The ghosts of Manacle

Few know Charles G Finney except for The Circus of Dr Lao, and even there what most people remember is bowdlerized movie The Seven Faces of Dr Lao. This is a pity because he was a very distinctive voice, and his stories were imaginative, sometimes deliberately disturbing, poking at racist or sexist actions.

The Ghosts of Manacle is collection of 7 stories and a novella, all but one set in Arizona, often in or near the fictional town of Manacle. This Pyramid paperback appears to be the only publication of this collection of Finney's short stories. The cover by Jack Gaughan's cover in the style of Joe Mugnaini is apt, evoking echoes of Bradbury, but the author Finney is most akin to is R A Lafferty. The stories were published in show more 1958-1962. Most appeared in F&SF, two in Harper's, and one in Point West, an Arizona history magazine. The novella is original to the collection. The short stories are all strong, the novella less so.

The Iowan's Curse (Harper's) is an amusing tale where doing someone a favor in Manacle is almost immediately punished for it, but thanks to the curse, even worse luck shortly befalls the person originally granted the favor. Included in Best American Short Stories: 1959.

The Horsenaping of Hotspur (F&SF) is a fairy tale for adults with a Twainesque punch line. Animals - primarily snakes -- team up to foil a plot to kidnap the horse of a rancher in Manacle.

The Life and Death of a Western Gladiator (Harpers) is about snakes again, though with no touch of the fantastic. The life and death of a rattlesnake that begins primarily as a biology lesson and ends with as a tale about human encroachment.

The Gilashrikes (F&SF) is a short fable of the surprising results when a man cross-breeds a pet Gila monster with a pet shrike -- the bird that impales prey that inspired the monster in Simmons' Hyperion books.

The Black Retriever (F&SF) tells of a black retriever, though few see anything more than a black blur, that plagues a neighbor, killing birds and other small animals, and triggering odd dreams in the men who try to catch it. This is the first story to include a bit of the sexual undercurrent so common in Finney's novels.

The Captivity (F&SF), not set in Arizona, is very curious pri show less