Night In The Lonesome October

The premise of Night in the Lonesome October is evocative for anyone who's ever had a tendency to go for walks at night. The night time streets of Wilmington (state unknown) are people with a collection of creeps, cops, and potentially-benevolent women. Walking these streets is Laymon's stock character--the adolescent young man with a host of hormonal hangups about relationships. Sometimes, this character blends well into the setting and plot, like in Island, but not this time.

It may be a dead horse, but Laymon's approach to characters seems to be masturbatory fantasy. In this case, Eddie, the narrator/protagonist, couples with two different women while fending off advances from a ridiculously stereotyped gay man. At the end, Eddie gets show more to have it all, since the female characters are given no agency of their own. Such unnatural behavior, especially from the two women in Eddie's life, pulled me out of the book and made me wonder if Eddie was little more than a proxy for Laymon's wish fulfillment, or if Laymon is simply incapable of managing characterization beyond the narrator.

I would have ranked this lower because of the awful characterization issues, but for Laymon's strong use of setting. show less

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I will admit, however, that in order to enjoy it, I have to kind of accept that most of the stuff that happens requires a bit of suspension of belief. The book is told in the first person perspective. He tends to make rather bad decisions...all the time. That really made me want to yell at him. In addition, there doesn't really seem to be anything driving the narrative for most of the book.

So, with all those negatives mentioned, why did I enjoy it and rate it four stars? It was just fascinating! I could hardly put the book down, for wondering what on Earth could possibly happen after 'this' bad decision that Ed makes. The city itself was a character in the book, in a way, and I was just as eager as Ed to show more explore it. And just when I thought I knew where the story was going to start going, it went a completely different direction! I loved it. show less

Laymon can do no wrong. I've loved every book of his that I've read, and this one is no exception. The story follows Ed Logan as he tries to get over his break up with his girlfriend. Ed takes a late night stroll through town to clear his mind and runs into things both pleasurable and very weird. It's these pleasurable things that make him come back the next night and wander some more but of course he again runs into the weird, even weirder than the previous night. We continue with Ed on his nightly journeys which escalate more and more until the grand finale which fits in with the theme of the rest of the book.

While it might not seem like much of a description and like it would not be a very good story, it really is. The characters are show more a joy to experience as they run around town doing things that seem both fun and dangerous. I just could not help but devour the book until all hours of the night, thinking the whole time "God, there are some major fucking weirdos in this town." Once again, I can not recommend this Laymon book enough. Definitely pick it up and enjoy. show less

I found myself musing over the level of fear Laymon intended to evoke in this offbeat bit of horror. Our hero Eddie has been dumped by his girlfriend, and after a bit of a slide off the grid, he decides to go out one night and just ... wander around. We and Eddie are "treated" to a college town which is changed into a spooky, dangerous world peopled by man-like trolls who live under bridges (and eat people), among other predators. Eddie also finds the homeless girl Casey and learns from her "Ride or Hide" - basically a grand game of chicken, with scarily high stakes.

Eddie has sensual adventures and misadventures - I've seen these decried as gratuitous, but I always felt them to be well in line with the plot and theme. Anyway, Eddie, show more Casey, and a couple of other characters capture a sexual predator, cut his hands off, and feed him to the trolls. Not much of a plot, but the main point of this piece is its eerie atmosphere and satisfying denouement.

http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2010/07/night-in-lonesome-october-by-richard.... show less

This was very interesting. An air of the slightly strange or weird pervades this novel from start to finish. It's about a man who's girlfriend, Holly, has left him, and so he takes to going on long walks at night whence he encounters various weird and wonderful characters and ends up getting himself into all kinds of trouble after his current squeeze, Eileen, gets herself kidnapped by her former boyfriend.

Some very well written characters here too. Casey was a particular favourite. She's a strange one, with an unusual night life and a personality that draws you in and just makes you want to pull her close and keep her safe. I've tried Laymon's novels before and found them a little superficial, the kind of novel you'd read between show more finishing one serious, engrossing novel and beginning another. Kind of like a little snack in between the main courses.

Anyhow, I enjoyed it very much. It was just strange enough to really keep you interested but not too way out there to annoy. The characters were well defined and interesting and the story was engrossing enough. It does tend to tip along at a relatively slow pace though, although this does feel very much like it was designed in rather than just the way it turned out, and I do think this pacing worked quite well for the type of story that was being told.

Was it horror? Yes, but more on the strange, subtle end of the spectrum. And I liked it. show less

when eleven recommended this book to me he said it was kind of like Richard laymon just sat down with no idea what was going to happen and wrote until he hit the page count he needed and then tied up the loose ends and finished it. that might not sound like a positive review but it actually is, his random wanderings where very entertaining and creepy. the thing I liked best is that out of all the creeps and wierdos he encounters you never know which ones will come back into play later and which ones where just added for atmosphere. laymon was definitely going for creepy with this one, there are a lot of great characters and it was full of creepy scary moments. despite not having a very complex plot it is a very suspenseful edge of your show more seat page turner that was tense and fun to read. five stars from me and it easily made my top three for laymon novels. show less

Well, after a break from Laymon I picked up his last book he presented for publishing before his untimely death. I enyoy reading Laymon like I enjoy watching a good b-rated horror movie from the 80's. Lots of sex, gore, scares and action. Fun, fun, fun. But this is one of his books in which his characters are almost completely devoid of the ability think logically and you get every maddening thought that goes through their minds. "Does she have panties...maybe I should check...no, she would be mad...but maybe she wants me to...she doesn't want me to...I'll just slip my hand down to see...no, she'll be mad..." Arrrgh. And this happens too frequently in this book. But then again, for those who enjoy Laymon you know what you're getting and show more in the end his books are, for the most part, fun to read. I enjoyed this one as well, just not as much as some of his others. show less