Joel Lane (1963–2013)

Probably one of the most depressing books I have ever read.

A batch of marginally supernatural stories set in a near future dystopian England. The stories are about brokenness: physical, mental, interior, exterior. England is a grey mass of broken factories, mines, tenements, streets and shops. The streets are full of Clockwork Orange type youth and skinheads and the police run wild. Both urban and rural landscapes are in ruins. Amidst the backdrop are individuals groping for meaning and show more contact that they rarely find and is usually lost even when found. Most of the relationships are Gay which is not a criticism, just the authors preference. Relationships are sometimes caring and sometimes sordid.

Take these a bit at a time because they can be both depressing but the sameness of the stories tends to also make them run together at times. And hide the razorblades. show less

“if the truth of our lives is nothing, then the only reality is the one we bring to life”

The Witnesses are Gone is a seriously weird read in a really good way. It feels like you’re reading in the world between wakefulness and sleep with a touch of drug induced haze. I found it really interesting in its exploration of the way that obsession can colour how we see our lives. It’s a short story, 96 pages in the paperback ARC into a life of depression, obsession and later drug haze.

Martin show more discovers some old videos in his shed, which he watches. (I would do exactly the same) One of them is a movie by a French movie director Jean Rien who specialises into the weird and surrealist, and the movie ends up taking over his life. Martin starts to loose touch with the reality around him, and see things from the movie in his real life, and has an altered perception of things that are happening. In the middle of the book, Martin and his girlfriend Judith went to Scotland to find the village were one of the Rien movies was reportedly filmed, and on the way back a train crash leads to the death of Judith which Martin blames on his obsession and ultimately Rien. From there, he hands in his notice at work, sells his house and gets on a boat to Mexico following the death of an Mexican director that seemed to be Rien. On the boat out he meets a woman who is also looking for information regarding a Rien movie her and her late boyfriend were in. They take a LOT of heroin together, and this ends with the woman collapsing into nothing, just bones and a dress. Martin collapses, found on the road by locals and taken to a hospital. Martin uses this experience to reconstruct how he views the world, and reality, which leads to the quote at the top.

Obviously, this is only a quick summation and has left out a lot of details about the book but it is an incredible read. This is unlike anything I’ve ever read before and I really enjoyed it. show less

I initially bought this book because other dark literary connoisseurs I know gave it very high marks. I'd never read anything by Lane before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised.

Joel Lane lives in Birmingham, England, the setting for most, if not all, the stories in the collection. Trust me, after reading this book you'll NEVER want to visit Birmingham, ever. I suspect he didn't make any local friends by writing this book. He really makes Birmingham out show more to be an incredibly bleak, violent, dirty and corrupt place; a place with an eternal dark cloud over it; a place where dreams go to die. Each of the stories are amazingly powerful in a subtle way. Most aren't "horror" in a traditional sense; rather, they're more darkly weird and surreal, but with purpose. I really like his writing style. He has a very imaginative way with words, some of which are laugh-out-loud hilarious. He's not afraid to tell it like it is using simple, if not crude, examples. For example, when a character describes how ugly a certain girl's dreadlocks are he describes them as, "hanging like dog turds".

The book has a very autobiographical feel to it.

Two gripes: they have nothing to do with Lane's writing. First, the typesetting; the body of text comes less than an inch from the top of the page. I prefer healthy margins. Secondly, no art. Not even a sketch at the beginning or end of a chapter. His publisher, Nightshade Books, often has art. I don't know why they didn't this time, though the cover is great. I think a smattering of art would have greatly enhanced the book's effect. One good thing though, I didn't catch a single typo -- something really rare these days. show less

Beautifully bleak. That is an excellent way of describing Lane's collection of short stories. They are beautiful to read, extremely poetic in the way that images are quickly and lovingly portrayed. I was continually amazed at how well portrayed the stories were. But at the same time the subject matter is brutal, harsh, emotionally honest and blunt. These are not stories to lightly parse over and continue reading back to back to back. About halfway through the collection, I had to stop and show more read another book in order to break the grim feelings. I remember when I read Harlan Ellison's DEATHBIRD STORIES the introduction for that collection warned about not reading the book in one continual string. The same thing should be said here. The stories are dark and creepy. For fans though who like facing their own horrors and being honest about what affects them (emotionally and sexually), then this collection is for them. While an occasional story might be missing a plot (at least in my opinion), all of the stories invoke strong images and themes. My favorites are below.

"The Bootleg Heart" - A story summed up by the first line: "My first love was a girl I never actually met."
"The Only Game" - A man's girlfriend dies on him again and again.
"Beyond The River" - A writer takes a reporter into the world of her books.
"Reservoir" - A con visits the victim of his cellmate. show less