Douglas E. Winter

This is a very pro-biased look at Clive Barker and his work, but that's okay with me. While not a fan of everything Barker has put out, I absolutely recognize him as one of the singular talents of the writing profession.

The book goes above and beyond most biographies and their "he was born, then this happened, then this, then this, then this..." style and Winter delves into the deeper meanings and connections along the way.

I think the only thing I could have done without were the multi-page show more summaries of every single story Clive wrote from his plays, through the Books of Blood, and right up to Galilee. For anyone who's actually read the stories (and really, are you going to dig into a thick bio of the author without having read any of his stuff?) it was a touch frustrating, but the analysis that followed each was always interesting.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Barker many years ago at a convention, and got to both chat with him while he was painting, as well as a couple of days later when he autographed a few of his books for me. In both cases, I was struck by a man who could have easily walled himself away from his fans, but instead was incredibly gracious, welcoming, patient, and, even more shocking, actually interested in what each fan had to say. Virtually every other author I've dealt with for autographs asks my name, then puts their head down and throws a comment in and hands it back with a thanks. Clive, when I handed him the books, considered the covers, then asked, "which one do you like the best?" and when I answered, smiled and asked, "why?" which then sparked a five minute conversation on the novel.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's often disappointing to meet those you have a picture of in your head, because they often can't measure up in person. Clive, on the other hand, exceeded every expectation I had of him—exactly as he does in his best fiction—and this biography does a good job of showing that aspect of the man.

Highly recommended. show less

I picked this up to read "The Night Flier" by Stephen King, which was really pretty good! A bloody vampire story that gets pretty crazy! And as a treat for King fans, the story has a little tie-in with both "Salem's Lot" and "The Dead Zone"! Small, but fun!

The rest of this book is not my cup of tea. Only "Spinning Tales With the Dead" by Charles L. Grant, was decent. The other 11 were, in my opinion, not worth reading. And, in fact, Peter Straub's "The Juniper Tree" should not be read at show more all! The detailed description of a child's molestation made me sick. Disgust, not fear. Ugh.

So, I'd just read "The Night Flier" and move along! show less

As much as is known about Uncle Stevie and his work, there are actually quite few straight up biographies of the man. Winter convinced the author that he should let someone write about him who he trusted, and he trusted Winter. So, Winter dove deeply into the early life and work of Uncle Stevie, and conducted several no-holds-barred interviews. Those enlightening interviews make up the best bits of the book. This account only covers up through about 1986, before the publication of [It]. But show more each of the books get their own chapter, with tons of background material. For the constant reader who is constantly thirsting for a preface or foreword or afterword from Uncle Stevie to tell us he rest of the story, this book serves as a book length version of that.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly recommended show less

I was a little disappointed with this book though I was forewarned by a snippet from an anthology of essays on pulp fiction I read some years back which I cannot recall the name of at the moment. This book follows a format of synopsis of parts of the discussed work with plot points paired with biographical anecdotes from Stephen King|3389|Stephen King's life along with some uncritical commentary and the direct interpretation of symbols in the said work. Between the biography and analyzed show more bits of King's work you would think some great insights could be found but no. To me, and I am not the biggest fan of Stephen King's work by the way, this book simply does not provide any unique insights or cast a new light on Stephen King's oeuvre up to its writing (1984) and does little than the previously mentioned to explore King's work. To be frank, it seems the author is manually stimulating Stephen King and providing copious amounts of lube to boot at the turn of every page. I really cannot recommend this book. However, I do recommend Danse Macabre and On Writing A Memoir of the Craft. Although both are written by King himself, they do a much better job of digging deeper. show less