This World and That Other, by John Howard and Mark Valentine

This collection of two novellas, one by John Howard and one by Mark Valentine, is another shared volume taking inspiration from the writings of Charles Williams, who is known for his supernatural thrillers, esoteric poems, and theological studies. It follows on the pair's similar previous volume, Powers and Presences (2020), which had one story by Howard and two by Valentine, also written in homage to Williams. In This World and That Other, the first novella, "All the Times of the City" by John Howard, is the more ambitious, and the more deeply-rooted in Williams' thought, particularly in his concept of co-inherence (in which mankind's essential relationship is compared with the unity of God and the Trinity), and with his use of the City in his final novel, All Hallow's Eve. Howard's story has two branches, one set in the mid-1940s just after the end of the War, and the other set somewhat contemporaneously, with one recurring character (a young man in one, a very old man in the other), and a setting around St. Paul's in London (an alternate St. Paul's in the contemporary strand). Howard manages the two strands skillfully, and the result is among the best of his stories that I have read, though I admit I would have understood it better if I were more up on the life and thought of Charles Williams (who appears in slightly distorted form). Valentine's novella, "Armed for a Day of Glory," unveils how some force is attempting to gather a number of ancient relics or talismans of Britain, for apparent sinister purpose, and how this might be thwarted. Both novellas are well-done in their aims and achievements.  

Cartes de Visite by Mark Valentine

Sad to say, but this small book of prose poems, Cartes de Visite (2019) by Mark Valentine, was a real disappointment, primarily because there is so little content spread out over many pages (including facing page translations into Portuguese, plus lots of white space). Really, there is less than seven pages of text to read in booklet of sixty-some pages.  The best writing is in the final item, titled "Clues":

Be attentive to the hints that hide behind the facade, sift and consider the glimmerings. Never to be daunted when the day is dull and the walls are silent. Knowing that another day, or dusk, or evening, will bring again clues. And perhaps in old bookshops find chance volumes long forgotten where one single phrase has been waiting to be rediscovered, a phrase whose meaning was hidden even to the one who wrote it.

The Pale Illuminations

Robert Morgan was the uncredited editor of three anthologies reviewed here previously, all of which I greatly enjoyed, so it's nice to see him take credit for them all on this new volume, The Pale Illuminations, which takes its title from a quote from a Charles Williams novel All Hallow's Eve (1945): "She was free from the pale illumination of the dead." Sadly, this collection seems to be the lesser of the four, though it's not a bad compilation at all. All four stories seemed to me a bit off structurally, or a bit too unfocused. The Peter Bell tale drags on for too long, while the Reggie Oliver story felt too short.  Mark Valentine's tale, after an uncharacteristically slow start, comes to life too late, and the ending almost but not quite makes the whole work.  The Derek John story has some interesting sections, but doesn't hang together in toto.  Still a decent anthology, but not quite up to the higher levels of the other three.

The World Turned Upside-Down

The first words I read by Junot Diaz were his supposed confession of having been raped as a child, published in the April 16, 2018 issue of The New Yorker.  All the Holden Caulfield bells went off in my mind:  Phoney!  Sexual assault is charge to be taken seriously, but in this case it seemed that Diaz was making a generic and contrived complaint, one that just didn't (for me) ring true. Soon afterwards some charges against Diaz himself of sexual abuse surfaced, which made his "confession" seem even more like a calculated pre-emptive strike for sympathy.  Be that as it may, I thought I'd give one of his books a read, and by most accounts the book to read was his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007). It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award.  Well I'm now completely baffled as to why this book won any award at all.  It's a poorly written account of the sad (and not short enough) life of a Dominican geek in New Jersey, with the author sneering at his characters all of the time.  If something as repulsive as  MTV's Jersey Shore had been based on a novel, then the novel would share a kinship with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. 

After struggling to get through Diaz's book, what a great pleasure to read The Uncertainty of All Earthly Things (2018), a short story collection by British writer Mark Valentine.  It contains twelve stories, all originally published in small press sources between 2013 and 2017, plus a section "Notes on the Border" comprising some diary entries from 2001 through 2003.  There is more talent and artistry in a few pages of Valentine's prose than could be found in an entire novel by Diaz.  The Uncertainty of All Earthly Things was published in a limited edition of 199 numbered copies. Why is there such a disparity, and one in the wrong direction, between the receptions of Diaz and Valentine? Valentine is a literary writer, while Diaz is schlockmeister of the tee-vee generation.  It's a sad world that Diaz is acclaimed while Valentine is read only by the cognioscenti.

From Ancient Ravens

From Ancient Ravens is the third and final collection of three novellas by three authors, Mark Valentine, John Howard, and Ron Weighell, published as a series by Sarob Press.  I've reviewed the first two volumes previously, Romances of the White Day, and Pagan Triptych.  Here the common inspiration is a quote from Shakespeare's "The Rape of Lucretia":

To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings . . .And turn the giddy round of Fortune's wheel.

The first story is "The Fifth Moon" by Mark Valentine.  It is also the most Shakespearean in tone and content, and it concerns the legends of the supposed treasure lost by King John in the early thirteenth-century. It is also the standout story in the book.  Ron Weighell's "The Asmodeus Fellowship" is second, and rather disappointing.  Weighell often plays with esoteric and occult lore, but this story contains way too much of such imagined stories and volumes, so much so that the result gets boring. The tone is also rather rococo too. Parts of the story are fascinating and brilliant, but as a whole it doesn't work well.  John Howard's closing tale, "Between Me and the Sun," begins as a deceptively simple tale of the sexually-charged friendship of three teenage boys, turning into the meditation of middle-aged men on their lost friendship. I'm not sure Howard tied up all the loose ends (a re-read might make this clearer), but it still makes for a worthy and readable story.

In the Tradition of ... Lovecraft, Blackwood

Agents of Dreamlands is a new Lovecraftian novella by Caitlin R. Kiernan.  The storyline itself is interesting, but the prose is filled with Kiernan's usual blemishes—a large number of cliches, an overuse of pop-culture references, and an overall attitude or authorial persona that feels deeply phoney. And as usual the story progresses far before much context is given to the reader.  I think it very wrong that one needs to read the back-cover blurb so as to gain the basic idea of what the story itself is doing.  But that's the case.  Read the back-cover blurb.  It sounds very interesting, but you won't get most of this until you're past the half-way point of the story.

Pagan Triptych is the second of three volumes containing novellas (with afterwords) by three British writers, Ron Weighell, John Howard, and Mark Valentine.  This volume is supposed to contains stories in the tradition of Algernon Blackwood, but the definition of "in the tradition of" is rather slippery.  Ron Weighell's story is sort of in the occult detective tradition of Blackwood's John Silence.  John Howard's has to do with nature mysticism and a Londoner going native in the suburbs.  And Mark Valentine's is a shorter piece about how rituals work in our lives whether we see them as such or not.  All three stories are worth reading, but none are standouts. 

Old Things and a Beautiful Thing

Romances of the White Day (2015) is the first of three small press volumes by the same three authors, each contributing a novella and a short essay about their contribution.  The authors are John Howard, Mark Valentine, and Ron Weighell.  The publisher is Sarob Press.  This volume is a tribute to the writings of Arthur Machen, and each story involves some Machenian aspect.  John Howard's concerns some London adventures by three men, decades apart.  The gem of the book is the story by Mark Valentine, which concerns the enactment of an ancient ritual in modern Wales.  Ron Weighell's concluding story reveals the secrets behind a lost decadent illustrator and a portal to another dimension.  Each story is well-done and engaging.

I watched the film Beautiful Thing (1996) a few decades ago, and if I knew then that it was based on a 1993 play by Jonathan Harvey, I had long forgotten it.  I thought the film rather good, but had had problems with understanding the dialogue at times because of the heavy (South East?) London accents.  So when I stumbled on the play, I thought,  Good, here's a chance to read it in the original form.  Well, perhaps that's not the best thing to have done. I probably should have instead seen a production of the play.  From what I recall, the play isn't much different from the film, but the film feels much less claustrophobic. Still, Beautiful Thing is worth experiencing in any form.*

*Well, after writing the above I learned that there was an edition of the screenplay itself that had been published (cover below) to coincide with the film, and I got a copy and read it.  That's just what I needed, in lieu of English subtitles lacking from the DVD.  Now I can understand the extra witticisms I was missing.