“Monstruary” by Julián Ríos, translated by Edith Grossman (Knopf, 2001)

Spanish author Julián Ríos, of Loves that Bind and Poundemonium, brings us his latest piece of work, Monstruary, at the hands of translator Edith Grossman.  Monstruary is a complex weave work that simultaneously confuses and elucidates.

Our lead character, Victor Mons, is a painter whose most recent collection is titled Monstruary: “a menagerie of personal demons summoned from the disturbing and often erotic images of his past.”  The reader travels sidecar to Mons’ mind, as the painter sets out into the world to discover the muses for his palettes.  Along the way we meet a multitude of different characters: beautiful models, fiendish figures, phantasms and prostitutes.  Then there is the architect who is attempting to deconstruct a real city by constructing imaginary ones, and the anonymous patron who wishes to have his portrait painted upon the very skin of his mistress.

In Monstruary the reader is taken on a Technicolor trip by the create and skilled hand of Julián Ríos, creating a story that is quite unlike any other.

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Originally published on October 8th 2001

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

“Electric Light” by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001)

Heaney’s New Poetry

After last year’s bestselling success of Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, renowned author Seamus Heaney now brings us his latest collection of poetry, entitled Electric Light.  The collection is split into two sections: a) sweeping poetry, starting off in Heaney’s homeland of Ireland, and then traveling all over the world, from Belgrade to Greece, and b) moving poetry dedicated to those who have passed away like Ted Hughes and Joseph Brodsky.  Offering fresh language, as well as plenty of his own style, Heaney takes the reader on a most unique journey.

“At Toomebridge”

Where the flat water
Came pouring over the weird out of Lough Neagh
As if it had reached an edge of the flat earth
And fallen shining to the continuous
Present of the Bann

Where the checkpoint used to be.
Where the rebel boy was hanged in ’98.
Where negative ions in the open air
Are poetry to me.  As once before
The Slime and silver of the fattened eel.

“To the Shade of Zbigniew Herbert”

You were one of those from the back of the north wind
Whom Apollo favoured and would keep going back to
In the winter season.
And among your people you
Remained his herald whenever he’d departed
And the land was silent and summer’s promise thwarted.
You learnt the lyre from him and kept it tuned.

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Originally published on October 8th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

“Cabal” by Clive Barker (Pocket Books, 2001)

The Dark Weaveworld of Clive Barker,
Part 3 of 3: “Cabal”

Cabal: The anthology starts off with this novel from Clive Barker.  In the remote town of Midian, there is a race of the undead, similar to vampires, and yet different; the sun kills them, they feed on human meat.  They also have strange powers, where they can metamorphose into flesh-hungry beats with astounding strength.

The min character, Boone, “thinks” he has committed an uncountable number of murders and goes to Midian, where he feels he will fit in.  There he is set-up, the murders are blamed on his without question, and he is shot and killed.  Except, for the trap fell, he was bitten by one of the Nightbreed, becoming one of them.

The time is now at hand.  The Breed have been in hiding for too long, and Boone now knows where the Breed reside.  En force they will come to wipe them out, but the Breed have other intentions in mind.  Led by Boone, they will combat the humans and fight for their right to survive.

Cabal was made into a movie, under the title Nightbreed.  The story is one of Barker’s short novels, only 195 pages long, but like his other works, it is a masterpiece in itself, reaching out and titillating the human psyche with its supernatural hands.

“The Life of Death”: A church from the seventeenth century is being demolished, while onlookers wish otherwise.  In the church is a crypt, but within are not a collection of organized bodies, but piles of them, tossed in without concern, and they appear to have suffered from some disease.  Now this disease has been released into the open; the problem is nobody knows it exists.

“How Spoilers Bleed”: Locke has “bought” a piece of land in the jungle of Brazil, but the Indians who have lived on this land for centuries do not agree.  What I the white man’s greedy answer?  To kill them all off with disease, but the Indians also have a disease of their own kind to give to the white man.  It is a disease that causes the skin to split and bleed upon touching any surface.  The death is most painful and unstoppable.

“Twilight at the Towers”: A member of the KGB wishes to be one no longer.  He wants to disappear into the democratic world, with the help of the British Security Service, in return for trade secrets.  There are also the inhuman experiments the KGB has been performing, creating their very own beasts.

“The Last Illusion”: The illusionist has had enough of the crowds and the life of trickery.  He has staged his last illusion, one in which he will disappear forever.  The wife of the illusionist hires a detective to find out what happened to him.  The detective, Harry D’Amour, goes on a great adventure in trying to find the master illusionist.  Along he way he will see sights that are not humanly possible, and feats that defy the wildest imagination.  “The Last Illusion” was made into a movie, under the title Lord of Illusions, starring Scott Bakula.

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Originally published on October 8th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

“In the Flesh” by Clive Barker (Pocket Books, 2001)

The Dark Weaveworld of Clive Barker,
Part 2 of 3: “In the Flesh”

BIOGRAPHY: Clive Barker is the bestselling author of nineteen books, including Weaveworld, Imagica, and Galilee. He regularly shows his art in Los Angeles and New York, and produces and directs for both large and small screen.  Recent projects include the Oscar-wining film Gods and Monsters, and an exhibition of erotic paintings and photographs, The Weird and the Wicked.  He lives with his husband, the photographer David Armstrong, in Los Angeles, along with his family of dogs, rats, geckos, iguanas, and turtles.

“In the Flesh”: A new inmate has joined the prison: a descendant of a man who murdered his wife and children; the man was hung and his grave is under an old bush.  The inmate, through the powers of the supernatural, is able to transcend the real world and pass into the plane of death, reaching the town where murderers live after they die.  There he finds his grandfather and a reconnoiter of the unusual kind takes place.  But what the inmate doesn’t know is that the grandfather has other plans in mind, which involve a trade-off, bringing his old body back to life, where he will be able to continue where he left off.

“The Forbidden”: The true story to the successful movie, Candyman, brings a college student to the ghettos of New York, where she hears the local legend of the man who smells of sweets and takes lives.  The police pretend he doesn’t exist, even though lives have been taken.  It is all very much shrouded in mystery, as Helen tries to solve what is really going on.  There is a final confrontation between Helen and the Candyman, while the world around continues on as if nothing is happening.

“The Madonna”: In a special building of astounding architecture there is a supernal activity taking place.  In a pool the genesis of this metaphysical creation happens.  A female beast of disgust, creating imps of revulsion, which are suckled by lolitas of captivating beauty and innocence.  And when people discover this repulsive Eden, they inevitably engage it, but then an astounding change takes place from which they can never return to their former selves.

“Babel’s Children”: A small island in Greece supports a prison facility of the most exceptional kind.  A group of the most powerful people on the planet, created after the Second World War to control worldly decisions.  Their existence must remain hidden, since they are like gods.  But when they are visited by an inquisitive female, all this will change, and their existence is brought into doubt.

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Originally published on October 1st 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

“Black House” by Stephen King and Peter Straub (Random House, 2001)

Territories Band With the Dark Tower

On September 15^th, twenty years ago, twelve year-old Jack Sawyer received his first experience of the Territories – a fantasy land created by the great minds of Stephen King and Peter Straub.  On September 15^th, 2001 Black House was released; the compelling sequel to the 1984 bestseller, The Talisman.

The deal with sequels is that they tend to suck, especially when they are compared (Jackie Collins comes to mind), but Black House reaches in and grabs you by the guts from the start.  Once again King and Straub have done what they do best, and Black House may well in face be their best yet.

We last left little Jack Sawyer on the shores of the Pacific, having saved both his mother and her twinner in the Territories, as well as defeating the horrid man Stoat.  Black House starts you off with the omniscient guidance of its talented authors in the small, quaint Wisconsin town of French Landing – the same towns that have made it into King’s books; a nice surprise here is that it isn’t the unknown hinterlands of Maine.  Jack Sawyer is a retired LAPD detective (the reason for his retirement gets explained later in the book) living in French Landing.  He no longer has any recollection of having traveled to anywhere known as the Territories.

But French Landing is about to be struck by a serial killer who has a passion for kidnapping little girls and boys – and there’s biting involved, ladies and gentlemen.  The killer, whose identity is revealed early on, has a little knack that none of the others at the old people’s home possess: he can skip into the Territories.  As to what he becomes over there, I’ll let you find out for yourselves.  Meanwhile as the disappearances continue and the bodies begin to mount up.  Jack is dragged into the investigation in various ways, all of which he doesn’t wish to partake in.  The killer also has some clues to give Jack about his past in the Territories, the very history he has tried so hard to forget for the last twenty years.

But that is not all.  For you Dark Tower fans, King takes the helm at certain parts, throwing you lines of information along the way, revealing more of the enigmatic words: Breakers, the Crimson King, those darned Low Men in Yellow Coats, and yes, even the Beams get mentioned here.

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Originally published on September 24th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.