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Sarah Court
Sarah Court. Meet the residents...
The haunted father of a washed-up stuntman. A disgraced surgeon and his son, a broken-down boxer. A father set on permanent self-destruct, and his daughter, a reluctant powerlifter. A fireworks-maker and his daughter. A very peculiar boy and his equally peculiar adopted family.
Five houses. Five families. One block.
Ask yourself: How well do you know your neighbours? How well do you know your own family? Ultimately, how well do you know yourself? How deeply do the threads of your own life entwine with those around you? Do you ever really know how tightly those threads are knotted? Do you want to know?
Welcome to Sarah Court: make yourself at home.
The haunted father of a washed-up stuntman. A disgraced surgeon and his son, a broken-down boxer. A father set on permanent self-destruct, and his daughter, a reluctant powerlifter. A fireworks-maker and his daughter. A very peculiar boy and his equally peculiar adopted family.
Five houses. Five families. One block.
Ask yourself: How well do you know your neighbours? How well do you know your own family? Ultimately, how well do you know yourself? How deeply do the threads of your own life entwine with those around you? Do you ever really know how tightly those threads are knotted? Do you want to know?
Welcome to Sarah Court: make yourself at home.
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
7 people are currently reading
917 people want to read
About the author
Craig Davidson
32 books925 followersCraig Davidson is a Canadian author of short stories and novels, who has published work under both his own name and the pen names Patrick Lestewka and Nick Cutter
Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was raised in Calgary and St. Catharines.
His first short story collection, Rust and Bone, was published in September 2005 by Penguin Books Canada, and was a finalist for the 2006 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Stories in Rust and Bone have also been adapted into a play by Australian playwright Caleb Lewis and a film by French director Jacques Audiard.
Davidson also released a novel in 2007 named The Fighter. During the course of his research of the novel, Davidson went on a 16-week steroid cycle. To promote the release of the novel, Davidson participated in a fully sanctioned boxing match against Toronto poet Michael Knox at Florida Jack's Boxing Gym; for the novel's subsequent release in the United States, he organized a similar promotional boxing match against Jonathan Ames. Davidson lost both matches.
His 2013 novel Cataract City was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was raised in Calgary and St. Catharines.
His first short story collection, Rust and Bone, was published in September 2005 by Penguin Books Canada, and was a finalist for the 2006 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Stories in Rust and Bone have also been adapted into a play by Australian playwright Caleb Lewis and a film by French director Jacques Audiard.
Davidson also released a novel in 2007 named The Fighter. During the course of his research of the novel, Davidson went on a 16-week steroid cycle. To promote the release of the novel, Davidson participated in a fully sanctioned boxing match against Toronto poet Michael Knox at Florida Jack's Boxing Gym; for the novel's subsequent release in the United States, he organized a similar promotional boxing match against Jonathan Ames. Davidson lost both matches.
His 2013 novel Cataract City was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
August 11, 2019
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh
it has been such a long time since i have finished a book and wanted to immediately start all over from the beginning again.
this is a book that does that thing i love so much but would have trouble articulating were i to approach a readers' advisory practitioner for a stylistic readalike. so i have to advise myself, usually, but i will try to describe "that thing" so everyone can see what it is like in karen's head:
this book is like ribbon candy. not that it is sweet nor that it should be given to children by their grandmothers. but its scope is like that: temporally, character-wise, action-wise - it folds back on itself, but there is this connective stripe running through it that binds the action, and demonstrates that actions have consequences, even if they cannot be predicted. you know, like ribbon candy. this is such a shitty analogy.
this book is like The Seducer, which i think i described as "spring-shaped" *goes to check* no, but i described its sequel The Conqueror that way. same thing. i think "ribbon candy" is a better image, and goodreads reviews are all about images, right?
this book centers around one neighborhood block, and five families that live there; their connections, both acknowledged and clandestine, their shared childhoods and grown-apart adult lives, their failures and secret guilts and long-nursed resentments. their revenges.
it is the dirty underbelly of a dark town. it is about emotionally damaged characters causing, usually, physical damage, only occasionally intentionally. it is 95% endurance, and 5% hope. with a touch of the supernatural. but just a dusting, no sookie here.
since we are inside my head, allow me to give you a peek into my experiential arc with this book...
"derr derrr derrrrr what do i want to read now?? i don't feel like reading YA... i don't want to review another downtrodden appalachia book right now...nothing too labor-intensive because i am swamped at work...no short stories...ugh - i have no books here....oh!! sarah court!! cool, i have had this forever, and i do love the czp!! canada! ...read read read read... wait - these are short stories?? but i said NO short stories!! oh, wait. ohhhhhh, that character was in the other "story." oh, and they are referencing something that took place before... ohhhhh wait - this is "that thing" i like! where the book fills in gaps left by its other parts later on and doesn't necessarily call attention to it, but there is mirroring and secret connections and picking up threads i thought were finished and it becomes this huge clove-studded orange of a book with everything plugged up and interlocking and beautiful and is really a novel that is disguising itself as short stories oooohhhh love love love - where's my sparkling ice - love love love"
basically.
i am endorsing this book. again - not to those of you who cannot abide cruelties to people and animals, because there is a bunch of that in this. but to those of us who can handle a little dogfighting and eye-transplant surgery.
i am going to go back and reread great swathes of it now.
the rest of you, enjoy your evenings...and forgive my scatterbrainery - it has been a longday week.
come to my blog!
it has been such a long time since i have finished a book and wanted to immediately start all over from the beginning again.
this is a book that does that thing i love so much but would have trouble articulating were i to approach a readers' advisory practitioner for a stylistic readalike. so i have to advise myself, usually, but i will try to describe "that thing" so everyone can see what it is like in karen's head:
this book is like ribbon candy. not that it is sweet nor that it should be given to children by their grandmothers. but its scope is like that: temporally, character-wise, action-wise - it folds back on itself, but there is this connective stripe running through it that binds the action, and demonstrates that actions have consequences, even if they cannot be predicted. you know, like ribbon candy. this is such a shitty analogy.
this book is like The Seducer, which i think i described as "spring-shaped" *goes to check* no, but i described its sequel The Conqueror that way. same thing. i think "ribbon candy" is a better image, and goodreads reviews are all about images, right?
this book centers around one neighborhood block, and five families that live there; their connections, both acknowledged and clandestine, their shared childhoods and grown-apart adult lives, their failures and secret guilts and long-nursed resentments. their revenges.
it is the dirty underbelly of a dark town. it is about emotionally damaged characters causing, usually, physical damage, only occasionally intentionally. it is 95% endurance, and 5% hope. with a touch of the supernatural. but just a dusting, no sookie here.
since we are inside my head, allow me to give you a peek into my experiential arc with this book...
"derr derrr derrrrr what do i want to read now?? i don't feel like reading YA... i don't want to review another downtrodden appalachia book right now...nothing too labor-intensive because i am swamped at work...no short stories...ugh - i have no books here....oh!! sarah court!! cool, i have had this forever, and i do love the czp!! canada! ...read read read read... wait - these are short stories?? but i said NO short stories!! oh, wait. ohhhhhh, that character was in the other "story." oh, and they are referencing something that took place before... ohhhhh wait - this is "that thing" i like! where the book fills in gaps left by its other parts later on and doesn't necessarily call attention to it, but there is mirroring and secret connections and picking up threads i thought were finished and it becomes this huge clove-studded orange of a book with everything plugged up and interlocking and beautiful and is really a novel that is disguising itself as short stories oooohhhh love love love - where's my sparkling ice - love love love"
basically.
i am endorsing this book. again - not to those of you who cannot abide cruelties to people and animals, because there is a bunch of that in this. but to those of us who can handle a little dogfighting and eye-transplant surgery.
i am going to go back and reread great swathes of it now.
the rest of you, enjoy your evenings...and forgive my scatterbrainery - it has been a long
come to my blog!
March 24, 2011
This review was originally published at The Nervous Breakdown.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rt...
Heartbreaking stories grounded in a fractured reality, love and the strange things it makes us do, neighbors and the heavy weight of proximity, this is Sarah Court. A collection of connected, interlinking narratives, Sarah Court (ChiZine Publications) by Craig Davidson is set in a circle of houses, each neighbor with their own story to tell. Reminiscent of Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock, but set in the area around Niagara Falls, we get to see from several different perspectives how things unfold when there is death next door, the trickle down of sweat and violence from one family to the next, the way that love and lust intertwine young passions, families infecting each other. The residents:
“The haunted father of a washed-up stuntman. A disgraced surgeon and his son, a broken-down boxer. A father set on permanent self-destruct, and his daughter, a reluctant powerlifter. A fireworks-maker and his daughter. A very peculiar boy and his equally peculiar adopted family.
Five houses. Five families. One block.”
And that’s not everyone. I’ve left out Mama and Sunshine and Matilda the pitbull, but it’s certainly a start.
And what about that block, Sarah Court, what kind of place is this that holds in its cupped hands lonely lives filled with divorce and crushed dreams, failure riding on the backs of their pet squirrels that dart around their homes? This is where they live:
“Sarah Court: a ring of homes erected by the Mountainview Holdings Corporation. Cookie-cutter houses put up quick. Residents digging gardens will encounter broken bricks and wiring bales haphazardly strewn and covered with sod. In a town twenty minutes north of Niagara Falls. Grape and wine country. Crops harvested by itinerant Caribbean field hands who ride bicycles bundled in toques and fingerless gloves even in summertime. A town unfurling along Lake Ontario. Once so polluted, salmon developed pearlescent lesions on their skin. Ducks, pustules on their webbed feet. They seizured from contagions in their blood. Children were limited to swimming in ten-minute increments.”
Immediately we get a sense of this bedraggled community, not devoid of hope, or aspiration, but knocked down a few times, perhaps a bit skittish, gun-shy, sticking out their hands to shake, but expecting to get bit nonetheless.
A theme that is revisited in this collection is that of the father looking out for his child. One of the greatest fears a parent can have is that of their child getting hurt, abducted, or even worse, killed. Nobody wants to outlive their progeny. Late in the book is this scene, between Nicholas (Nick) the ex-boxer, and his son Dylan, a strange boy who is fond of absorbing personalities, one week a vampire, the next a stegosaurus or a mummy. This touching moment is all the more powerful when we get to a later scene involving suicide. It is one example of the powerful prose that Davidson employs over the course of this book:
“The poison ivy started as splotches on his thighs. Threads crept to his groin. He clawed it onto his stomach up to his armpits. The pediatrician prescribed calamine lotion. Dylan still had fits. Dad gave me lotion laced with topical anaesthetic.
I stood him in the bathtub, naked. My fingers went wherever ivy lurked: toes, thighs, belly. Felt odd doing that but he was so trusting. I worked lotion into his back. Cleft of his bum. I felt so close to him. A casual intimacy I thought could go on forever. To this day I’ll feel it: a phantom thack-thack on my bare palms. My fingertips so close to his heart.”
In addition to the constant threat of danger, the river of actions and consequences that runs through this book, there is humor, dark humor, and self-deprecating observations. Comedy is tragedy plus time, it has been said. And while the tragic remains close at hand at Sarah Court, its existence is not without laughter:
(Nick, father of Dylan)
“I’m amazed at my father’s ability to link unattached grievances into a single incoherent insult. No use getting my dander up. Arguing with him is like eating charcoal briquettes: stupid, pointless, and ultimately quite painful.”
And this:
(Fletcher Burger, father of Abby)
“My marriage was in shambles by then. My wife caught me sniffing the seat of my jeans to see whether they were clean enough to wear again and refused to kiss me for a week. She’d buy too many bananas and when they blackened throw them in the freezer to bake banana bread that never materialized. ‘Is it me,’ I’d go, ‘or is our freezer full of frozen gorilla fingers?’”
And it’s partly because of this humor that permeates this story that we’re able to take a breath, able to relax for a minute, to prepare for what comes next. There is a mixture of cruelty and mercy scattered across these tales, and it is the comedy that gives us room for the horrific.
In addition to the layers of déjà vu that come with seeing various stories from many different sides, the fairness of getting both sides of the coin, revealing the humanity in the greatest of mistakes, Davidson imparts great wisdom:
“Some say the only way to break such chains is to leave the place they’ve been forged. Yet every town is essentially a box with an open top, isn’t it? If you do not make the choice to step out of the box, well, can you really call it a trap?”
Craig Davidson has pulled off quite a feat with Sarah Court. He has told us a fascinating tale of interlinking stories, constantly showing us that life is always shades of gray, never just black and white. He has reminded us of the resiliency of the human spirit, and the generosity inherit within, even when we are riddled with defeats and beaten down, our failures often of our own doing, the consequences heavy and eternal. And he has given us laughter along the way, to keep us from weeping at the tragedies on the page. If the testimonials by such dark magicians as Chuck Palahniuk, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker can’t seal the deal, then nothing ever will. Go back to watching the squirrels.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rt...
Heartbreaking stories grounded in a fractured reality, love and the strange things it makes us do, neighbors and the heavy weight of proximity, this is Sarah Court. A collection of connected, interlinking narratives, Sarah Court (ChiZine Publications) by Craig Davidson is set in a circle of houses, each neighbor with their own story to tell. Reminiscent of Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock, but set in the area around Niagara Falls, we get to see from several different perspectives how things unfold when there is death next door, the trickle down of sweat and violence from one family to the next, the way that love and lust intertwine young passions, families infecting each other. The residents:
“The haunted father of a washed-up stuntman. A disgraced surgeon and his son, a broken-down boxer. A father set on permanent self-destruct, and his daughter, a reluctant powerlifter. A fireworks-maker and his daughter. A very peculiar boy and his equally peculiar adopted family.
Five houses. Five families. One block.”
And that’s not everyone. I’ve left out Mama and Sunshine and Matilda the pitbull, but it’s certainly a start.
And what about that block, Sarah Court, what kind of place is this that holds in its cupped hands lonely lives filled with divorce and crushed dreams, failure riding on the backs of their pet squirrels that dart around their homes? This is where they live:
“Sarah Court: a ring of homes erected by the Mountainview Holdings Corporation. Cookie-cutter houses put up quick. Residents digging gardens will encounter broken bricks and wiring bales haphazardly strewn and covered with sod. In a town twenty minutes north of Niagara Falls. Grape and wine country. Crops harvested by itinerant Caribbean field hands who ride bicycles bundled in toques and fingerless gloves even in summertime. A town unfurling along Lake Ontario. Once so polluted, salmon developed pearlescent lesions on their skin. Ducks, pustules on their webbed feet. They seizured from contagions in their blood. Children were limited to swimming in ten-minute increments.”
Immediately we get a sense of this bedraggled community, not devoid of hope, or aspiration, but knocked down a few times, perhaps a bit skittish, gun-shy, sticking out their hands to shake, but expecting to get bit nonetheless.
A theme that is revisited in this collection is that of the father looking out for his child. One of the greatest fears a parent can have is that of their child getting hurt, abducted, or even worse, killed. Nobody wants to outlive their progeny. Late in the book is this scene, between Nicholas (Nick) the ex-boxer, and his son Dylan, a strange boy who is fond of absorbing personalities, one week a vampire, the next a stegosaurus or a mummy. This touching moment is all the more powerful when we get to a later scene involving suicide. It is one example of the powerful prose that Davidson employs over the course of this book:
“The poison ivy started as splotches on his thighs. Threads crept to his groin. He clawed it onto his stomach up to his armpits. The pediatrician prescribed calamine lotion. Dylan still had fits. Dad gave me lotion laced with topical anaesthetic.
I stood him in the bathtub, naked. My fingers went wherever ivy lurked: toes, thighs, belly. Felt odd doing that but he was so trusting. I worked lotion into his back. Cleft of his bum. I felt so close to him. A casual intimacy I thought could go on forever. To this day I’ll feel it: a phantom thack-thack on my bare palms. My fingertips so close to his heart.”
In addition to the constant threat of danger, the river of actions and consequences that runs through this book, there is humor, dark humor, and self-deprecating observations. Comedy is tragedy plus time, it has been said. And while the tragic remains close at hand at Sarah Court, its existence is not without laughter:
(Nick, father of Dylan)
“I’m amazed at my father’s ability to link unattached grievances into a single incoherent insult. No use getting my dander up. Arguing with him is like eating charcoal briquettes: stupid, pointless, and ultimately quite painful.”
And this:
(Fletcher Burger, father of Abby)
“My marriage was in shambles by then. My wife caught me sniffing the seat of my jeans to see whether they were clean enough to wear again and refused to kiss me for a week. She’d buy too many bananas and when they blackened throw them in the freezer to bake banana bread that never materialized. ‘Is it me,’ I’d go, ‘or is our freezer full of frozen gorilla fingers?’”
And it’s partly because of this humor that permeates this story that we’re able to take a breath, able to relax for a minute, to prepare for what comes next. There is a mixture of cruelty and mercy scattered across these tales, and it is the comedy that gives us room for the horrific.
In addition to the layers of déjà vu that come with seeing various stories from many different sides, the fairness of getting both sides of the coin, revealing the humanity in the greatest of mistakes, Davidson imparts great wisdom:
“Some say the only way to break such chains is to leave the place they’ve been forged. Yet every town is essentially a box with an open top, isn’t it? If you do not make the choice to step out of the box, well, can you really call it a trap?”
Craig Davidson has pulled off quite a feat with Sarah Court. He has told us a fascinating tale of interlinking stories, constantly showing us that life is always shades of gray, never just black and white. He has reminded us of the resiliency of the human spirit, and the generosity inherit within, even when we are riddled with defeats and beaten down, our failures often of our own doing, the consequences heavy and eternal. And he has given us laughter along the way, to keep us from weeping at the tragedies on the page. If the testimonials by such dark magicians as Chuck Palahniuk, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker can’t seal the deal, then nothing ever will. Go back to watching the squirrels.
December 22, 2022
If it weren't for the first two semi-enjoyable stories this collection would've been a one star affair. Purposeless and overstuffed, the tales became a chore to slog through, reading like the author was desperate to show everyone just how great a writer he is and how vast his vocabulary has become.
Blurg....
This one here just wasn't for me.
2 Rambling Stars
Blurg....
This one here just wasn't for me.
2 Rambling Stars
March 20, 2011
“Truth is, the humans whose company I enjoy most are those most like animals. I spent time in a brain injury ward. One boy suffered massive cerebral hemorrhages due to his mother’s narrow birth chute. The most beautiful, open smile. He experienced more moments of joy in one day than I’ll claim to in a lifetime. Most of us would be better off having our heads held under water a couple minutes. Ever see an unhappy dog, Nicholas?”
***
Life for the denizens of Sarah Court is a bit less than usual. Apart from the norm that most would be comfortable showing to the world, whether the darkness and dysfunction are there or not. But it’s not just darkness that comes through the mosaic of interwoven tales that make up Sarah Court. Each story, be it of a father expecting to dredge his daredevil son’s body out from the base of Niagara Falls or of a daughter whose life is nearly crushed out of her when her wrist breaks and a barbell drops onto her throat, has a tangibility to it that is altogether uncommon in most borderline horror/surrealist lit. That tangibility belongs entirely to the characters. They don’t feel real; they practically are real. Author Craig Davidson has pulled a series of characters that at first glance feel like a potluck of awkward and unconventional personas, but in each of them he’s managed to tap a vein that a lot of authors would miss—that little bit of blood in the water, circling them at all times, that gives weight to their pasts and their actions and musings within the stories themselves.
In short: they’re fuck ups, but fuck ups in a totally relatable way, despite being entirely un-relatable in concept.
The dialogue matches the prose—sparse and to the point. There’s little wasted space in the book’s 300+ pages. Only a couple of years old, CZP’s output is greatly increasing in quality. Their books have always had an edge and a style to them that few other publishers would even attempt, and the slightly smaller digest size of Sarah Court immediately makes it stand out as something that feels tight and substantial.
I struggled with the first story in the collection, but as I progressed through the stories (and the almost Pulp Fiction-esque manner of dissection and repurposing timelines into a new viewpoint became clearer with each newly introduced thread of familiarity), the book took on a life of its own.
***
Life for the denizens of Sarah Court is a bit less than usual. Apart from the norm that most would be comfortable showing to the world, whether the darkness and dysfunction are there or not. But it’s not just darkness that comes through the mosaic of interwoven tales that make up Sarah Court. Each story, be it of a father expecting to dredge his daredevil son’s body out from the base of Niagara Falls or of a daughter whose life is nearly crushed out of her when her wrist breaks and a barbell drops onto her throat, has a tangibility to it that is altogether uncommon in most borderline horror/surrealist lit. That tangibility belongs entirely to the characters. They don’t feel real; they practically are real. Author Craig Davidson has pulled a series of characters that at first glance feel like a potluck of awkward and unconventional personas, but in each of them he’s managed to tap a vein that a lot of authors would miss—that little bit of blood in the water, circling them at all times, that gives weight to their pasts and their actions and musings within the stories themselves.
In short: they’re fuck ups, but fuck ups in a totally relatable way, despite being entirely un-relatable in concept.
The dialogue matches the prose—sparse and to the point. There’s little wasted space in the book’s 300+ pages. Only a couple of years old, CZP’s output is greatly increasing in quality. Their books have always had an edge and a style to them that few other publishers would even attempt, and the slightly smaller digest size of Sarah Court immediately makes it stand out as something that feels tight and substantial.
I struggled with the first story in the collection, but as I progressed through the stories (and the almost Pulp Fiction-esque manner of dissection and repurposing timelines into a new viewpoint became clearer with each newly introduced thread of familiarity), the book took on a life of its own.
April 17, 2011
Through every tale, there are hints of unnamable corruption, usually in the guise of animals or elements of the corporeal body, reminding me of nothing so much as filmmaker David Lynch and his genius at creating unclassifiable dread. Red spider mites teem in a deer’s eyes, “so many as to give the impression it’s weeping blood.” A can of paint has “the hue of diseased organ meat.” Squirrels abound in Sarah Court, somehow playful yet harbingers of some interior evil a la the sinister owls in Lynch’s Twin Peaks. “The owls are not what they seem.” And in several tales there is the presence of a perplexing transparent box holding “a squirming mass the size of a medicine ball.”
While Davidson wreaks some sinister havoc on his characters, there is a grounding in reality that keeps Sarah Court from becoming weird for weird’s sake. There is an outlying supernatural element, but Davidson’s horror is far more the horror of character, of people causing unconscious destruction through their own ill-conceived desires. No resident of Sarah Court gets off unscathed; there are emotional cripplings, physical disfigurements, and mental implosions. There is also good, a desire to rise above the fray, making the climax of each story almost overpowering in each person’s sad realizations of their weaknesses.
Read the rest of the review here.
While Davidson wreaks some sinister havoc on his characters, there is a grounding in reality that keeps Sarah Court from becoming weird for weird’s sake. There is an outlying supernatural element, but Davidson’s horror is far more the horror of character, of people causing unconscious destruction through their own ill-conceived desires. No resident of Sarah Court gets off unscathed; there are emotional cripplings, physical disfigurements, and mental implosions. There is also good, a desire to rise above the fray, making the climax of each story almost overpowering in each person’s sad realizations of their weaknesses.
Read the rest of the review here.
April 26, 2012
If you're a writer or a reader, you're going to want to check this out. One of the best reads of the year so far for me.
July 25, 2014
astonishingly good - cleverly executed and looking forward to reading more of Craig's books!!
May 10, 2016
Parfois un peu confus, mais je crois que c'est voulu. Des belles trouvailles au fil des pages. Un auteur à découvrir.
March 26, 2011
Imagine Thornton Wilder and Edgar Lee Masters had a child. Now imagine they were really, really bad parents. That would explain Craig Davidson and his life-where-I-come-from horror opus, Sarah Court.
It's the interlocking stories of three generations of five disfunctional families living along a dead-end street of a working-class suburb. They come in and out of each others' lives, doing each other known and unknown harm. They are petty, vindictive, self-aggrandizing and hell-bent for bad ends. And that would be fine, especially in a horror novel, if they weren't so very unremarkable.
The conceit of Sarah Court is that it's written from multiple points of view to demonstrate the author's ability to inhabit different characters. Unfortunately, the POV characters, with the exception of the truly sympathetic Patience Nanavatti, sound very much the same. They're all given to oddball similes -- which are actually kind of cool -- and slipping into present tense -- which seems to be required by ChiZine Publications.
And I'm guessing this involved an argument between the author and the editor, but someone insisted on there being a non-human actor to serve as a speculative element. Ultimately, this afterthought is never firmly characterized as a demon or an alien or even if it truly exists as something besides an hallucination. And it doesn't matter to the plot or to the development of other characters. It's strictly a graft-on.
That aside, Sarah Court is an unrelenting look at how cruelly people treat other people, particularly if they're in dangerous professions, engage in criminal victimization, are children, or are parents. It's the human condition laid bare, and a challenge to stare at it without glancing away.
If you're into that sort of thing.
I'm not. But when Chuck Palahniuk, Clive Barker and Peter Straub all give you back-cover blurbs, I'm going to read your book.
I won't say I was disappointed in Sarah Court. (And why "Sarah"? It's a lovely name -- the name of one of the few Biblical characters that nobody has anything snarky to say about. It was my grandmother's name.) I just didn't get into this book. So why not? Allow me to offer my impression of the author through an analogy:
You know that friend of yours from high school whose life is music? The guy whose entire weekend wardrobe consists of Yes, Pink Floyd and Rush concert shirts? His Facebook page lists Mr. Holland's Opus and Immortal Beloved as his favorite movies? The one who owns every PDQ Bach book? And he still, to this day, can start a story straight-faced with the phrase, "One time, at Band Camp ..."?
Remember the last time he shoved his iPod in your face and told you, "Hey, you really got to hear THIS! This guy is AMAZING! He's going to change music FOREVER!"
And so you stick those who-knows-where-they've-been buds in your ears and press "play". And what comes out is, to you, the most cacophonous, irritating, unpalatable collection of noise you could ever tolerate.
You know it's not the artist's fault. He's a genius. The gap here is that you, the mass-market consumer, are not sufficiently sophisticated to appreciate the exotic craftsmanship which now confronts you.
Some musicians are destined to eschew the popular support that they might or might not crave but instead influence and be inspired by other musicians.
Maybe Craig Davidson is fated to be the Captain Beefheart of horror writers.
It's the interlocking stories of three generations of five disfunctional families living along a dead-end street of a working-class suburb. They come in and out of each others' lives, doing each other known and unknown harm. They are petty, vindictive, self-aggrandizing and hell-bent for bad ends. And that would be fine, especially in a horror novel, if they weren't so very unremarkable.
The conceit of Sarah Court is that it's written from multiple points of view to demonstrate the author's ability to inhabit different characters. Unfortunately, the POV characters, with the exception of the truly sympathetic Patience Nanavatti, sound very much the same. They're all given to oddball similes -- which are actually kind of cool -- and slipping into present tense -- which seems to be required by ChiZine Publications.
And I'm guessing this involved an argument between the author and the editor, but someone insisted on there being a non-human actor to serve as a speculative element. Ultimately, this afterthought is never firmly characterized as a demon or an alien or even if it truly exists as something besides an hallucination. And it doesn't matter to the plot or to the development of other characters. It's strictly a graft-on.
That aside, Sarah Court is an unrelenting look at how cruelly people treat other people, particularly if they're in dangerous professions, engage in criminal victimization, are children, or are parents. It's the human condition laid bare, and a challenge to stare at it without glancing away.
If you're into that sort of thing.
I'm not. But when Chuck Palahniuk, Clive Barker and Peter Straub all give you back-cover blurbs, I'm going to read your book.
I won't say I was disappointed in Sarah Court. (And why "Sarah"? It's a lovely name -- the name of one of the few Biblical characters that nobody has anything snarky to say about. It was my grandmother's name.) I just didn't get into this book. So why not? Allow me to offer my impression of the author through an analogy:
You know that friend of yours from high school whose life is music? The guy whose entire weekend wardrobe consists of Yes, Pink Floyd and Rush concert shirts? His Facebook page lists Mr. Holland's Opus and Immortal Beloved as his favorite movies? The one who owns every PDQ Bach book? And he still, to this day, can start a story straight-faced with the phrase, "One time, at Band Camp ..."?
Remember the last time he shoved his iPod in your face and told you, "Hey, you really got to hear THIS! This guy is AMAZING! He's going to change music FOREVER!"
And so you stick those who-knows-where-they've-been buds in your ears and press "play". And what comes out is, to you, the most cacophonous, irritating, unpalatable collection of noise you could ever tolerate.
You know it's not the artist's fault. He's a genius. The gap here is that you, the mass-market consumer, are not sufficiently sophisticated to appreciate the exotic craftsmanship which now confronts you.
Some musicians are destined to eschew the popular support that they might or might not crave but instead influence and be inspired by other musicians.
Maybe Craig Davidson is fated to be the Captain Beefheart of horror writers.
May 11, 2011
Not quite a novel, not quite a short story collection, give almost-complete tales from an unnamed town and the residents of the development Sarah Court. But the five stories and book-ended intro & outro add up to a complete story of longing, regret, loss, anger and (self)violence. While not an uplifting lift, it is far from depressing because these character endure, carry on and do the best they can. Though there are no happy ending here, neither are there in life.
June 29, 2021
Funny, sad, gross, disturbing and lovely, this book just reeks of ugly truth.
Marvelously written account of five families in a small town that just isn't quite right. This was in the horror section at Powell's but...I'm not so sure. Domestic horror, maybe?
Contains some hilarious lines.
Totally recommended, but be warned, it is not always the happiest or cleanest of reads.
Marvelously written account of five families in a small town that just isn't quite right. This was in the horror section at Powell's but...I'm not so sure. Domestic horror, maybe?
Contains some hilarious lines.
Totally recommended, but be warned, it is not always the happiest or cleanest of reads.
March 10, 2021
Tough one to call. Remember, according to the Goodreads star system, three stars means I liked it. Which I did. The writing was taught and muscular and putting the puzzle together with the pieces shuffling around like they did kept me engaged. But my is it bleak. It's a world view of a deeply depressing kind. As Chuck Palahniuk says in his back cover endorsement: don't look for comfort here.
I'll probably go off and read something more cheerful now.
I'll probably go off and read something more cheerful now.
July 27, 2021
I’ve read all of the Nick Cutter novels, this is the first novel I’ve read published under Craig Davidson. It’s crazy how much all of Craig’s books have the power to stick with you after reading. Very moody, very dark, very funny, and very sweet. I think Craig is a genius.
February 24, 2011
Sometimes, you may find yourself wondering about the secret lives of your neighbors. If you live on Sarah Court, those secrets are better left unsaid. Curiosity killed the cat--or squirrel--after all. For readers, safe and sound in our easy chairs, we can look on with a prurient disgust at the decaying lives of Sarah Court's residents. It's not a cheerful exploration. There are moments of dark humor, but overall this is a very bleak glimpse at a fictionalized segment of St. Catherine's, Ontario.
There's a kind of suburban Pulp Fiction quality to this book, as the story is told in five different sections through the eyes of five residents, all at one time or another living on that little street. The houses are identical on the outside, cheaply made and cheaply lived in. The slow torments and sudden rendering of each household is unique to each of those five houses, though.
Reading this book, Sarah Court slowly revealed itself as a spider's web. Otherwise separate threads all intersecting one another at different points, few if any leading to a happy ending. And while each family's story stands alone and tell its own story, it's those minute intersecting moments that allude to some grander story. Well, maybe "grander" isn't the right word, since "grand" gives the sense of something majestic. There's a huge, quiet tragedy happening occurring--one devastated life at a time.
The imagery is something that sticks with you, particularly the bursts of violence that befall some of the characters. Dylan Saberhagen's story is the one that sticks with me the most. An eleven-year-old boy with a weight problem and a boundless curiosity and imagination that earns him more bullying and ridicule than any one kid should be forced to endure. And seeing that boy through the eyes of his father Nick just makes it all the more heartbreaking.
It's not a horror novel, but the dark elements to this novel almost make Sarah Court feel like a malevolent force inflicting itself on these families. And while there is a hint of the supernatural to the book, it stays on the outskirts thankfully, otherwise it might have taken something away from the impact of the story. Even though the book is set in Ontario, there is something about Sarah Court and its residents that strikes close to home--and that might be where the real horror lies.
There's a kind of suburban Pulp Fiction quality to this book, as the story is told in five different sections through the eyes of five residents, all at one time or another living on that little street. The houses are identical on the outside, cheaply made and cheaply lived in. The slow torments and sudden rendering of each household is unique to each of those five houses, though.
Reading this book, Sarah Court slowly revealed itself as a spider's web. Otherwise separate threads all intersecting one another at different points, few if any leading to a happy ending. And while each family's story stands alone and tell its own story, it's those minute intersecting moments that allude to some grander story. Well, maybe "grander" isn't the right word, since "grand" gives the sense of something majestic. There's a huge, quiet tragedy happening occurring--one devastated life at a time.
The imagery is something that sticks with you, particularly the bursts of violence that befall some of the characters. Dylan Saberhagen's story is the one that sticks with me the most. An eleven-year-old boy with a weight problem and a boundless curiosity and imagination that earns him more bullying and ridicule than any one kid should be forced to endure. And seeing that boy through the eyes of his father Nick just makes it all the more heartbreaking.
It's not a horror novel, but the dark elements to this novel almost make Sarah Court feel like a malevolent force inflicting itself on these families. And while there is a hint of the supernatural to the book, it stays on the outskirts thankfully, otherwise it might have taken something away from the impact of the story. Even though the book is set in Ontario, there is something about Sarah Court and its residents that strikes close to home--and that might be where the real horror lies.
September 11, 2011
Take a look around your subdivision, or neighborhood, or black. Peel back the roof and look inside the lives of five random families. Not the outside personas, the faces put on for the public; but, the real heartbreak and grit of churning out a life. We all like to think we are unique and independent but do we really know how much we rely on those around us, in healthy or unhealthy ways? Are our secrets really a secret from those who know exactly when we take our trash out and our papers in?
This is the story of five neighbors in a small town in Canada and how the threads of their lives are connected. Those threads are not like a smooth running seam in a beautifully wrought blanket, but a messy and dirty knot that takes time and care to unravel on a pair of old and smelly sneakers, the ones we love even though they are past usefulness and are even beginning to smell a little.
There is Abby, a power lifter pushed past endurance by her father; Patience, a collector who adds a real life baby from Walmart; Collin, a daredevil who flings himself over Niagara Falls; there are demons in boxes a hit man with a soft spot for candy and each one of them is connected in a weird, and mostly bittersweet, way. This is a story of broken people who are relying upon another broken soul to prop up their own spirit.
The book is very funny in a dry and dark way. And, then it is pitiful and then, at times, sweet. It is a roller-coaster of emotions and circumstances and a joy to read from the first to the last. It’s one of the books you want to read again and again, just to see what you might have missed the first time. And, at the exact same time you squirm while reading parts because it is so uncomfortable, like hearing your neighbors arguing again over the backyard fence or hanging out your underwear on the line, the ones with stains that won’t quite come clean.
It was an incredible read and I can’t wait to pick up another by this author. Welcome to my literary world, Craig Davidson! I can’t wait to pick up your other books and count myself into what will become a huge fan base.
This is the story of five neighbors in a small town in Canada and how the threads of their lives are connected. Those threads are not like a smooth running seam in a beautifully wrought blanket, but a messy and dirty knot that takes time and care to unravel on a pair of old and smelly sneakers, the ones we love even though they are past usefulness and are even beginning to smell a little.
There is Abby, a power lifter pushed past endurance by her father; Patience, a collector who adds a real life baby from Walmart; Collin, a daredevil who flings himself over Niagara Falls; there are demons in boxes a hit man with a soft spot for candy and each one of them is connected in a weird, and mostly bittersweet, way. This is a story of broken people who are relying upon another broken soul to prop up their own spirit.
The book is very funny in a dry and dark way. And, then it is pitiful and then, at times, sweet. It is a roller-coaster of emotions and circumstances and a joy to read from the first to the last. It’s one of the books you want to read again and again, just to see what you might have missed the first time. And, at the exact same time you squirm while reading parts because it is so uncomfortable, like hearing your neighbors arguing again over the backyard fence or hanging out your underwear on the line, the ones with stains that won’t quite come clean.
It was an incredible read and I can’t wait to pick up another by this author. Welcome to my literary world, Craig Davidson! I can’t wait to pick up your other books and count myself into what will become a huge fan base.
December 31, 2015
I found out about this book in the back of Nick Cutter's The Acolyte. Yes, I know that Nick Cutter is actually Craig Davidson, and yes, I had heard of Davidson before, but my local Barnes & Noble (for whatever selfish reason), doesn't stock and of Davidson's books, and his name was quickly forgotten.
After reading Sarah Court, I have come to the conclusion that Craig Davidson must be one of the world's most underrated authors. The guy's writing skills are freaking fantastic, weaving together words and descriptions that are so apt, and so perfect, so vivid and poignant, that the story continues to stick in your mind, even once you've finished the book.
To say this book is easy reading would be a lie. It's quite difficult in some places. Though this book is somehow thrown into the horror genre, it's not scary in the sense that ghosts and jump scenes abound, but rather, the stories are full of horrible people doing horrible things. And the book itself isn't hard reading, but the tales, all independent, yet still connected in the way that life connects all our lives, are dark and somewhat tough.
And I loved it. Davidson doesn't mince words or try to make the readers feel good. Instead, what he writes is gritty and realistic, much like real life is. I, personally, don't need a positive spin or an attempt to make me feel good. Usually those endeavors fail and make the book come off as fake. Not so with Davidson. And for that, the book was very near perfect.
My only complaint is the hit-or-miss quality of the stories. Don't get me wrong, as whole, all interwoven and tangled together, the stories work and work well. The problem, though, is that some are just a lot stronger than others and some feel a bit more rushed and too open ended. Maybe that was the author's intention, to let us come to our own conclusions, but when Davidson can write such amazing prose, he definitely has the talent to finish what he's started.
After reading Sarah Court, I have come to the conclusion that Craig Davidson must be one of the world's most underrated authors. The guy's writing skills are freaking fantastic, weaving together words and descriptions that are so apt, and so perfect, so vivid and poignant, that the story continues to stick in your mind, even once you've finished the book.
To say this book is easy reading would be a lie. It's quite difficult in some places. Though this book is somehow thrown into the horror genre, it's not scary in the sense that ghosts and jump scenes abound, but rather, the stories are full of horrible people doing horrible things. And the book itself isn't hard reading, but the tales, all independent, yet still connected in the way that life connects all our lives, are dark and somewhat tough.
And I loved it. Davidson doesn't mince words or try to make the readers feel good. Instead, what he writes is gritty and realistic, much like real life is. I, personally, don't need a positive spin or an attempt to make me feel good. Usually those endeavors fail and make the book come off as fake. Not so with Davidson. And for that, the book was very near perfect.
My only complaint is the hit-or-miss quality of the stories. Don't get me wrong, as whole, all interwoven and tangled together, the stories work and work well. The problem, though, is that some are just a lot stronger than others and some feel a bit more rushed and too open ended. Maybe that was the author's intention, to let us come to our own conclusions, but when Davidson can write such amazing prose, he definitely has the talent to finish what he's started.
July 7, 2011
The story Sarah Court are based through five families who all live within the Sarah House block in a neighbourhood near Niagara Falls. Davidson has used each of the five families residing in Sarah Court to create five short stories which are interlocked to create a larger outlook on the lives and events at Sarah Court.
Davidson's development of the characters within this book have been fantastic. From the start of the book you are thrown into the lives of the families residing in this neighbourhood. Davidson ingeniously includes a former boxer who now works as an enforcers for the American Express, a boy who believes that he is in fact Dracula. An unwilling power lifter, a doctor who has been disgraced for unknown reasons and a strange women who are constantly fostering children.
More of the review at....
http://bookaddictocd.blogspot.com/201...
Davidson's development of the characters within this book have been fantastic. From the start of the book you are thrown into the lives of the families residing in this neighbourhood. Davidson ingeniously includes a former boxer who now works as an enforcers for the American Express, a boy who believes that he is in fact Dracula. An unwilling power lifter, a doctor who has been disgraced for unknown reasons and a strange women who are constantly fostering children.
More of the review at....
http://bookaddictocd.blogspot.com/201...
August 13, 2014
Lives intersect in weird and complex ways. The notion of community itself is an interweaving of disparate yet intertwined stories, pulled together by dark threads… because there is something dark about suburban communities. They are built of bricks and blood mortared together by darkness and Craig Davidson’s Sarah Court removes those bricks one by one to reveal the way that communities are built of secrets and suburban streets are tarred with shadow.
Sarah Court follows the lives of a group of neighbours as they proceed through scarred, painful, damaged lives: parents pushing children past the point of their body’s tolerance, foster parents pushing their charges into sociopathic states for their own dark desires, and a man addicted to increasingly dangerous displays of daredevilry. Davidson illustrates the manipulative currents flowing through any community.
To read a longer version of my review, visit http://speculatingcanada.wordpress.co...
Sarah Court follows the lives of a group of neighbours as they proceed through scarred, painful, damaged lives: parents pushing children past the point of their body’s tolerance, foster parents pushing their charges into sociopathic states for their own dark desires, and a man addicted to increasingly dangerous displays of daredevilry. Davidson illustrates the manipulative currents flowing through any community.
To read a longer version of my review, visit http://speculatingcanada.wordpress.co...
August 30, 2014
I found it interesting overall. The author describes things in unique ways that make me think. I did find it a like hard to get into because of the style. I'm both happy to know the outcome of the many stories and feel like not having an epilogue could have been good too as it would leave me wondering how things turned out and I could imagine my own endings for each. Abby's injury is what drew me in and I had to know what happened to her. I enjoyed the squirrel rants at the beginning too.
August 29, 2018
A fascinating, lurid and bizarre book about people who live in a development near Niagara Falls. Short stories connected by a larger story, it has a visceral, intense and violent vibe but it has heart, and lots of it. The disjointed time line and the introduction of some slight supernatural element toward the end might turn some people off, but I liked it. Craig Davidson is an amazingly talented writer - Highly recommended.
July 11, 2018
Davidson is every bit as good as his pseudonym. This book is beautifully written, sad, funny, and at times, hard to read. It is not really supernatural horror, but more of the “horror of being alive” type books. Every side story comes together in a shocking and very well done ending. I enjoyed taking my time with this book and highly recommend it.
March 4, 2013
Pretty good. I really like his writing style, but there was some strangeness at the end of this one. If you enjoyed The Fighter and Rust and Bone, read this one. If you haven't, read those first. If you enjoy his style, move into this one...
April 19, 2015
The ending, I did not see coming. Under-rated "linked story" collection.
Want to read
November 15, 2014This is copy 3 of 64 signed numbered copies.
September 23, 2015
Well written. The superstructure of the book is fantastically composed.
I'm not really a fan of comedy merged with horror, at least not as it was presented here.
I'm not really a fan of comedy merged with horror, at least not as it was presented here.
November 12, 2016
I like his horror books better! Nick Cutter is awesome!
February 15, 2019
I ended up really liking this book! Almost quit on it but glad I didnt; once the stories started connecting I was hooked!
March 10, 2019
Some interesting stuff- genuinely horrifying and hilarious at varying points, but unnecessary confusion ruins what would otherwise by an excellent little collection of intertwining stories.
I was genuinely lost as to which character I was following for much of the book, and I'm usually a close reader. But you have 5 families, an often disjointed narrative, and you aren't given any background on who you're following and what their connections are to the other characters. Add in the fact that numerous characters *spoiler* end up with brain damage, there's an alien or some such thing for no real reason, and this could easily be a 1 star review were certain segments not so well done. It's depressing and caries the same melancholic tone throughout, but it works- I just wish the thing made more sense. Individual scenes are amazing, but you feel lucky to remember how they connect to the other characters. Clearer guidance would have been everything, as I don't feel the reader should start highlighting names on page 1 knowing they'll have to go back to refresh on who shows up when.
Great if you like Palahniuk but want someone who can actually write. Disappointing if you want to fully understand/follow a story. Great scenes, bizarre execution.
I was genuinely lost as to which character I was following for much of the book, and I'm usually a close reader. But you have 5 families, an often disjointed narrative, and you aren't given any background on who you're following and what their connections are to the other characters. Add in the fact that numerous characters *spoiler* end up with brain damage, there's an alien or some such thing for no real reason, and this could easily be a 1 star review were certain segments not so well done. It's depressing and caries the same melancholic tone throughout, but it works- I just wish the thing made more sense. Individual scenes are amazing, but you feel lucky to remember how they connect to the other characters. Clearer guidance would have been everything, as I don't feel the reader should start highlighting names on page 1 knowing they'll have to go back to refresh on who shows up when.
Great if you like Palahniuk but want someone who can actually write. Disappointing if you want to fully understand/follow a story. Great scenes, bizarre execution.
January 25, 2025
Not as engaging his his other books I read, The Saturday Night Ghost Club and Cataract City. Also, near the end I lost track of what was happening as it became more surrealist and detached. There may have been too many characters to keep track of as well. Still, in this book I enjoyed Davidson's classic turns of phrase that enthralled me with those first two novels I read.
October 16, 2020
This book was well written, I’ll give it that.
The characters were very well developed and their mini-plots interesting.
The blurb on the back made me think the lives portrayed in the book would be more intertwined, or at least in a way to advance the plot/ that it would be the characters vs an issue. Oh well...
The characters were very well developed and their mini-plots interesting.
The blurb on the back made me think the lives portrayed in the book would be more intertwined, or at least in a way to advance the plot/ that it would be the characters vs an issue. Oh well...
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