Review: Holes For Faces by Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell is a giant in the field. Love or hate his work, there is no denying it. With nearly fifty years of experience under his belt, the Liverpool native has surely made his mark in weird fiction history. Starting his long career with Lovecraft Mythos stories, yet set in his own fictional section of England, Ramsey has thoroughly explored all aspects of the uncanny.

Holes For Faces is Campbell’s latest collection, recently published by Dark Regions Press, and contains fourteen stories from the past decade. Every story showcases Campbell’s talents for hinting at the weird, making the mundane horrifying, and conveying Campbell’s signature sense of paranoia. Campbell’s stories have a certain nightmarish qualities to them, and his protagonists are almost always alone with seemingly no one to turn to who would understand them.

The one common thread tying all these stories together are the themes of youth and age. Almost every story features either a child protagonist, or an older man protagonist, while some stories prominently feature both ends of the spectrum. Parallels are drawn between both ages, aging characters are sometimes treated simply, as if they havee regressed to small children.

The stories prominently featuring age as a theme often take a similar approach, in that the old men and women are usually suffering from confusion. The Address is a prime example. The main character is looking for a station, yet is entirely lost. The people he encounters offer little to no help, either sending him in a direction that leads to nothing, or speaking down to him as if he is a child or simple in the head. The man’s confused search soon becomes something much darker when he comes across what appears to be a school and decides to ask someone for directions. Recently Used is a tragic story, seeing an older man woken up in the middle night by a phone call, only to rush to the hospital to see his wife who is in critical condition. The story is a nightmare of anxiety, much like The Address, as the man rushes through the labyrinthine hospital unable to find the proper ward. Until the end it’s hard to tell whether the man is experiencing something supernatural, or if he is simply not mentally competent. In The Rounds, an old man tries to make his way home on a train, only to become obsessed with a suitcase a Muslim woman leaves behind. Suspecting terrorism the man does his best to keep the suitcase in sight, yet the story soon becomes an endless loop of him going through the same motions station after station, never able to escape. Keeping with the train themes, Passing Through Peacehaven features another older protagonist, who stops at a decrepit train station, where he awaits the next train. The station seems abandoned, although at times he hears a voice over the speakers and catches glimpses of what may be another person.

Campbell also writes youth well. Holes for Faces features a particularly nervous boy, on vacation in Italy with his parents. He already seems to be a bit of a nervous wreck, but when the family decides to take a tour of some catacombs, the boy becomes particularly fixated on holes where some corpses’ faces should be. The rest of the vacation becomes a nightmare, as holes in general start to become a source of extreme anxiety and fear for the boy. Chucky Comes to Liverpool, one of my favorites, plays with the idea of British urban legends about the killer doll Chucky from the Child’s Play films. The youth, as well as a coalition of moms, blame the Child's Play films for inspiring several violent crimes perpetrated by young men and women. The main character’s mother is a member of this coalition, and is doing her part to ban the “video nasties” while her son and his friend, in true fourteen year old fashion, decide they want to see what all the fuss is about. The boy becomes obsessed, then frightened with his obsession, and decides to do what he can to put an end to Chucky, ironically becoming the violent sociopath himself. Holding The Light is bit more straightforward. Two young teenagers visit a spooky tunnel, and take turns walking it in the dark. The Long Way follows a young boy who routinely goes across the council estate to help his paraplegic uncle with his grocery shopping. Things become complicated when the boy sees something moving about in an abandoned house and begins to fear going to his uncle's.

While Campbell covers both youth and old age, some of the most successful stories are the ones that combine both. There is often the continued theme of the old characters being misunderstood and looked down upon by their own children or their peers, usually seen as incompetent to take care of their grandchildren. This is first explored in Peep, in which a grandfather is once again haunted by a terrifying game from his childhood, which interferes with his being able to watch over his own grandkids. The Decorations, the first of two Christmas themed stories, draws strong parallels between a boy and his grandmother. Being of that age where the realities of the world start to become clear, the boy and his mother visit his grandparents for the holidays. It soon becomes apparent that his grandmother is losing it, and she has an obsessive fear of a creepy Santa Claus decoration. The boy struggles, on one hand he shares her fear and believes her, but on another hand he tries to “be a man” and help convince her it's alright. The end is ambiguous, and leaves readers wondering whether the boy truly experiences the supernatural, or if he simply shares his grandmother's madness. In contrast, Behind The Doors features the grandfather as the protagonist, instead of the grandson. The grandfather's bad memories of school return when his grandson brings home an advent calendar from the grandfather's old teacher. The grandfather's obsession with the calendar and the number game that the teacher plays leads him to lose everything. Going with the theme of mentally incompetent elders paired with youth, With the Angels has one of the book's darker endings. Two old women visit their families old house with some grandchildren, but one of the women is not quite up to the task of watching the kids.

Ramsey Campbell's skills are on full display with the collection, and the common theme of youth and old age make for a collection that is solidified in theme. Definitely a welcome addition to the master's bibliography.

Video Interview: Ramsey Campbell

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have a chance to speak with veteran author Ramsey Campbell via Skype. This marks the first video interview for The Arkham Digest, which can hopefully become a tradition.

There were some technical issues during the interview, and we lost connection a couple times, which results in the cuts in the video, and temporary drops in quality. Other than the technical problems, the review went well, and Mr. Campbell and I discuss a number of topics, from his new novella The Last Revelation of Gla'aki (Review here) to seeing his creations appear in games. And without further ado, here is the interview.

Review: The Last Revelation of Gla'aki by Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell is one of the most esteemed horror authors working today. With over twenty-five novels and hundreds of short stories to his name, Campbell has had a steady output in his writing career.

He started out as a teenager, writing Lovecraftian pastiches. August Derleth saw his potential, and told him to create his own locales instead of setting the stories in Lovecraft's own. Thus, his first collection, The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, was published by Arkham House in 1964. The stories have since been reprinted in Cold Print, along with more of his Lovecraftian stories, and just recently PS Publishing did a reprint of Campbell's freshman collection with the restored title of The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants.

The title story, The Inhabitant of the Lake, was about an artist who moves into an abandoned house by a lake. His friend narrates the tale, and a good portion of the story is told through letters from the artist. Some of the history of the mysterious lakeside property is revealed as the story unfolds, and it soon becomes apparent that an ancient, malevolent entity called Glaaki resides in the lake, assisted by undead servitors.

Now, a year shy of the 50th anniversary of his first published collection, Mr. Campbell revisits Glaaki (now called Gla'aki) with this novella from PS Publishing.

I was pretty excited when I heard the news about this book. Not long after I had discovered Lovecraft and weird fiction, I found myself diving into Campbell's Lovecraftian offerings and finding them greatly enjoyable. Now, not only were they being revisited by the author, but they were being revisited after nearly fifty years of perfecting his craft as a writer.

The plot follows Leonard Fairman, an archivist for Brichester University, as he travels to the fog-shrouded seaside town of Gulshaw to acquire a set of rare books, The Revelations of Gla'aki. What should be a simple task soon becomes more complex, as Leonard must collect the books one at a time from various residents throughout the town. Things in the town are bizarre from the beginning, and the strange events/observations Leonard experiences become ever more frequent, until he starts to take some of them for granted.

The novella is a cross between weird horror and black "comedy of paranoia". Campbell blends the two perfectly, maintaining an eerie sense of wrongness about the town and it's inhabitants, while sprinkling dark humor throughout. The protagonist is an irritable man who struggles to be patient with acquiring the books, making for some pretty hilarious interactions with the absurd townfolk.

This novella is nothing short of a success. Seeing Campbell revisit one of his earliest published stories with the maturity and skill he has acquired over the years is a total delight. The Inhabitant of the Lake was Campbell trying to imitate Lovecraft, while The Last Revelation of Gla'aki is Campbell doing Campbell. Readers who enjoyed Campbell's older Lovecraftian offerings will no doubt want to pick this up, while fans of more current Campbell will be pleased with the tone of this book. Overall, a book readers should pick up.

The book can be bought directly from the publisher: HERE.

Review: The Grin of The Dark by Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell is a name all horror readers should be familiar with. The Liverpool native has written at least thirty novels, and had hundreds of short stories to his name. I've long been a fan of Campbell's short fiction, but until now I have yet to delve into any of his longer works.

The Grin of the Dark is one of his more recent novels, being published in 2007. Now, looking at the cover alone it's easy to see how I came to choose this one. Clowns have long been a source of horror. Ask anyone who saw Stephen King's IT as a child. I had two clown puppets on a shelf in my room until the day I saw that mini-series.

It wasn't just the clown aspect that drew me to this book, but also the film element. The synopsis reminded me a bit of Theodore Roszack's Flicker, another novel which features a character obsessed with an old filmmaker and his work.

Here is the blurb right from the book's jacket:

Tubby Thackeray was once the biggest comedian in the world -- people literally laughed themselves to death at some of his performances. But almost nothing of his silent movies has survived, and now Thackeray is little more than a grace note in film history.

Disgraced film critic Simon is determined to restore Tubby's reputation and his own. A commercially successful biography of Tubby will convince Simon's girlfriend -- and her parents -- that Simon is worthy of her. 

Uncovering the truth about Tubby isn't easy. Newspapers of the time contain mysterious, truncated accounts of disturbing events at Tubby's performances and at screenings of his films. The few seconds of film Simon finds of Tubby in action are profoundly disquieting; Tubby seems more demon than comedian. Tubby's leering, laughing clown's face haunts Simon. Everywhere he turns, he sees the clown's sardonic grin; his faintly glowing white costume; or his long, oddly jointed limbs.

Tubby Thackeray is dead. But the evil that was Tubby Thackeray lives, and Simon's investigations have roused its hunger.

The novel was enjoyable, but also had its share of flaws. Simon's disconnect from reality seems genuine and gradual, and is mostly quite believable. His situation is uncomfortable from the very beginning. It's clear that his in-laws despise him, creating a lot of awkward tension. The general discomfort not only continues throughout the novel, it steadily grows. By the end, Simon's paranoia and anxiety is smothering.

The horror itself is more of a quiet horror. Simon constantly glimpses unsettling images from the corner of his eye, starts to question his sanity, and seems to be alone against an increasingly hostile world. Every encounter with another person, wherever he goes, seems strained and uncomfortable. Every official or librarian he deals with seems to be an antagonist from the first moment he meets them, and every task turns into a hassle or fiasco. 

Simon himself is also one of the book's flaws. He is not a very likable character. His bitterness and general attitude make him a hard protagonist to sympathize with at times. The novel's length could also be trimmed by a third and would only be more effective for it. There were times I felt like the story was dragging and becoming repetitive. While Campbell succeeds in creating an anxious moods, it's too protracted. 

Despite these criticisms, the book's ending is a worthy payoff. Some of the ambiguity of the horrors was also right up my alley and it was also fun seeing nods to other known works of horror. (Azathoth is actually mentioned once, and Ligotti fans will be pleased to see the town name of Mirocaw referenced). While overall, The Grin of the Dark did not grasp me the way Mr. Campbell's short fiction has, it was still a worthwhile horror read. For more casual horror readers, I can definitely see frustration at drawing out vague horrors for nearly 400 pages, and even as someone who reads horror regularly I can't help but feel that the story would pack more of a punch if it was a bit more condensed.