Magic Terror (original 2000; edition 2002)

I've decided that I'm giving up on this one. Officially quitting. I've read three of the seven stories, and I can't say that I was impressed by any of them.

The first story was just... weird. Like, "Let me think of as many weird things as possible and squeeze them into 18 pages with no connecting narrative and call it a story" weird. It was like a crazy dream that gives you an odd crawly feeling without knowing why. Creepy, yes. Story, no. OK I take that back... if you're adept at putting square pegs in round holes when reading, meaning if you can interpret your way through bunch of words and find a story, then there is one. But it's still not a GOOD one.

The second story was... something, but not horror, not magic, but a weak espionage-like thriller with a predictable twist. Better than the first story, but not impressive.

Third is a Vietnam story, and while it held my curiosity, I wasn't sure what the point was. *shrug*

I read a page of the fourth story, and just... gave up. Other reviews seem to indicate that a reader who sticks with it would be rewarded at the end, but life is too short to waste time on something that I'm not enjoying. I gave this book three chances to grab me, and the most it did was lay a weak hand on my arm after about 3 weeks of trying. Not a great introduction to Peter Straub. I'd expected better, honestly.

Moving on... ( )

The war-numbed soldier who asks, "Just suppose...,that you were forced to confront extreme experience directly, without any mediation?" speaks for all of the spiritually traumatized souls who navigate the harrowingly rendered hells of these seven tales of suspense and horror. Straub (Mr. X) effortlessly plumbs the hearts and minds of a range of well-developed charactersAincluding a reflective assassin for hire, a five-year-old victim of domestic violence, an aging black jazz musician and a pompous Wall Street financial adviserAto locate epiphanic moments when their lives careened "out of the ordinary" and into the path of deforming private tragedy. In "Ashputtle," an implied murderess blames her crimes on an emotionally deprived childhood in which she imagines herself a modern Cinderella victimized by her cruel stepsisters. "Bunny Is Good Bread," an unnerving portrait of the psychopath as a young boy, follows young Fee Bandolier as he maladjusts to an unbearably gothic home situation in which his father has beaten his mother into a coma. "Porkpie Hat" is related as an alcoholic saxophonist's confession of a childhood brush with witchcraft, murder and miscegenation that continues to inform his blues-haunted music. In several of the talesAmost notably "The Haunted Village," which links to the novel Koko (1988) and stories from his previous collection, Houses Without Doors (1990)AStraub skillfully evokes the supernatural to suggest the dislocating effect of intense psychological upset. Mixing stark realism with black comedy, and reverberating with echoes of Conrad, Melville and the Brothers Grimm, these excursions to the dark side of life set a high standard for the literature of contemporary magic terror. (Publisher's Weekly)

I like supporting a semi-local writer (Straub is from Milwaukee, WI), but this is not one of his best. ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?ID=147 ( )