The Spell: A Romance

by Tom Clark

The hero of this American gothic nightmare comedy is a messianic hillbilly prophet whose onetime local glory as a high school football star gives way to a career of outlaw questing. With the mysterious disappearance of his main squeeze―an edgy, spooky honkytonk chanteuse―that quest becomes increasingly deviant and deranged.
The landscape through which the earnest, confused seeker chivvies his banged-up black pickup truck is a magical and timeless one, its dense woods and dark lakes charged with a heavy burden of industrially-produced hexes, curses and toxic spells. Mechanical animals and changeling species, subjected to continual torments of re-programming, run half wild through a menacing backwater of poisonous tarns, vicious factories and slimy swamps. Elders of strange religions exercise insidious, unpleasant influences, while witches in Secret Shacks broadcast bad vibrations that produce genetic alterations. In this mutated vision of reality, there is a general spell under which everybody is bound.
The A Romance is a haunting and funny poetic novel about the survival of medieval chivalric codes―and their dangerous implications―in a toxic-shocked modern world. It is also a tale of love and quest, betrayal and revenge. The mysterious protean voice of the book slips back and forth from comic narrative prose to spare lyrical poetry as it becomes the voice of allusive, expansive, suspending disbelief.

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Clark was an American poet, editor and biographer. Clark was educated at the University of Michigan and served as poetry editor of "The Paris Review" from 1963 to 1973 and published numerous volumes of poetry with Black Sparrow Press. His literary essays and reviews have appeared in "The New York Times," "Times Literary Supplement," and many other journals.

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story tacks irregularly between blank verse and poetic prose. The story is set in a slightly different universe, largely, but not completely failing to resemble the Great Lakes states, populated with quasi-magical creatures. Reading this was like reading Michael Shea's Polyphemus and Ramsey Campbell's The Parasite at the same time. You feel as if any second you will start to hallucinate, but it never quite happens. It started out enchanting, but as the story went on and on without going anywhere much, I have to say I lost interest and just started wishing it would end.

[Silvie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best written fairy tales I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The imagery is solid but has a fluidity that I found astounding. The characters are far from your typical fare and there's truth in each of them. The best way I can describe it is it's like a dream.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm looking to add this to my Surrealism course in the spring. Thanks to Michael D. for the suggestion!