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American Fantastic Tales #2
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now
The second volume of Peter Straub’s pathbreaking two-volume anthology American Fantastic Tales picks up the story in 1940 and provides persuasive evidence that the decades since then have seen an extraordinary flowering. While continuing to explore the classic themes of horror and fantasy, successive generations of writers—including Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Stephen King, Steven Millhauser, and Thomas Ligotti—have opened up the field to new subjects, new styles, and daringly fresh expansions of the genre’s emotional and philosophical underpinnings. For many of these writers, the fantastic is simply the best available tool for describing the dislocations and newly hatched terrors of the modern era, from the nightmarish post-apocalyptic savagery of Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” to proliferating identities set deliriously adrift in Tim Powers’ “Pat Moore.”
“At its core,” writes editor Peter Straub, “the fantastic is a way of seeing.” In place of gothic trappings, the post-war masters of the fantastic often substitute an air of apparent normality. The surfaces of American life—department store displays in John Collier’s “Evening Primrose,” tar-paper roofs seen from an el train in Fritz Leiber’s “Smoke Ghost,” the balcony of a dilapidated movie theater in Tennessee Williams’ “The Mysteries of the Joy Rio”—become invested with haunting presences. The sphere of family life is transformed, in Davis Grubb’s “Where the Woodbine Twineth” or Richard Matheson’s “Prey,” into an arena of eerie menace. Dramas of madness, malevolent temptation, and vampiristic appropriation play themselves out against the backdrop of modern urban life in John Cheever’s “Torch Song” and Shirley Jackson’s unforgettable “The Daemon Lover.”
Nearly half the stories collected in this volume were published in the last two decades, including work by Michael Chabon, M. Rickert, Brian Evenson, Kelly Link, and Benjamin Percy: writers for whom traditional genre boundaries have ceased to exist, and who have brought the fantastic into the mainstream of contemporary writing.
The 42 stories in this second volume of American Fantastic Tales provide an irresistible journey into the phantasmagoric underside of the American imagination.
“At its core,” writes editor Peter Straub, “the fantastic is a way of seeing.” In place of gothic trappings, the post-war masters of the fantastic often substitute an air of apparent normality. The surfaces of American life—department store displays in John Collier’s “Evening Primrose,” tar-paper roofs seen from an el train in Fritz Leiber’s “Smoke Ghost,” the balcony of a dilapidated movie theater in Tennessee Williams’ “The Mysteries of the Joy Rio”—become invested with haunting presences. The sphere of family life is transformed, in Davis Grubb’s “Where the Woodbine Twineth” or Richard Matheson’s “Prey,” into an arena of eerie menace. Dramas of madness, malevolent temptation, and vampiristic appropriation play themselves out against the backdrop of modern urban life in John Cheever’s “Torch Song” and Shirley Jackson’s unforgettable “The Daemon Lover.”
Nearly half the stories collected in this volume were published in the last two decades, including work by Michael Chabon, M. Rickert, Brian Evenson, Kelly Link, and Benjamin Percy: writers for whom traditional genre boundaries have ceased to exist, and who have brought the fantastic into the mainstream of contemporary writing.
The 42 stories in this second volume of American Fantastic Tales provide an irresistible journey into the phantasmagoric underside of the American imagination.
713 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2009
39 people are currently reading
1377 people want to read
About the author
Peter Straub
259 books4,201 followersPeter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub.
Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.
Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally
After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.
In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.
In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.
Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).
Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.
Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally
After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.
In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.
In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.
Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).
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October 15, 2019
"The dead are jealous, jealous, jealous and they will do anything to keep you from the living, the lucky living. They will argue with you, and distract you, and if that doesn't work, they will even let you hug them, and dance for you, and kiss you, and laugh, anything to keep you. The dead are selfish. Jealous. Lonely. Desperate. Hungry."
― M. Rickert, The Chambered Fruit
I read these two ponderous volumes in record time, and I flew through the pages of these surreal, absurd, impossible tales just as fast as the first volume. Nonetheless, I felt much more involved with the tales collected in the previous volume. These 40 stories definitely make a good collection, even though some of them are obviously weaker than others. In this one, the difference between fantastical and horror becomes more and more acute as time passes, resulting in many of these stories being very far from the classic concept of horror, and thus maybe less interesting than the classics of volume one. Nonetheless, I felt just as glad as I did for the other volume, for the opportunity of discovering some authors and tales which absolutely blew my mind. If I had to choose my top five stories they would be the following:
"Miriam", by Truman Capote (well, ok my name is Miriam so I was biased on this one eheh)
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", by Harlan Ellison (which I was happy to read again)
"Family", by Joyce Carol Oates (my absolute favourite)
"The Last Feast of Harlequin", by Thomas Ligotti
"A Short Guide to the City", by Peter Straub
I think the reason for this top list is my fondness for the 1980s/90s production, both in horror and sci-fi fiction, as some I realize that of my favourite writers were most active in that period. Anyway, some of these stories actually felt boring to me and I was tempted to skip more than once, but I decided that it was worth reading this whole volume from the beginning to the end, and I don't regret this decision. These two tomes are one of my favourite reads of 2019. Recommending this one as well.
― M. Rickert, The Chambered Fruit
I read these two ponderous volumes in record time, and I flew through the pages of these surreal, absurd, impossible tales just as fast as the first volume. Nonetheless, I felt much more involved with the tales collected in the previous volume. These 40 stories definitely make a good collection, even though some of them are obviously weaker than others. In this one, the difference between fantastical and horror becomes more and more acute as time passes, resulting in many of these stories being very far from the classic concept of horror, and thus maybe less interesting than the classics of volume one. Nonetheless, I felt just as glad as I did for the other volume, for the opportunity of discovering some authors and tales which absolutely blew my mind. If I had to choose my top five stories they would be the following:
"Miriam", by Truman Capote (well, ok my name is Miriam so I was biased on this one eheh)
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", by Harlan Ellison (which I was happy to read again)
"Family", by Joyce Carol Oates (my absolute favourite)
"The Last Feast of Harlequin", by Thomas Ligotti
"A Short Guide to the City", by Peter Straub
I think the reason for this top list is my fondness for the 1980s/90s production, both in horror and sci-fi fiction, as some I realize that of my favourite writers were most active in that period. Anyway, some of these stories actually felt boring to me and I was tempted to skip more than once, but I decided that it was worth reading this whole volume from the beginning to the end, and I don't regret this decision. These two tomes are one of my favourite reads of 2019. Recommending this one as well.
September 9, 2015
So, here's the companion volume to American Fantastic Tales:Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps and, of course, given that it moves into the current day, it's bound to be more contentious than the first volume, while having a bit more variety.
As before, it's important to re-mention some points that I made in the review of the earlier volume: these books aren't intended as a "best-of" for each particular artist, rather Straub seems to be attempting a themed overview of the genre and so I imagine particular choices are made with that in mind. Also important - this isn't a horror anthology, it's "fantastic" tales by American authors, and "fantasy" covers a lot of ground (without ever touching science fiction or even heroic fantasy) that shades into darkness but is not encompassed by it.
Still, one can't help but question some of the choices for this more contemporary volume. If I had a missing author gripe, it would probably be that there's no selection from Karl Edward Wagner who could have beefed up the 70's section at the expense of one of the more recent, trendy choices. Second observation - in the attempt to highlight the "literary" end of the fantastic, Straub chooses a few stories here which, I feel at least, really stretch even the vaguest genre definition of "fantastic" and, I'll just say it, strike me as having been included here to add some unneeded literary cred. And, no, I'm not talking about the Tennessee Williams or the Truman Capote or the John Cheever. I'm talking about the absolutely beautiful, but hard to justify, story by Vladimir Nabokov, "The Vane Sisters". A man carries on a relationship with the sister of a women he had an affair with and who killed herself. The surviving Vane sister is a temperamental artist interested in seances. The story involves spiritualism, yes (tying it to stories in volume 1 and "Smoke Ghost" by Leiber, contained here) but it strikes me as a story *about* the fantastic as it is believed or not believed in, rather than a fantastic tale (the only other interpretation requires a highly charitable reading of the ending as an exercise in absurdity, as far as I can tell). Still, it's beautifully written (I actually said "Wow" out loud at various points, the writing was so clear and crisp and well-considered) and I'm certainly no lesser for having read it (and Nabokov gets in a great little commentary on ghostly lit writers with a reference to "Jamesian meanderings"). The same holds true for "Novelty" by John Crowley - an amazing story about a writer that's sharp, insightful and packs dozens of ideas and loaded observations into its simple lines. An author frets over his creative concepts, his process and his inactivity, then ruminates a possible novel idea with a plot structured as a history of an alternate, inverted Christianity. Again, seemed more about conceiving the fantastic than an actual fantastic tale. Still, happy I read it. Perhaps a little more understandable, but still hard to describe as "fantastic", was Jeff VanderMeer's short, powerful and evocative story of Korean War soldiers sent to occupy the city where all the war dead are being stored, in "The General Who Is Dead". Liked it.
Outside of those three tales (all very good) there was not one story I actually, completely disliked here (perhaps likely given the reason for the books existence), but I felt there were a few more clunky choices than the first volume, and the differences in weakness between the two major story-approach styles mostly underline the vague differences between "Lit" and "Pulp" (with solid examples of the failings from each).
On the pulp side (which is to say broader, more formulaic, more eager to please but more willing to unashamedly be a straight-ahead story, while taking chances on overdone writing for the effect it can elicit) you have examples like "Midnight" by Jack Snow, an overwrought little tale that just presents its central idea in the thinnest plot exposition possible. I wasn't impressed at all. Along those same lines, Donald Wandrei's "Nightmare" seemed a purple prosey trod through an ever increasing nightmare tone - somewhat evocative but also unsatisfying and clumsy.
Slightly better but still problematic pulp would be Anthony Boucher's "Mr. Lupescu", well-written but basically taking a famous twist-ending tale (think Collier's "Thus I Refute Beezly" or Saki's "Sredni Vasthar") and turning it inside out. "The Refugee" by Jane Rice is the same kind of thing - well-written, with a great setting (occupied Paris) and strong characterization of a wealthy woman driven by the circumstances to maintain her standard of living with some difficulty. When she discovers a naked young man in her garden, after some evenings of neighborhood depredations by a "wild animal", the story does not go as you expect, except it kind of does. Now this is a perfectly fine little story but it also, really, is about contained within a hokum plot (and perhaps some small, wry commentary about the limits civilized people will go to for survival) and just seemed a smidge too gimmicky to take a place in this volume. "Trace" by Jerome Bixby is another exercise in genre cuteness, perfectly okay, as a man has a discussion with a mysterious stranger (everyone will know who he is in seconds, but a twist isn't the point) - a slight parable, in all honesty.
Moving away from pulp but still slightly faulty would be stories in a straight ahead "fantastic" form that suffer not from any failing of their style, but merely from being a bit unassuming or unambitious. "I'm Scared" by Jack Finney is about time slips and might not seem much of a story (especially to those who favor the modern writing classes "checklist" of what makes for a good story - those who know the form but miss the spirit, in other words) but is perfectly adequate little piece of forteana, encapsulating Finney's fascination with time, time travel, history and the past, perhaps functioning as a commentary on escapism (one of the recurrent themes in this volume, no surprise). Imaginary playmates turn up again in - "Where The Woodbine Twineth" by Davis Grubb which is a pleasant, rural, folksy tale about a girl and a life-sized doll (with perhaps a slight race relations theme to possibly be teased from it).
From there we move on to the literary approach. This has a bit more latitude to be vague and unsatisfying in the pursuit of subtler moods and more complicated, deep or evocative tones and states of mind. But sometimes that point can be a little *too* vague, a little too reliant on the artistic "out" of hand-waving as evocation, a little too flaky. "Miriam" by Truman Capote is, as might be expected, extremely well-written and observed. A tale of a perfectly happy shut-in widow who extends a kindness to a small girl and then is incessantly plagued by the child's increasingly wild (if benignly expressed) demands. Is it a ghost story, a doppelganger tale, an extended metaphor on childlessness? Hard to say... Similar is Shirley Jackson's psychological piece "The Daemon Lover", in which a woman waits expectantly for her suitor and then desperately seeks him out. This story evokes frustration, desperation and anxiety over societal expectations of marriage, and ends with a powerful sense of a woman's alienation after being shut-out of love or marriage (her only other option is a barren room). Strong but kind of vague as well, it compliments the Capote nicely. In the "resonate vagueness can also be weak gestures towards profundity" pitfall of the the lit fantastic, I found both Caitlín R. Kiernan and Thomas Tessier fit the bill for being intriguing but slightly underwhelming. In Kiernan's "The Long Hall On The Top Floor", a quasi-alcoholic is led to witness a vague, indeterminate horror in an abandoned building - I thought more could have been made of the differences between his reaction and his guide's. "Nocturne" by Tessier is similar (person finds himself in unfamiliar, secret place and witnesses something inexplicable) but the narrator's rather blase reaction to the odd occurrence seems to want to imply more than it actually does (to me at least) - still, not bad in any sense, it may just be that "subtle" is a complex, acquired taste and mine tend towards Aickman's ominous moods.
"The Wavering Knife" is a Ligotti-esque tale in which an academic frets over the thoughts, papers and legacy of a famous philosopher, while neglecting the invalid ex-lover of the now-dead philosopher, whose nursing care has allowed him this unprecedented access in the first place. Pretty good psychodrama of collapsing sanity by Brian Evenson but I couldn't help feeling that more could have been done with the framing device of the philosopher's own words and works. Kelly Link's "Stone Animals", in which an upscale, yuppy New York City family moves to a country home and finds that things slowly become very... odd, was promising. The story does a good job of building encroaching, ominous suspense in an indirect way, through accumulation of small, strange details. On the other hand, Link's conversational, quippy style (and knowing use of non sequitur) is a bit... precious? Twee? And the distracting 3rd person omniscient narration (or whatever person and tense this is in, since it seems to slide around on a whim) that makes cute observations about the goings-on was equally annoying. So indirect that it can (and does) end at just about any moment. Finally, while perfectly competent, "Pat Moore" by Tim Powers is a solid example of why I don't read much "urban fantasy" or whatever this sub-genre would be called - turning it's semi-comical/semi-serious plot (a man plagued by a curse and a guardian angel) on complicated rules and pseudo-scientific strictures of the fantastic (in this case, how the afterlife operates). I'm sure some people eat this stuff up with a spoon but not my kind of thing at all.
Now, that may sound like a lot of groaning but as I said, outside of "Midnight" and "Nightmare" all of these preceding stories are well-written, they just have varied aspects that make them a little less than good in my estimation. Perhaps you can chalk that up to the expanded variety of approaches this volume offers, although I consider myself pretty open-minded (although concision and focus seem to be the lacking traits from much modern writing). And there's a large amount of good and great work here as well.
On the good tip - "Smoke Ghost" by Fritz Leiber is always worth a re-read. An exemplar and progenitor of the "urban horror" vein later mined so successfully by Ramsey Campbell, the story tells of a man plagued by growing awareness of a strange smudge/scrap that slowly gains ominous proportions. Urban angst and tension embodied, basically, deployed with creepiness and suspense. The story gains from some well-chosen, symbolic detail (his youth as a fraud medium for his Theosophist mother) and plot points (a visit to a psychiatrist that defuses expectations of help rather than offering succor). I always find the ending just the slightest bit flat, hard to say why, but still a solid story.
"The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" by Tennessee Williams has always stuck in my head since I first read it years ago - it's the tale of an elderly gay man and the decrepit pleasure palace (once opera house, then grand cinema, now aging fleabag theater) where he spends his time at furtive fumbling in the dark with strangers following the death of his longtime lover. It impresses on a number of levels - a sad and touching ghost story, a symbolic examination of life and death (the grand hall awash with possibilities as a youth turned rotting, empty cavern desperately filled with hollow desires by the end) and also a surprisingly frank (if slightly coded) portrayal of the unspoken rules and practices of anonymous homosexual cruising during the early part of the 19th century. Extremely well-written, as would be expected.
Paul Bowles "The Circular Valley" looks back at two previous volume stories ("The Dead Valley" and "Genius Loci") while also looking forward in this volume to the "loss of identity" thread in "The April Witch". Bowles dry descriptive style perfectly matches the geography as he weaves a tale of an ageless, disembodied consciousness that can possess creatures, and its attempts to engineer a human relationship to fulfill its own ends. Good stuff. I've read a little Isaac Bashevis Singer before and enjoyed his odd but powerful story "Hanka" - it's about a Jewish writer who tours Argentina as a lecturer, hooking up with a distant relative along the way - a strange, disaffected, cynical girl who embodies both the past and present. I could make a glib statement like "there's something of Robert Aickman in Singer's style here", but that seems unfair to Singer - not because Aickman is a lesser writer but because it's too limiting of a statement. I could also be glib and say "there's something of Singer in Aickman", but that's not right either. In this story, Singer captures the same tone and space as Aickman often does - not "nightmarish" because nightmares tend to have momentum and trajectory - instead, both writers explore an unnerving zone, a suffocating stasis full of portents and ominous threats that one doesn't move into so much as one is engulfed in, which then recedes (or perhaps just moves on). Where Aickman is cool, reserved English in his capturing of this strange, static doom-space, Singer is informed by the Jewish literary tradition. The writing here flows like water, clear and concise (much like Nabokov) while still feeling marvelous and strangely evocative.
The dissolution of the concept of the family in the 20th Century is another thread present overtly and covertly throughout this volume and Joyce Carol Oates tackles it head on in "Family" an exceptionally well-constructed tale (reminding me a bit of Matheson's "Tis the Season To Be Jelly") charting the decline and disintegration of a large, well-to-do family as the world around them dissolves and decays following social upheaval (I especially liked how apocalyptic reductions seem to turn the family backwards in time).
As I learned when attempting The Nightmare Factory all in one gulp, Thomas Ligotti is not an author to be plowed through - reading him requires an attention to subtlety akin to the experience of Aickman and Campbell. So I was happy to give his Lovecraft tribute, "The Last Feast of the Harlequin", another go. An anthropologist investigating clown imagery and roles in old rituals visits a remote American town to observe their odd winter festival. There's a powerful accumulation of atmosphere and detail that culminates in a vast underground chamber and some horrifying transformations. Not my favorite Ligotti but a good choice for the book and interesting to read in conjunction with "Poroth Farm".
CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT (I'm almost done, I promise)
As before, it's important to re-mention some points that I made in the review of the earlier volume: these books aren't intended as a "best-of" for each particular artist, rather Straub seems to be attempting a themed overview of the genre and so I imagine particular choices are made with that in mind. Also important - this isn't a horror anthology, it's "fantastic" tales by American authors, and "fantasy" covers a lot of ground (without ever touching science fiction or even heroic fantasy) that shades into darkness but is not encompassed by it.
Still, one can't help but question some of the choices for this more contemporary volume. If I had a missing author gripe, it would probably be that there's no selection from Karl Edward Wagner who could have beefed up the 70's section at the expense of one of the more recent, trendy choices. Second observation - in the attempt to highlight the "literary" end of the fantastic, Straub chooses a few stories here which, I feel at least, really stretch even the vaguest genre definition of "fantastic" and, I'll just say it, strike me as having been included here to add some unneeded literary cred. And, no, I'm not talking about the Tennessee Williams or the Truman Capote or the John Cheever. I'm talking about the absolutely beautiful, but hard to justify, story by Vladimir Nabokov, "The Vane Sisters". A man carries on a relationship with the sister of a women he had an affair with and who killed herself. The surviving Vane sister is a temperamental artist interested in seances. The story involves spiritualism, yes (tying it to stories in volume 1 and "Smoke Ghost" by Leiber, contained here) but it strikes me as a story *about* the fantastic as it is believed or not believed in, rather than a fantastic tale (the only other interpretation requires a highly charitable reading of the ending as an exercise in absurdity, as far as I can tell). Still, it's beautifully written (I actually said "Wow" out loud at various points, the writing was so clear and crisp and well-considered) and I'm certainly no lesser for having read it (and Nabokov gets in a great little commentary on ghostly lit writers with a reference to "Jamesian meanderings"). The same holds true for "Novelty" by John Crowley - an amazing story about a writer that's sharp, insightful and packs dozens of ideas and loaded observations into its simple lines. An author frets over his creative concepts, his process and his inactivity, then ruminates a possible novel idea with a plot structured as a history of an alternate, inverted Christianity. Again, seemed more about conceiving the fantastic than an actual fantastic tale. Still, happy I read it. Perhaps a little more understandable, but still hard to describe as "fantastic", was Jeff VanderMeer's short, powerful and evocative story of Korean War soldiers sent to occupy the city where all the war dead are being stored, in "The General Who Is Dead". Liked it.
Outside of those three tales (all very good) there was not one story I actually, completely disliked here (perhaps likely given the reason for the books existence), but I felt there were a few more clunky choices than the first volume, and the differences in weakness between the two major story-approach styles mostly underline the vague differences between "Lit" and "Pulp" (with solid examples of the failings from each).
On the pulp side (which is to say broader, more formulaic, more eager to please but more willing to unashamedly be a straight-ahead story, while taking chances on overdone writing for the effect it can elicit) you have examples like "Midnight" by Jack Snow, an overwrought little tale that just presents its central idea in the thinnest plot exposition possible. I wasn't impressed at all. Along those same lines, Donald Wandrei's "Nightmare" seemed a purple prosey trod through an ever increasing nightmare tone - somewhat evocative but also unsatisfying and clumsy.
Slightly better but still problematic pulp would be Anthony Boucher's "Mr. Lupescu", well-written but basically taking a famous twist-ending tale (think Collier's "Thus I Refute Beezly" or Saki's "Sredni Vasthar") and turning it inside out. "The Refugee" by Jane Rice is the same kind of thing - well-written, with a great setting (occupied Paris) and strong characterization of a wealthy woman driven by the circumstances to maintain her standard of living with some difficulty. When she discovers a naked young man in her garden, after some evenings of neighborhood depredations by a "wild animal", the story does not go as you expect, except it kind of does. Now this is a perfectly fine little story but it also, really, is about contained within a hokum plot (and perhaps some small, wry commentary about the limits civilized people will go to for survival) and just seemed a smidge too gimmicky to take a place in this volume. "Trace" by Jerome Bixby is another exercise in genre cuteness, perfectly okay, as a man has a discussion with a mysterious stranger (everyone will know who he is in seconds, but a twist isn't the point) - a slight parable, in all honesty.
Moving away from pulp but still slightly faulty would be stories in a straight ahead "fantastic" form that suffer not from any failing of their style, but merely from being a bit unassuming or unambitious. "I'm Scared" by Jack Finney is about time slips and might not seem much of a story (especially to those who favor the modern writing classes "checklist" of what makes for a good story - those who know the form but miss the spirit, in other words) but is perfectly adequate little piece of forteana, encapsulating Finney's fascination with time, time travel, history and the past, perhaps functioning as a commentary on escapism (one of the recurrent themes in this volume, no surprise). Imaginary playmates turn up again in - "Where The Woodbine Twineth" by Davis Grubb which is a pleasant, rural, folksy tale about a girl and a life-sized doll (with perhaps a slight race relations theme to possibly be teased from it).
From there we move on to the literary approach. This has a bit more latitude to be vague and unsatisfying in the pursuit of subtler moods and more complicated, deep or evocative tones and states of mind. But sometimes that point can be a little *too* vague, a little too reliant on the artistic "out" of hand-waving as evocation, a little too flaky. "Miriam" by Truman Capote is, as might be expected, extremely well-written and observed. A tale of a perfectly happy shut-in widow who extends a kindness to a small girl and then is incessantly plagued by the child's increasingly wild (if benignly expressed) demands. Is it a ghost story, a doppelganger tale, an extended metaphor on childlessness? Hard to say... Similar is Shirley Jackson's psychological piece "The Daemon Lover", in which a woman waits expectantly for her suitor and then desperately seeks him out. This story evokes frustration, desperation and anxiety over societal expectations of marriage, and ends with a powerful sense of a woman's alienation after being shut-out of love or marriage (her only other option is a barren room). Strong but kind of vague as well, it compliments the Capote nicely. In the "resonate vagueness can also be weak gestures towards profundity" pitfall of the the lit fantastic, I found both Caitlín R. Kiernan and Thomas Tessier fit the bill for being intriguing but slightly underwhelming. In Kiernan's "The Long Hall On The Top Floor", a quasi-alcoholic is led to witness a vague, indeterminate horror in an abandoned building - I thought more could have been made of the differences between his reaction and his guide's. "Nocturne" by Tessier is similar (person finds himself in unfamiliar, secret place and witnesses something inexplicable) but the narrator's rather blase reaction to the odd occurrence seems to want to imply more than it actually does (to me at least) - still, not bad in any sense, it may just be that "subtle" is a complex, acquired taste and mine tend towards Aickman's ominous moods.
"The Wavering Knife" is a Ligotti-esque tale in which an academic frets over the thoughts, papers and legacy of a famous philosopher, while neglecting the invalid ex-lover of the now-dead philosopher, whose nursing care has allowed him this unprecedented access in the first place. Pretty good psychodrama of collapsing sanity by Brian Evenson but I couldn't help feeling that more could have been done with the framing device of the philosopher's own words and works. Kelly Link's "Stone Animals", in which an upscale, yuppy New York City family moves to a country home and finds that things slowly become very... odd, was promising. The story does a good job of building encroaching, ominous suspense in an indirect way, through accumulation of small, strange details. On the other hand, Link's conversational, quippy style (and knowing use of non sequitur) is a bit... precious? Twee? And the distracting 3rd person omniscient narration (or whatever person and tense this is in, since it seems to slide around on a whim) that makes cute observations about the goings-on was equally annoying. So indirect that it can (and does) end at just about any moment. Finally, while perfectly competent, "Pat Moore" by Tim Powers is a solid example of why I don't read much "urban fantasy" or whatever this sub-genre would be called - turning it's semi-comical/semi-serious plot (a man plagued by a curse and a guardian angel) on complicated rules and pseudo-scientific strictures of the fantastic (in this case, how the afterlife operates). I'm sure some people eat this stuff up with a spoon but not my kind of thing at all.
Now, that may sound like a lot of groaning but as I said, outside of "Midnight" and "Nightmare" all of these preceding stories are well-written, they just have varied aspects that make them a little less than good in my estimation. Perhaps you can chalk that up to the expanded variety of approaches this volume offers, although I consider myself pretty open-minded (although concision and focus seem to be the lacking traits from much modern writing). And there's a large amount of good and great work here as well.
On the good tip - "Smoke Ghost" by Fritz Leiber is always worth a re-read. An exemplar and progenitor of the "urban horror" vein later mined so successfully by Ramsey Campbell, the story tells of a man plagued by growing awareness of a strange smudge/scrap that slowly gains ominous proportions. Urban angst and tension embodied, basically, deployed with creepiness and suspense. The story gains from some well-chosen, symbolic detail (his youth as a fraud medium for his Theosophist mother) and plot points (a visit to a psychiatrist that defuses expectations of help rather than offering succor). I always find the ending just the slightest bit flat, hard to say why, but still a solid story.
"The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" by Tennessee Williams has always stuck in my head since I first read it years ago - it's the tale of an elderly gay man and the decrepit pleasure palace (once opera house, then grand cinema, now aging fleabag theater) where he spends his time at furtive fumbling in the dark with strangers following the death of his longtime lover. It impresses on a number of levels - a sad and touching ghost story, a symbolic examination of life and death (the grand hall awash with possibilities as a youth turned rotting, empty cavern desperately filled with hollow desires by the end) and also a surprisingly frank (if slightly coded) portrayal of the unspoken rules and practices of anonymous homosexual cruising during the early part of the 19th century. Extremely well-written, as would be expected.
Paul Bowles "The Circular Valley" looks back at two previous volume stories ("The Dead Valley" and "Genius Loci") while also looking forward in this volume to the "loss of identity" thread in "The April Witch". Bowles dry descriptive style perfectly matches the geography as he weaves a tale of an ageless, disembodied consciousness that can possess creatures, and its attempts to engineer a human relationship to fulfill its own ends. Good stuff. I've read a little Isaac Bashevis Singer before and enjoyed his odd but powerful story "Hanka" - it's about a Jewish writer who tours Argentina as a lecturer, hooking up with a distant relative along the way - a strange, disaffected, cynical girl who embodies both the past and present. I could make a glib statement like "there's something of Robert Aickman in Singer's style here", but that seems unfair to Singer - not because Aickman is a lesser writer but because it's too limiting of a statement. I could also be glib and say "there's something of Singer in Aickman", but that's not right either. In this story, Singer captures the same tone and space as Aickman often does - not "nightmarish" because nightmares tend to have momentum and trajectory - instead, both writers explore an unnerving zone, a suffocating stasis full of portents and ominous threats that one doesn't move into so much as one is engulfed in, which then recedes (or perhaps just moves on). Where Aickman is cool, reserved English in his capturing of this strange, static doom-space, Singer is informed by the Jewish literary tradition. The writing here flows like water, clear and concise (much like Nabokov) while still feeling marvelous and strangely evocative.
The dissolution of the concept of the family in the 20th Century is another thread present overtly and covertly throughout this volume and Joyce Carol Oates tackles it head on in "Family" an exceptionally well-constructed tale (reminding me a bit of Matheson's "Tis the Season To Be Jelly") charting the decline and disintegration of a large, well-to-do family as the world around them dissolves and decays following social upheaval (I especially liked how apocalyptic reductions seem to turn the family backwards in time).
As I learned when attempting The Nightmare Factory all in one gulp, Thomas Ligotti is not an author to be plowed through - reading him requires an attention to subtlety akin to the experience of Aickman and Campbell. So I was happy to give his Lovecraft tribute, "The Last Feast of the Harlequin", another go. An anthropologist investigating clown imagery and roles in old rituals visits a remote American town to observe their odd winter festival. There's a powerful accumulation of atmosphere and detail that culminates in a vast underground chamber and some horrifying transformations. Not my favorite Ligotti but a good choice for the book and interesting to read in conjunction with "Poroth Farm".
CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT (I'm almost done, I promise)
July 13, 2014
An absolutely definitive collection of contemporary, short, literary horror. I read the first volume (Classic, short, literary horror), and didn't know how I would feel about this one. I ended up loving it even more. Say whatever you will book snobs, but I will always love Contemporary over Classic.
This book was my baby for a few days, taking it everywhere and enjoying it whenever I had a spare moment. I enjoyed all of the stories, even a few of the more confusing ones at the end (I normally love Kelly Link, but 'Stone Animals' was a bit of a mess, albeit a well-written one).
I would recommend buying this book because of how beautiful this edition is. Its part of the "Library of America" series, and the pages are acid-free and sturdily well-bound. Another thing I really loved was the font, which is something I literally NEVER notice. I always though font analysis was for pretentious hipsters, but I eventually grew to really, really care for this font.
Welp. I've got nothing more to say, other than that I HIGHLY recommend this novel to EVERYONE.
This book was my baby for a few days, taking it everywhere and enjoying it whenever I had a spare moment. I enjoyed all of the stories, even a few of the more confusing ones at the end (I normally love Kelly Link, but 'Stone Animals' was a bit of a mess, albeit a well-written one).
I would recommend buying this book because of how beautiful this edition is. Its part of the "Library of America" series, and the pages are acid-free and sturdily well-bound. Another thing I really loved was the font, which is something I literally NEVER notice. I always though font analysis was for pretentious hipsters, but I eventually grew to really, really care for this font.
Welp. I've got nothing more to say, other than that I HIGHLY recommend this novel to EVERYONE.
April 3, 2012
Catalogued in the Order Read
Favorites:
Brian Evenson – “The Wavering Knife”
Joe Hill – “Pop Art”
T.E.D. Klein – “The Events at Poroth Farm”
Favorable:
Shirley Jackson – “The Daemon Lover”
Steven Millhauser – “Dangerous Laughter”
Harlan Ellison – “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”
John Collier – “Evening Primrose”
Truman Capote – “Miriam”
Ray Bradbury – “The April Witch”
M. Rickert – “The Chambered Fruit”
John Cheever – “Torch Song”
Michael Chabon – “The God of Dark Laughter”
Kelly Link – “Stone Animals”
Fritz Leiber – “Smoke Ghost”
Jane Rice – “The Refugee”
Thomas Ligotti – “The Last Feast of Harlequin”
Average-Redeeming:
Jerome Bixby – “Trace”
Joyce Carol Oates – “Family”
Jack Finney – “I’m Scared”
Benjamin Percy – “Dial Tone”
Isaac Bashevis Singer – “Hanka”
Donald Wandrei – “Nightmare”
Jack Snow – “Midnight”
George Saunders – “Sea Oak”
Anthony Boucher – “Mr. Lupescu”
Paul Bowles – “The Circular Valley”
Davis Grubb – “Where the Woodbine Twineth”
Caitlin Kiernan – “The Long Hall on the Top Floor”
Jeff Vandermeer – “The General Who is Dead”
Stephen King – “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French”
Fred Chappell – “Linnaeus Forgets”
Richard Matheson – “Prey”
Tennessee Williams – “Mysteries of the Joy Rio”
Gene Wolfe – “The Little Stranger”
Tim Powers – “Pat Moore”
Unfavorable:
Thomas Tessier – “Nocturne”
John Crowley – “Novelty”
Vladimir Nabokov – “The Vane Sisters”
Poppy Z. Brite – “Pansu”
Jonathan Carroll – “Mr. Fiddlehead”
Peter Straub – “A Short Guide to the City”
Unreadable:
Charles Beaumont – “Black Country”
Straub, you're a terrible editor. Within five minutes, I caught the word 'the' mistakenly substituted for 'she' in Jackson's "The Daemon Lover" and Millhauser's "Dangerous Laughter" story referenced as "Dark Laughter" in the introduction. (I guess the inclusion of Chabon's "The God of Dark Laughter" proved to be too confusing). Really?
There are some additional errors throughout; the most notable is probably where the letter 'l' is in place of a capital 'I' in Rickert's "The Chambered Fruit." I'd like an editing job now, please.
Favorites:
Brian Evenson – “The Wavering Knife”
Joe Hill – “Pop Art”
T.E.D. Klein – “The Events at Poroth Farm”
Favorable:
Shirley Jackson – “The Daemon Lover”
Steven Millhauser – “Dangerous Laughter”
Harlan Ellison – “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”
John Collier – “Evening Primrose”
Truman Capote – “Miriam”
Ray Bradbury – “The April Witch”
M. Rickert – “The Chambered Fruit”
John Cheever – “Torch Song”
Michael Chabon – “The God of Dark Laughter”
Kelly Link – “Stone Animals”
Fritz Leiber – “Smoke Ghost”
Jane Rice – “The Refugee”
Thomas Ligotti – “The Last Feast of Harlequin”
Average-Redeeming:
Jerome Bixby – “Trace”
Joyce Carol Oates – “Family”
Jack Finney – “I’m Scared”
Benjamin Percy – “Dial Tone”
Isaac Bashevis Singer – “Hanka”
Donald Wandrei – “Nightmare”
Jack Snow – “Midnight”
George Saunders – “Sea Oak”
Anthony Boucher – “Mr. Lupescu”
Paul Bowles – “The Circular Valley”
Davis Grubb – “Where the Woodbine Twineth”
Caitlin Kiernan – “The Long Hall on the Top Floor”
Jeff Vandermeer – “The General Who is Dead”
Stephen King – “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French”
Fred Chappell – “Linnaeus Forgets”
Richard Matheson – “Prey”
Tennessee Williams – “Mysteries of the Joy Rio”
Gene Wolfe – “The Little Stranger”
Tim Powers – “Pat Moore”
Unfavorable:
Thomas Tessier – “Nocturne”
John Crowley – “Novelty”
Vladimir Nabokov – “The Vane Sisters”
Poppy Z. Brite – “Pansu”
Jonathan Carroll – “Mr. Fiddlehead”
Peter Straub – “A Short Guide to the City”
Unreadable:
Charles Beaumont – “Black Country”
Straub, you're a terrible editor. Within five minutes, I caught the word 'the' mistakenly substituted for 'she' in Jackson's "The Daemon Lover" and Millhauser's "Dangerous Laughter" story referenced as "Dark Laughter" in the introduction. (I guess the inclusion of Chabon's "The God of Dark Laughter" proved to be too confusing). Really?
There are some additional errors throughout; the most notable is probably where the letter 'l' is in place of a capital 'I' in Rickert's "The Chambered Fruit." I'd like an editing job now, please.
March 8, 2010
Excellent anthology, but somewhat lacking as a definitive representation of what should be the best, given it's Library of America. The choices for 1995- 2007 in particular aren't that outstanding. But the first third is terrific and the second half quite good. It's a mix of literary authors writing a fantastic tale (Tennessee Williams' "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" and Truman Capote's "Miriam" are especially good) and horror writers with good, but oddly, often not their best work (Shirley Jackson is represented by "The Demon Lover" which is great but not supernatural, Bradbury's done a dozen stories better than "The April Witch" and other than "It's a GOOD Life" [not in the anthology:] I don't think Jerome Bixby is all that great.) Wonderful stories by Davis Grubb (who is undeservedly largely forgotten) Fritz Leiber, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, George Saunders, Harlan Ellison & Gene Wolfe. Female authors are under-represented. Where is Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, and James Tiptree Jr? They're much better than Caitlin Keirnan and Poppy Z Brite, who are included. But overall, a good collection and well worth reading. I formed a FB group to discuss this anthology and it inspired many excellent discussions.
December 13, 2009
At 700+ pages and with 40+ stories in tiny, tiny type, Tales is an incredibly dense book.
There's no way to really review the book as a whole. The stories run from the 1940 to 2007, and the authors, subjects and genres are as diverse as the decade.
So, below (in chronological order) is a list of those I'd highly recommend folks try. The ones with asterisks are amazing. I'll be looking for more from those authors.
Smoke Ghost/Fritz Leiber
The Refugee/Jane Rice*
Mr. Lupescu/Anthony Boucher
Miriam/Truman Capote
I'm Scared/Jack Finney
The April Witch/Ray Bradbury
Black Country/Charles Beaumont
Trace/Jerome Bixby
Where the Woodbine Twineth/Davis Grubb
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream/Harlan *Ellison
Prey/Richard Matheson
The Events at Poroth Farm/T.E.D. Klein
Linnaeus Forgets/Fred Chappell
Mr Fiddlehead/Jonathon Carroll*
That Feeling/Stephen King*
Sea Oak/George Saunders*
The Long Hall on the Top Floor/Caitlin R. Kiernan
Pop Art/Joe Hill*
Dangerous Laughter/Steven Millhauser
The Chambered Fruit/M. Rickert*
Stone Animals/Kelly Link*
Pat Moore/Tim Powers
The Little Stranger/Gene Wolf*
There's no way to really review the book as a whole. The stories run from the 1940 to 2007, and the authors, subjects and genres are as diverse as the decade.
So, below (in chronological order) is a list of those I'd highly recommend folks try. The ones with asterisks are amazing. I'll be looking for more from those authors.
Smoke Ghost/Fritz Leiber
The Refugee/Jane Rice*
Mr. Lupescu/Anthony Boucher
Miriam/Truman Capote
I'm Scared/Jack Finney
The April Witch/Ray Bradbury
Black Country/Charles Beaumont
Trace/Jerome Bixby
Where the Woodbine Twineth/Davis Grubb
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream/Harlan *Ellison
Prey/Richard Matheson
The Events at Poroth Farm/T.E.D. Klein
Linnaeus Forgets/Fred Chappell
Mr Fiddlehead/Jonathon Carroll*
That Feeling/Stephen King*
Sea Oak/George Saunders*
The Long Hall on the Top Floor/Caitlin R. Kiernan
Pop Art/Joe Hill*
Dangerous Laughter/Steven Millhauser
The Chambered Fruit/M. Rickert*
Stone Animals/Kelly Link*
Pat Moore/Tim Powers
The Little Stranger/Gene Wolf*
October 15, 2020
Amazing cross section of modern contemporary fiction writers. Biggest surprises were Joyce Carol Oates & Michael Chabon. Other greats by Jonathan Carroll, Thomas Ligotti, & more.
July 5, 2010
I am so disappointed in this book.It seems like Straub picked the most boring stories by the authors to put in this book.I am so glad that I didn't buy the two books in the series because I would then have been even more disappointed than I am now.
October 27, 2017
I enjoyed this more than I really expected, and was surprised to find myself more drawn in by the pre-1960s stories than the contemporary ones (despite my love of Kelly Link and Gene Wolfe). Now I'm going to have to read the first volume, too.
July 7, 2010
Actually, I would give this book a 2 1/2 star rating, because I found half the stories to be really great or well above average and then half to be snooze-worthy. I have to say, that for me there was a huge mark against the collection when I immediately checked for any Robert Aickman stories. A collection of modern stories of the "uncanny" without Aickman????
I confess I don't read much of the straight up modern horror/sci-fi stuff and am not familiar with what angle Straub is coming from, other than his well written humorous intro talking about the shameful tacky era of horror writing when all the books had glossy embossed covers with buckets of blood and oozing graves. This could have been and should have been a mind blowing anthology. Right now is a prime time for current writers to write outside genre while having some fun with horror and fantasy history/conventions. But for me it fell way short. I'm now reading the first volume that deals with "from Poe to the pulps" and I have to say it's much more solid.
I confess I don't read much of the straight up modern horror/sci-fi stuff and am not familiar with what angle Straub is coming from, other than his well written humorous intro talking about the shameful tacky era of horror writing when all the books had glossy embossed covers with buckets of blood and oozing graves. This could have been and should have been a mind blowing anthology. Right now is a prime time for current writers to write outside genre while having some fun with horror and fantasy history/conventions. But for me it fell way short. I'm now reading the first volume that deals with "from Poe to the pulps" and I have to say it's much more solid.
March 24, 2011
My reaction to this book is very similar to the first volume in this series: There were a few gems in the collection, a lot of OK stories, and a couple stinkers. Whereas the first volume gave interesting perspective on the growth of writing and supernatural fantasy in America, I felt like this volume gave more perspective on the writing of many popular authors from recent times (i.e. 1940s onwards).
One of the things I noticed most was how deep of an impression H.P. Lovecraft has made upon the supernatural fantasy genre in the US. He is basically The Man when it comes to supernatural horror and fantasy in the States, and many of the stories were obviously influenced by him or, in some cases, dedicated directly to him.
This was by no means a "can't put it down" book, but I think a big part of that is because it is in short story format, so by the time you're hooked, the story is done and you lose that drive to keep reading. Still, there are a lot of wonderful stories in here, and I think if you like the genre of supernatural fantasy, then you will definitely enjoy this book.
One of the things I noticed most was how deep of an impression H.P. Lovecraft has made upon the supernatural fantasy genre in the US. He is basically The Man when it comes to supernatural horror and fantasy in the States, and many of the stories were obviously influenced by him or, in some cases, dedicated directly to him.
This was by no means a "can't put it down" book, but I think a big part of that is because it is in short story format, so by the time you're hooked, the story is done and you lose that drive to keep reading. Still, there are a lot of wonderful stories in here, and I think if you like the genre of supernatural fantasy, then you will definitely enjoy this book.
August 2, 2013
I got this book out of the library recently, and realized about a story in that I'd already read it a few years ago. However, even knowing that, I couldn't help but read it over again. That's how good it is. Almost every single story is a winner---stories that have that strange touch, that weird something you can't quite put your finger on but that makes you think long after you read them. My favorite stories---Jack Finney (anything he writes is great) with "I'm Scared, Jonathan Carroll with "Mr. Fiddlehead" (this is one amazing story if you've ever had an imaginary friend), Peter Straub "A Short Guide to the City" (I can't even figure out at all why this is such a compelling story, but it is), Gene Wolfe "The Little Stranger" (you get something new from this one every time you read it)---I could go on and on. Certainly completely totally a must read.
May 18, 2015
While there are several stories worth reading here, I much preferred the first volume of this set. Once you hit the 1980s (about halfway through) the quality drops sharply, with a few exceptions (Ligotti, Millhauser, Rickert, Percy--too bad Straub gives away the entire story to that last in his introduction; I guess he thought we'd forget by the time we got there.)
June 16, 2021
Great collection overall, though some of the selections seemed like they were chosen more for the notoriety of the author’s name than because they were they best examples of the theme. This is kind of a vol. II, and I look forward to getting ahold of the vol. I soon.
October 25, 2022
WHAT A BIG BOOK. I've had this for years (probably since it came out in 2009) and previous skimmings introduced me to Brian Evenson and the problematic but still so goddanged unnerving "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream"--but in Spooktober 2022, as part of my 222 in 2022 Short Story challenge, lo, I undertook to read the whole dang thing.
And I did!
But this is a woefully out of date collection, hugely dudely and white, and there's no love lost between me and Peter Straub (and I'm sorry, it's a jerk move to include yourself in an anthology you edited). In his intro, which I read last, I learned that I'd misread a handful of the stories (vampires?!!), and that Mr Straub loves Kelly Link--and who doesn't, Stone Animal is a pitch-perfect story (I've taught it and probably have 4-5 copies in various books on my shelves).
I had fun tracking the themes between stories, and Straub mentions some tropes I'd never heard of. But most importantly, I've recouped my stats from that Apocalypse Reader disaster and after smashing all 42 of these stories, there's only 21 to go in 222 in 2022!
And I did!
But this is a woefully out of date collection, hugely dudely and white, and there's no love lost between me and Peter Straub (and I'm sorry, it's a jerk move to include yourself in an anthology you edited). In his intro, which I read last, I learned that I'd misread a handful of the stories (vampires?!!), and that Mr Straub loves Kelly Link--and who doesn't, Stone Animal is a pitch-perfect story (I've taught it and probably have 4-5 copies in various books on my shelves).
I had fun tracking the themes between stories, and Straub mentions some tropes I'd never heard of. But most importantly, I've recouped my stats from that Apocalypse Reader disaster and after smashing all 42 of these stories, there's only 21 to go in 222 in 2022!
October 1, 2011
I'm a bit torn. The introduction by Straub seems misleading. He focuses on the horror elements, but it seems several the stories chosen fall into the fantastic fiction that the actual title of the book suggests. I'm not a huge fan of several of the stories chosen and think that there are better examples that could have been chosen. Also, the length of a lot of the selected stories runs far too long.[return][return]That being said, there's some real gems here and there are not as many collections out with the scope of these two volumes.[return][return]So I personally am torn whether to add the collections to a wishlist. I think if you can get it from a library or borrow it, great. Be prepared to skip stories, but you might be able to find some authors to follow.
September 14, 2010
Perhaps I can only take so much of the uncanny--this 700-page collection surpassed my limit. My favorites were the stories from the 40's and 50's, which were more literary and less pulpy than the usual horror fare: Smoke Ghost, Mr. Lupescu, I'm Scared, and the selections by John Cheever and Shirley Jackson.
July 23, 2010
There were some great stories in this anthology, along with (of course) some fairly dreadful ones. I mostly preferred the relatively recent material, but it did contain one old, long-time favorite: John Cheever's Torch Song which is on my (unwritten) list of all-time-favorite short stories.
March 3, 2011
This collection was not nearly as good as the previous volume. Perhaps that had to do with a lot of the stories being from the last twenty years, which seems to have been the "meandering characters in search of a storyline" type of short-story writing. Very few of these stories were uncanny or having to do with terror, which was unfortunate.
July 30, 2010
Very enjoyable, event though I was surprised at the heavy tilt toward stories from the past twenty years. My favorites? "I Have No Mouth..." by Harlan Ellison and "Family" by Joyce Carol Oates. Really enjoyed Kelly Link's "Stone Animals" until the end. Well worth reading for fans of the genre.
May 9, 2010
Just a little old-fashioned for my taste. I need my terror to be more in my face I guess.
May 21, 2010
Really enjoyed this one. "Sea Oak" and "The Refugee" were my favorites.
January 26, 2011
Full review coming.
July 11, 2010
This is a fantastic anthology. Highly recommend it. People tend to dismiss this genre as populated by a bunch of hack writers and this proves that thought so wrong. The writing is fantastic.
May 18, 2011
Didn't read all of the stories out of this book, but from the ones we read for my English class, "Prey" was my favorite. Really freaky.
July 1, 2011
These are just great stories. Highly recommended.
March 11, 2023
About the best I can say about this anthology is that it has a cool cover and it's a well-made book. Besides that, it's one of the worst anthologies I've ever read. This may say more about me than about this book; regardless, reading this anthology was like getting hit in the head every night. It's obvious that Straub got a case of cultural cringe (hey, it's the "LIBRARY OF AMERICA" after all), and decided to almost exclusively choose stories that would be right at home in some literary journal with a circulation of 150 people. In other words, he chose stories not because they might be a good reflection of the genre (which I guess is fantasy or horror; I don't know, I skipped the boring introduction) but so that people would say "wow, that Peter Straub must be pretty smart to like stories like these." Almost every story is either obscure, ambiguous, overly descriptive, and slow; or frivolous and silly. Nothing happens for 20 pages. Then there's some very slight hint of the paranormal. End of story.
The two exceptions were "Prey" by Richard Matheson and "The God of Dark Laughter" by Michael Chabon. I actually began reading this book with "Prey", and I'm not sure there has ever been a case where I've been so excited to read the rest of the book, only to be so let down. "Prey" is everything all the stories aren't - i.e., gripping, intense, scary, and, dare I say it, enjoyable to read. "The God of Dark Laughter" I found darkly amusing and strikingly written. "The Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein is also interesting, although I would suggest you just read the novel based on the story. "The Chambered Fruit" by M. Rickert had its moments, although I found it cheesy and sentimental. And Tennessee William's over-anthologized "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" is readable, although overall I groaned when I saw it yet again in a table of contents.
Besides that, there is nothing I would recommend in this book. In other words, out of a grand total of 42 stories, I enjoyed only 2. Again, this might say more about me than about Straub, but surely I can't be that much of an outlier. Is it too much to ask for literature to be enjoyable? Must fiction be opaque and anticlimactic?
A deeply frustrating anthology. I will be staying away from anything with the name "Peter Straub" on it in the future. Average story score: 2.3/5.
The two exceptions were "Prey" by Richard Matheson and "The God of Dark Laughter" by Michael Chabon. I actually began reading this book with "Prey", and I'm not sure there has ever been a case where I've been so excited to read the rest of the book, only to be so let down. "Prey" is everything all the stories aren't - i.e., gripping, intense, scary, and, dare I say it, enjoyable to read. "The God of Dark Laughter" I found darkly amusing and strikingly written. "The Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein is also interesting, although I would suggest you just read the novel based on the story. "The Chambered Fruit" by M. Rickert had its moments, although I found it cheesy and sentimental. And Tennessee William's over-anthologized "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" is readable, although overall I groaned when I saw it yet again in a table of contents.
Besides that, there is nothing I would recommend in this book. In other words, out of a grand total of 42 stories, I enjoyed only 2. Again, this might say more about me than about Straub, but surely I can't be that much of an outlier. Is it too much to ask for literature to be enjoyable? Must fiction be opaque and anticlimactic?
A deeply frustrating anthology. I will be staying away from anything with the name "Peter Straub" on it in the future. Average story score: 2.3/5.
January 13, 2020
I picked this up impulsively, the day I got my library card. I didn’t have time to browse, and I had a huge stack of books I had picked up at a booksale (actually more like a giveaway) but I wanted something to mark the event.
And this didn’t disappoint. I would never have picked this out at a bookstore, or online shop. But it gave me a chance to read writers that my mother would be appalled to find out I hadn’t read, like Truman Capote or Tennessee Williams. I also discovered a few new writers I would like to check out.
Some thoughts - Some of the stories were slow to start. A problem when you loved the previous one, and are being asked to get invested in a new one. Makes it a little difficult to binge read. Although some gave great hooks.
Many of the stories are set in NYC, which I loved, as a new resident.
Here are my favorites, in chronological order:
The Daemon Lover by Shirley Jackson
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Family by Joyce Carrol Oates
A Short Guide to the City by Peter Straub
The Chambered Fruit by M. Rickert
Stone Animals by Kelly Link
And this didn’t disappoint. I would never have picked this out at a bookstore, or online shop. But it gave me a chance to read writers that my mother would be appalled to find out I hadn’t read, like Truman Capote or Tennessee Williams. I also discovered a few new writers I would like to check out.
Some thoughts - Some of the stories were slow to start. A problem when you loved the previous one, and are being asked to get invested in a new one. Makes it a little difficult to binge read. Although some gave great hooks.
Many of the stories are set in NYC, which I loved, as a new resident.
Here are my favorites, in chronological order:
The Daemon Lover by Shirley Jackson
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Family by Joyce Carrol Oates
A Short Guide to the City by Peter Straub
The Chambered Fruit by M. Rickert
Stone Animals by Kelly Link
January 1, 2026
Ranking my Top 15 (out of 40?) stories in this collection:
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (1967) Harlan Ellision
“Sea Oak” (1999) George Saunders
“Miriam” (1945) Truman Capote
“Torch Song” (1947) John Cheever
“Hanka” (1974) Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Prey” (1969) Richard Matheson
“The Wavering Knife” (2004) Brian Evenson
“The Events at Poroth Farm” (1972) T.E.D. Klein
“The Chambered Fruit” (2003) M. Rickert
“Family” (1989) Joyce Carol Oates
“Dial Tone” (2007) Benjamin Percy
“The Circular Valley” (1950)
“Smoke Ghost” (1941)
“The Last Feast of Harlequin” (1990) Thomas Ligotti
“Linnaeus Forgets” (1977)
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (1967) Harlan Ellision
“Sea Oak” (1999) George Saunders
“Miriam” (1945) Truman Capote
“Torch Song” (1947) John Cheever
“Hanka” (1974) Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Prey” (1969) Richard Matheson
“The Wavering Knife” (2004) Brian Evenson
“The Events at Poroth Farm” (1972) T.E.D. Klein
“The Chambered Fruit” (2003) M. Rickert
“Family” (1989) Joyce Carol Oates
“Dial Tone” (2007) Benjamin Percy
“The Circular Valley” (1950)
“Smoke Ghost” (1941)
“The Last Feast of Harlequin” (1990) Thomas Ligotti
“Linnaeus Forgets” (1977)
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