbia e vedere degli estranei che mi passavano davanti, abbastanza vicini da poterli intravedere, ma non abbastanza da poterli riconoscere. Quella sensazione mi sopraffece. Ero una porta aperta che lasciava entrare milioni di immagini.”
Qui la trasposizione cinematografica “Echi mortali” (1999) con Kevin Bacon
Dopo Io sono leggenda e Tre millimetri al giorno, nel 1958, Richard Matheson fa di nuovo centro con il romanzo "Io sono Helen Driscol".
Classificato in genere come horror, personalmente ritengo più appropriato definirlo come thriller per la tensione che genera.
Tom e Anne con il figlioletto Richard vivono ad Hawthorne, una piccola cittadina della California. Una vita ordinaria ed ordinata, fatta di piccole cose:
l'erba del prato tagliata ad una giusta misura; portare fuori l'immondizia; la sveglia al mattino per andare agli stabilimenti della North America Aircraft dove Tom fa il pubblicitario; l’attesa di un altro figlio e piccoli progetti per il futuro...
Una vita tranquilla fatta di serate in casa e di buon vicinato destinata ad incrinarsi così come ci viene annunciato fin dalle prime righe.
Un invito dai vicini per una serata assieme a cui si unisce il fratello di Ann che si trovava a passare di lì.
Phil è un brillante laureando in Psicologia all’università di Berkeley.
Così si trascorre la serata assieme e, tra un bicchiere ed una forchettata, si parla un po’ di tutto finché il discorso si concentra s’un tema caro a Phil: l’ipnotismo.
Lo scetticismo dei presenti spinge Phil a proporre di fare un esperimento ma chi vuole fare da cavia?
Tom si sottopone stando al gioco ma ancora non sapeva quanto sarebbe cambiata la sua vita...
Una storia che viaggia sul binario di una continua e crescente tensione per fortuna non rovinata dalla traduzione del titolo italiano che tradisce una scoperta che andrebbe fatta in lettura.
Il titolo originale “A Stir of Echoes” (letteralmente "Un miscuglio di echi") è sicuramente più adeguato ma la scelta editoriale italiana ha mirato ad un’altra tipo di eco, quella che fa cassa ricollegandosi al precedente successo di “Io sono leggenda”....
”Stava crescendo. Qualcosa cresceva dentro di me. Come se fossi stato un vaso dentro il quale venivano riversate nozioni di un sapere sconosciuto. Sentivo cose, le avvertivo: cose che non potevo capire, e che non vedevo in modo definito, frammenti di percezioni a me nuove, impossibili da comprendere. Scorrevano e balenavano nella mia mente. Era come stare fermo in un angolo avvolto dalla nebbia e vedere degli estranei che mi passavano davanti, abbastanza vicini da poterli intravedere, ma non abbastanza da poterli riconoscere. Quella sensazione mi sopraffece. Ero una porta aperta che lasciava entrare milioni di immagini.”
Qui la trasposizione cinematografica “Echi mortali” (1999) con Kevin Bacon
September 14, 2019
The author's writing is concise, matter of fact, and convincing, with a great imagination. It must be kept in mind that Mr. Matheson is from the fifties, an author that later day horror writers such as Stephen King respect.
A ordinary guy, who abruptly acquires psychic abilities is soon in touch with a deceased murder victim, and the haunting won't stop until our hero uncovers the killers. Does the plot sound familiar? Yes, it has been redone - the film What Lies Beneath comes to mind, though the screenplay was written in 2000, while this novel was published in 1958.
Highly recommended to those who like supernatural tales - discover one of the original old masters.
(next - I Am Legend by the same author)
A ordinary guy, who abruptly acquires psychic abilities is soon in touch with a deceased murder victim, and the haunting won't stop until our hero uncovers the killers. Does the plot sound familiar? Yes, it has been redone - the film What Lies Beneath comes to mind, though the screenplay was written in 2000, while this novel was published in 1958.
Highly recommended to those who like supernatural tales - discover one of the original old masters.
(next - I Am Legend by the same author)
December 19, 2019
A Stir of Echoes is an enjoyable if somewhat dated story of paranormal suspense, particularly memorable for the clash of 1950s suburban worldview with a dark, impressionistic first-person account of an intrusive form of telepathy.
Tom Wallace leads a happy middle-class life in a modest neighborhood of South Bay Los Angeles with his pregnant wife Anne and their toddler, Richard. The couple enjoy the sort of amiable relationships with all their neighbors that hark back to a simpler era. When Anne's brother hypnotizes him one night at a party, Tom begins experiencing confusing waves of emotions and thoughts that seem to emanate from the minds of other people. This is not the telepathy of parlor tricks and comic books, but a crippling flood of empathy that overwhelms his own mind and leaves him doubled over in pain.
Tom is repulsed by the dark interior lives lurking beneath everyone's superficial veneer of decency. He is overwhelmed by a recurring apparition of a woman in a dark dress sitting in his living room, which suggests to him that someone in the neighborhood murdered the former occupant of his house.
Tom's obvious physical and emotional distress horrifies his wife, who begins to suspect he is suffering from a mental disorder. He attempts to hide his continued episodes from Anne while thwarting violent scenes predicted by his visions, at the same time uncovering the mystery of the woman in the black dress.
The depiction of hypnosis is laughable, and the new-age notions of the psychologist characters feel rather dated, along with the narrator's apparent abhorrence of female sexual desire. These aspects didn't detract from the reading experience, however. If anything, they helped a bit to ground the story in the 1950s Torrance setting.
In contrast, Matheson's prose style felt contemporary and immediate. This was an entertaining and quick read which I recommend particularly for the interesting take on supersensory awareness - Tom's agonizing spells were the most interesting part of the book. I would have enjoyed the story more, however, if the author had gone in a direction where it wasn't clear whether Tom was psychic or insane.
Tom Wallace leads a happy middle-class life in a modest neighborhood of South Bay Los Angeles with his pregnant wife Anne and their toddler, Richard. The couple enjoy the sort of amiable relationships with all their neighbors that hark back to a simpler era. When Anne's brother hypnotizes him one night at a party, Tom begins experiencing confusing waves of emotions and thoughts that seem to emanate from the minds of other people. This is not the telepathy of parlor tricks and comic books, but a crippling flood of empathy that overwhelms his own mind and leaves him doubled over in pain.
Tom is repulsed by the dark interior lives lurking beneath everyone's superficial veneer of decency. He is overwhelmed by a recurring apparition of a woman in a dark dress sitting in his living room, which suggests to him that someone in the neighborhood murdered the former occupant of his house.
Tom's obvious physical and emotional distress horrifies his wife, who begins to suspect he is suffering from a mental disorder. He attempts to hide his continued episodes from Anne while thwarting violent scenes predicted by his visions, at the same time uncovering the mystery of the woman in the black dress.
The depiction of hypnosis is laughable, and the new-age notions of the psychologist characters feel rather dated, along with the narrator's apparent abhorrence of female sexual desire. These aspects didn't detract from the reading experience, however. If anything, they helped a bit to ground the story in the 1950s Torrance setting.
In contrast, Matheson's prose style felt contemporary and immediate. This was an entertaining and quick read which I recommend particularly for the interesting take on supersensory awareness - Tom's agonizing spells were the most interesting part of the book. I would have enjoyed the story more, however, if the author had gone in a direction where it wasn't clear whether Tom was psychic or insane.
July 1, 2019
Un libro corto que además se lee rápido.
A pesar del tiempo que tiene el libro, me ha parecido un estilo bastante actual. Solo se nota el paso del tiempo en algunos roles establecidos para el hombre y la mujer.
He disfrutado con su lectura, ha sabido mantener el interés y la tensión, aunque algunas cosas eran un poco previsibles, tiene un giro muy bueno hacia el final.
Más que terror, lo calificaría de suspense, intriga, ...
Recomendada su lectura.
Valoracion: 8,25/10
Lectura: Julio 2019
A pesar del tiempo que tiene el libro, me ha parecido un estilo bastante actual. Solo se nota el paso del tiempo en algunos roles establecidos para el hombre y la mujer.
He disfrutado con su lectura, ha sabido mantener el interés y la tensión, aunque algunas cosas eran un poco previsibles, tiene un giro muy bueno hacia el final.
Más que terror, lo calificaría de suspense, intriga, ...
Recomendada su lectura.
Valoracion: 8,25/10
Lectura: Julio 2019
November 10, 2025
"Maybe we're all monsters underneath," I said.~ which, to a large degree, is what this Richard Matheson novel comes down to. ~ though it's more than that. It's primarily concerned with telepathy:
"This is a prime point. I believe that every single human being is, from birth, endowed with varying degrees of psychic perceptivity--and needs only a touch to its mechanism to use this perceptivity in responding to experience."~ which is what the (Thank God!) kindly physician tells protagonist Tom Wallace when Wallace finally agrees to a diagnosis re: what has been happening to him (with increasing frequency) after being casually hypnotized at a neighborhood party.
Though Wallace's doctor is refreshingly finger-on-the-pulse modern, and does subscribe to the theory of the release of "an already latent power", he is still in the dark - or, rather, off-base - re: what specifically triggered Tom's current dilemma. Being a thoroughly rational kind of guy, the doctor chooses to focus on some kind of infantile repression in the patient.
Certainly Tom's doctor appointment - which comes about 2/3-through the book - is a story highlight; it pulls the narrative up to another level, in its attempt to normalize the paranormal. But that's still insufficient - because, even today, nearing 70 years after this novel's publication (in 1958), it can still be nearly impossible to demystify certain psychic behavior.
~ oh, like how (exactly) can those who have died successfully communicate with us? So much of it remains speculative - seemingly beyond reason and understanding. Yet so many of us (myself included) have experienced 'visitations', even if not to the terrifying extent that Tom does.
That's where the inventiveness of Matheson's storytelling comes in. ~ 'cause, of course, the author is here to mainly spook us. But, apparently, in real life, Matheson himself was fascinated with realities in other realms... ~ as witness his considerable contributions to Rod Serling's 'The Twilight Zone'.
That's essentially how, up till now, I've been familiar with Matheson's name - and from some of his sci-fi / horror screen credits. This is the first of his novels that I've actually read.
And I must say he appears to have a very persuasive writing style. He sure knows how to skillfully build tension - mainly by letting things simmer, with short bursts of suspicious / unnerving activity along the way, before things actually come to a decided boiling point.
This particular novel has a palpable sense of dread; one that slowly develops a taunting richness in its dark, twisted texture. It begins to be easy to see why Stephen King has cited Matheson as being "the author who influenced me the most as a writer."
June 11, 2022
Rocco Matheson
Quando King incoronò Matheson, mi sembrò un po’ come quando Paolo Madini inserì Rocco Pagano (*1) fra giocatori più impegnativi affrontati in carriera. Ma chi è questo Rocco Matheson? Non si chiama Rocco ma Richard e chi ancora non lo avesse letto farebbe bene a procurarsi una delle sue opere. I più anziani ricorderanno un film in cui un’autocisterna assassina inseguiva un’auto; quel film, diretto da Spielberg, si intitolava Duel (*2), il titolo del racconto che lo ha ispirato è lo stesso… sì lo ha scritto lui...
King aveva ragione da vendere, Matheson come scrittore per certi versi gli è addirittura superiore. Venivo dall’Insomnia di Ralph Robert e sono finito a leggere della telepatia di Tom Wallace, quale delle due caratteristiche riterreste più improbabile? Ebbene Matheson con la telepatia è riuscito a far molto meglio di King con l’insomnia. Se si tratta di inserire l’orrore nell’ordinario, di descrivere i processi che generano l’ansia, le manifestazioni che inducono il panico, Richard non ha bisogno di pagliacci o dottorini calvi. Senza bisogno di ricorrere ad effetti speciali, tiene la tensione alla frusta evitando che salti o si si sieda. Non usa lo zoom per ingrandire, tiene la giusta distanza, usa una tattica in cui la giustificazione arriva prima dell’evento e ciò gli consente di acuire l’attenzione del lettore:
Non so perché lo feci, forse perché il sogno riempiva ancora la mia mente con chiarezza terrificante. Mi alzai e andai barcollando in cucina. Accesi la luce e aprii un cassetto della credenza…
Il romanzo inizia con Tom Wallace che si presta per gioco di società all’ipnosi. I primi tentativi vanno a vuoto, poi però cade in trance e al risveglio dice:
«Spero vivamente che tu non mi abbia dato nessun altro ordine idiota»
Phil scosse la testa sorridendo. «Stai tranquillo» disse. «È tutto qui, fratello. La faccenda è chiusa.»
Le ultime parole famose.
Matheson mi ha sorpreso anche questa volta riuscendo a tenere la narrazione senza esagerazioni per i tre quarti del romanzo; stavolta a differenza di “Tre millimetri al giorno” ha infine ceduto facendo sparare una Luger.
Le 170 pagine di “Io sono Helen Driscoll” secondo me valgono assai di più delle 770 di “Insomnia”, ma valgono di più anche del romanzo più famoso di Matheson “Io sono leggenda”.
(*1)
https://www.sportmediaset.mediaset.it...
(*2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlhy6...
Quando King incoronò Matheson, mi sembrò un po’ come quando Paolo Madini inserì Rocco Pagano (*1) fra giocatori più impegnativi affrontati in carriera. Ma chi è questo Rocco Matheson? Non si chiama Rocco ma Richard e chi ancora non lo avesse letto farebbe bene a procurarsi una delle sue opere. I più anziani ricorderanno un film in cui un’autocisterna assassina inseguiva un’auto; quel film, diretto da Spielberg, si intitolava Duel (*2), il titolo del racconto che lo ha ispirato è lo stesso… sì lo ha scritto lui...
King aveva ragione da vendere, Matheson come scrittore per certi versi gli è addirittura superiore. Venivo dall’Insomnia di Ralph Robert e sono finito a leggere della telepatia di Tom Wallace, quale delle due caratteristiche riterreste più improbabile? Ebbene Matheson con la telepatia è riuscito a far molto meglio di King con l’insomnia. Se si tratta di inserire l’orrore nell’ordinario, di descrivere i processi che generano l’ansia, le manifestazioni che inducono il panico, Richard non ha bisogno di pagliacci o dottorini calvi. Senza bisogno di ricorrere ad effetti speciali, tiene la tensione alla frusta evitando che salti o si si sieda. Non usa lo zoom per ingrandire, tiene la giusta distanza, usa una tattica in cui la giustificazione arriva prima dell’evento e ciò gli consente di acuire l’attenzione del lettore:
Non so perché lo feci, forse perché il sogno riempiva ancora la mia mente con chiarezza terrificante. Mi alzai e andai barcollando in cucina. Accesi la luce e aprii un cassetto della credenza…
Il romanzo inizia con Tom Wallace che si presta per gioco di società all’ipnosi. I primi tentativi vanno a vuoto, poi però cade in trance e al risveglio dice:
«Spero vivamente che tu non mi abbia dato nessun altro ordine idiota»
Phil scosse la testa sorridendo. «Stai tranquillo» disse. «È tutto qui, fratello. La faccenda è chiusa.»
Le ultime parole famose.
Matheson mi ha sorpreso anche questa volta riuscendo a tenere la narrazione senza esagerazioni per i tre quarti del romanzo; stavolta a differenza di “Tre millimetri al giorno” ha infine ceduto facendo sparare una Luger.
Le 170 pagine di “Io sono Helen Driscoll” secondo me valgono assai di più delle 770 di “Insomnia”, ma valgono di più anche del romanzo più famoso di Matheson “Io sono leggenda”.
(*1)
https://www.sportmediaset.mediaset.it...
(*2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlhy6...
October 25, 2021
My first brush with this author was when I saw Will Smith in I am Legend (boy, that movie was such a disappointment after a promising start).
It didn't take me long to read the short story of the same name along with a few others. This was not among them so when my buddy-reader-in-crime, Brad, suggested one of this author's stories for this year's Spooktober, I was immediately interested.
Tom Wallace lives in suburbia with his family. One night, at a party, he is hypnotized. Since he wasn't at all convinced hypnosis wasn't more than a cheap magic trick, his friend decides to go a step further (planting certain ideas into his mind and "opening a door").
But saying someone should be more open-minded is quite vague so you can imagine how that one goes. Psychic abilities are awakened in Tom and so he can suddenly hear the thoughts of the people around him. He also has telepathy. Oh, and he sees ghosts. Or at least one. That of a woman who seems to want his help ... perhaps in uncovering what was done to her.
A great story with subtle spookiness. The "awakening" and slow decent into what Tom first conceives as madness was delicious.
Brad and I also watched the movie with Kevin Bacon. It's a trope done a lot of times but HOW it is pulled off is important, I guess.
The book deals more with the MC's mental state and him broadening his mind while the movie was indeed a full ghost tale complete with a creepy son (loved him!) and very good jump scares. I loved the movie, the modern take on the story and I have to admit that I liked it even better than the book.
Great story, slightly spooky but definitely enjoyable.
It didn't take me long to read the short story of the same name along with a few others. This was not among them so when my buddy-reader
Tom Wallace lives in suburbia with his family. One night, at a party, he is hypnotized. Since he wasn't at all convinced hypnosis wasn't more than a cheap magic trick, his friend decides to go a step further (planting certain ideas into his mind and "opening a door").
But saying someone should be more open-minded is quite vague so you can imagine how that one goes. Psychic abilities are awakened in Tom and so he can suddenly hear the thoughts of the people around him. He also has telepathy. Oh, and he sees ghosts. Or at least one. That of a woman who seems to want his help ... perhaps in uncovering what was done to her.
A great story with subtle spookiness. The "awakening" and slow decent into what Tom first conceives as madness was delicious.
Brad and I also watched the movie with Kevin Bacon. It's a trope done a lot of times but HOW it is pulled off is important, I guess.
The book deals more with the MC's mental state and him broadening his mind while the movie was indeed a full ghost tale complete with a creepy son (loved him!) and very good jump scares. I loved the movie, the modern take on the story and I have to admit that I liked it even better than the book.
Great story, slightly spooky but definitely enjoyable.
August 27, 2019
Sono passati diversi anni da quando ho letto il mio primo Matheson, Io sono leggenda, e se non ricordo male gli avevo appioppato - sull’altro lido… - ben cinque stelle convinte. Questo “Io sono Helen Driscoll”, per quanto inizialmente sembrasse un romanzo piacevole e ben congegnato - ma nella media del genere -, mi ha poi stupito favorevolmente, snocciolando una storia dalla tensione crescente, e dalla concomitante credibilità narrativa. Richard Matheson è un maestro nel creare atmosfere con pochi basici elementi, ma questa apparente economia di mezzi lui riesce a farla fruttare appieno. Non certo avanguardia pura, come direbbe la celeberrima Miranda Priestley, ma un’ottima prova carica di suspense e un paranormale ben dosato che insidia (ed esalta) l’ordinaria quotidianità.
March 11, 2023
A Stir of Echoes, Matheson’s fifth novel, was released in 1958, but didn’t get turned into a movie until 1999 forty years later starring Kevin Bacon. Although the movie is set in suburban Chicago, the book is set in the cookie cutter suburbs of Hawthorne, Los Angeles. If it feels creepy like the Twilight Zone, it might be because Matheson wrote sixteen episodes of the hit tv series.
Tom Wallace is an ordinary suburban guy who socializes with the other couples on the block, but one day that all changed after he gets hypnotized at a party. Suddenly Tom’s latent psychic powers manifest. He senses other people’s feelings. He sees dead people. He knows things before they happen. Rather than embrace his new-found powers, Tom (and his wife) are utterly creeped out by them.
Although the novel gets more intriguing toward the end, it’s paving is uneven throughout. Some of the odd interactions don’t make complete sense until the end. For that reason, this novel is one where you need to hang in there until you reach the final creepy destination.
Tom Wallace is an ordinary suburban guy who socializes with the other couples on the block, but one day that all changed after he gets hypnotized at a party. Suddenly Tom’s latent psychic powers manifest. He senses other people’s feelings. He sees dead people. He knows things before they happen. Rather than embrace his new-found powers, Tom (and his wife) are utterly creeped out by them.
Although the novel gets more intriguing toward the end, it’s paving is uneven throughout. Some of the odd interactions don’t make complete sense until the end. For that reason, this novel is one where you need to hang in there until you reach the final creepy destination.
March 17, 2012
First publishes in 1958, A Stir of Echoes is Richard Matheson's third major work, the first two being the classic I Am Legend which guaranteed his literary immmortality, and The Incredible Shrinking Man, the classic horror novel with a man racing against literally increasing odds.
The basic plot crux is very simple and the storyline doesn't deviate much from it: Tom Wallace agrees to undergo a hypnosis, as he believes he won't be affected by it. As it usually turns out in novels of the uncanny things don't exactly go the easy way out, and Tom notices that his life has changed. He realizes that he is able to read the thoughts of people around him, and has strange visions of a woman in a black dress in his house. He finds that his abilities are not always welcome, and as his sense of isolation progresses so does the mystery that he is trying to solve.
What is notable about A Stir of Echoes is that apart from the technological gadgets like the cellphone or the computer the novel doesn't feel at all dated. Matheson writes in a language which is simple and clear, and the sense of Tom's growing sense of isolation and disturbance is well rendered. Short in lenght with 0% filler, the novel can be read at one or two sittings with the tension steadily developing until a surprising ending. However, the fact that it was published after two of Matheson's most influential novels makes it seem pale in comparison; along with the fact that he later wrote masterful short stories and adapted some of them as scripts for the original >i>Twilight Zone, and has written novels such as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, both adapted into well known films. A Stir of Echoes is not a bad novel, but it's not exceptional either; it should serve as a good way to spend an afternoon or two, but it's hardly to be a lifechanging experience.
The basic plot crux is very simple and the storyline doesn't deviate much from it: Tom Wallace agrees to undergo a hypnosis, as he believes he won't be affected by it. As it usually turns out in novels of the uncanny things don't exactly go the easy way out, and Tom notices that his life has changed. He realizes that he is able to read the thoughts of people around him, and has strange visions of a woman in a black dress in his house. He finds that his abilities are not always welcome, and as his sense of isolation progresses so does the mystery that he is trying to solve.
What is notable about A Stir of Echoes is that apart from the technological gadgets like the cellphone or the computer the novel doesn't feel at all dated. Matheson writes in a language which is simple and clear, and the sense of Tom's growing sense of isolation and disturbance is well rendered. Short in lenght with 0% filler, the novel can be read at one or two sittings with the tension steadily developing until a surprising ending. However, the fact that it was published after two of Matheson's most influential novels makes it seem pale in comparison; along with the fact that he later wrote masterful short stories and adapted some of them as scripts for the original >i>Twilight Zone, and has written novels such as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, both adapted into well known films. A Stir of Echoes is not a bad novel, but it's not exceptional either; it should serve as a good way to spend an afternoon or two, but it's hardly to be a lifechanging experience.
November 25, 2021
Il sorriso dell'apparenza
"Il vicinato era composto di due universi: presentava al mondo un aspetto lindo e sorridente, mentre, al di sotto, ne serbava un altro totalmente diverso. Era disgustoso, in un certo senso, considerare il mondo contorto e perverso che esisteva dietro la vista ridente di Tulley Street."
"Stava crescendo. Qualcosa cresceva dentro di me. Come se fossi stato un vaso dentro il quale venivano riversate nozioni di un sapere sconosciuto. Sentivo cose, le avvertivo: cose che non potevo capire, e che non vedevo in modo definito, frammenti di percezioni a me nuove, impossibili da comprendere. Scorrevano e balenavano nella mia mente. Era come stare fermo in un angolo avvolto dalla nebbia e vedere degli estranei che mi passavano davanti, abbastanza vicini da poterli intravedere, ma non abbastanza da poterli riconoscere. Quella sensazione mi sopraffece. Ero una porta aperta che lasciava entrare milioni di immagini."
Soleggiata e ridente questa Tulley Street, classico quartiere di una medio-borghesia accogliente con i propri dirimpettai, prodiga nel mantenere verde il giardino e ingenuamente innocua quando scappano le due birrette il venerdì sera.
L'ignoranza diventa salvifica per la nostra incolumità; le menzogne raccontante a noi e gli altri un indispensabile compromesso - questo è quello che ci ripetiamo ogni giorno - per sopravvivere.
Perché dovremmo vivere con degli specchi in casa, quando non vedere è molto meglio?
"Il vicinato era composto di due universi: presentava al mondo un aspetto lindo e sorridente, mentre, al di sotto, ne serbava un altro totalmente diverso. Era disgustoso, in un certo senso, considerare il mondo contorto e perverso che esisteva dietro la vista ridente di Tulley Street."
"Stava crescendo. Qualcosa cresceva dentro di me. Come se fossi stato un vaso dentro il quale venivano riversate nozioni di un sapere sconosciuto. Sentivo cose, le avvertivo: cose che non potevo capire, e che non vedevo in modo definito, frammenti di percezioni a me nuove, impossibili da comprendere. Scorrevano e balenavano nella mia mente. Era come stare fermo in un angolo avvolto dalla nebbia e vedere degli estranei che mi passavano davanti, abbastanza vicini da poterli intravedere, ma non abbastanza da poterli riconoscere. Quella sensazione mi sopraffece. Ero una porta aperta che lasciava entrare milioni di immagini."
Soleggiata e ridente questa Tulley Street, classico quartiere di una medio-borghesia accogliente con i propri dirimpettai, prodiga nel mantenere verde il giardino e ingenuamente innocua quando scappano le due birrette il venerdì sera.
L'ignoranza diventa salvifica per la nostra incolumità; le menzogne raccontante a noi e gli altri un indispensabile compromesso - questo è quello che ci ripetiamo ogni giorno - per sopravvivere.
Perché dovremmo vivere con degli specchi in casa, quando non vedere è molto meglio?
February 25, 2022
Tom Wallace is living a pleasant life with his pregnant wife until a casual night of fun and games among family leads to an unexpected disaster. After being placed under hypnosis by his brother-in-law at the dinner table, Tom wakes up to find that his mind has awakened to psychic and supernatural phenomena. He can read the private thoughts and emotions of everyone around him, predict future tragedies and even seemingly becomes the conduit of the vengeful ghost of a woman who's been haunting his house, unknown to him and his wife. Crumbling under the weight of these dreadful powers, Tom does everything he can to solve the mystery behind why he was chosen to carry such a burden.
While the premise may sound like a cliche haunted house story, it's not. It's more of a slow crime mystery with subtle touches of supernatural drama. The intense emotions caused by Tom's ability to unintentionally read people's darkest feelings and secrets while also being able to predict what they're going to do several days in advance is what really makes the story feel so raw and uncomfortable. Being aware of a family member's looming death, being aware of the gross details of your neighbors romantic squabbles, knowing when thousands of people from miles away are about to die in an accident, it takes a toll on the protagonist and the story begins to take on a nightmarish dream-like quality that blurs reality.
While I did enjoy the drama of the story and found the twist ending shocking, I was a little disappointed that the story just randomly cuts off at the height of the climax. Once the big mystery of the plot is revealed, it just ends. There's no resolution after the big reveal and it just left me hanging there at the most intense moment of the story which I didn't like. Still enjoyed it as a whole though.
While the premise may sound like a cliche haunted house story, it's not. It's more of a slow crime mystery with subtle touches of supernatural drama. The intense emotions caused by Tom's ability to unintentionally read people's darkest feelings and secrets while also being able to predict what they're going to do several days in advance is what really makes the story feel so raw and uncomfortable. Being aware of a family member's looming death, being aware of the gross details of your neighbors romantic squabbles, knowing when thousands of people from miles away are about to die in an accident, it takes a toll on the protagonist and the story begins to take on a nightmarish dream-like quality that blurs reality.
While I did enjoy the drama of the story and found the twist ending shocking, I was a little disappointed that the story just randomly cuts off at the height of the climax. Once the big mystery of the plot is revealed, it just ends. There's no resolution after the big reveal and it just left me hanging there at the most intense moment of the story which I didn't like. Still enjoyed it as a whole though.
May 29, 2021
After being hypnotized at a party, Tom suddenly find himself being aware of things before they happen, having visions of a woman he has never met, and having adverse reactions to certain objects when he comes into contact with them. A really solid story that is well developed to its not wholly unexpected end. A good read that kept my interest throughout.
December 2, 2021
Matheson is such a talented writer. I have only ever read the book “ I am legend “ before this and I can say it was most clearly not a one off. Wile not as good as the aforementioned story it was still a page turner in its own right . Matheson excels at building a simple middle class suburb with a dark secret lurking just below its depths.
February 8, 2024
The perfect suburban ghost story. Matheson always did have a way with blending the mundane job of living a working life with the supernatural forces that might swirl just beyond perception and will rush in given a chance. His work was consistently at the top of the field and A STIR OF ECHOES is no exception.
It's the simplest of simple plots. A working man gets hypnotized, hypnotist accidently opens the man's mind to the great beyond, and man starts to experience the wider world of the weird beyond his normal day to day life - including the strange woman in his living room.
Matheson makes it work by populating the tale with believeable characters, and by hitting us with several set pieces that not only ramp up the tension but are genuinely creepy and have that 'cold tingle in the spine' moment that marks all the best ghost stories.
The Kevin Bacon movie went all out on the special effects for this one, but they weren't needed. It's the quiet moments, spent alone in the dark with what's inside - and outside - your mind that makes this so effective.
For me, one of the best haunting novels ever written. It's short, fast, and packs a real punch.
Watch this review read by me on YouTube
It's the simplest of simple plots. A working man gets hypnotized, hypnotist accidently opens the man's mind to the great beyond, and man starts to experience the wider world of the weird beyond his normal day to day life - including the strange woman in his living room.
Matheson makes it work by populating the tale with believeable characters, and by hitting us with several set pieces that not only ramp up the tension but are genuinely creepy and have that 'cold tingle in the spine' moment that marks all the best ghost stories.
The Kevin Bacon movie went all out on the special effects for this one, but they weren't needed. It's the quiet moments, spent alone in the dark with what's inside - and outside - your mind that makes this so effective.
For me, one of the best haunting novels ever written. It's short, fast, and packs a real punch.
Watch this review read by me on YouTube
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