WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW
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| “As a Freudian, I'm not supposed to use words like evil; my business is with instinct, memory, and desire. Nevertheless, I've been wondering, lately, whether evil might exist. If it does, I've been thinking, it might be like what Freud called the navel of the dream, the place where all the lines of meaning the analyst has so carefully traced through the patient's life vanish into the unknown. But where the navel of the dream is essentially harmless phenomenon, a point where the dream's meaning is sufficiently understood, and further interpretation would be pointless, evil is a mystery with power. It reaches up into the world and makes everything mysterious.”- The Night Ocean, Paul la Farge |
Marina Willett, M.D., has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends--or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears. The police say it's suicide. Marina is a psychiatrist, and she doesn't believe them.
A tour-de-force of storytelling, The Night Ocean follows the lives of some extraordinary people: Lovecraft, the most influential American horror writer of the 20th century, whose stories continue to win new acolytes, even as his racist views provoke new critics; Barlow, a seminal scholar of Mexican culture who killed himself after being blackmailed for his homosexuality (and who collaborated with Lovecraft on the beautiful story The Night Ocean); his student, future Beat writer William S. Burroughs; and L.C. Spinks, a kindly Canadian appliance salesman and science-fiction fan -- the only person who knows the origins of The Erotonomicon, purported to be the intimate diary of Lovecraft himself.
As a heartbroken Marina follows her missing husband's trail in an attempt to learn the truth, the novel moves across the decades and along the length of the continent, from a remote Ontario town, through New York and Florida to Mexico City.
The Night Ocean is about love and deception -- about the way that stories earn our trust, and betray it.
A tour-de-force of storytelling, The Night Ocean follows the lives of some extraordinary people: Lovecraft, the most influential American horror writer of the 20th century, whose stories continue to win new acolytes, even as his racist views provoke new critics; Barlow, a seminal scholar of Mexican culture who killed himself after being blackmailed for his homosexuality (and who collaborated with Lovecraft on the beautiful story The Night Ocean); his student, future Beat writer William S. Burroughs; and L.C. Spinks, a kindly Canadian appliance salesman and science-fiction fan -- the only person who knows the origins of The Erotonomicon, purported to be the intimate diary of Lovecraft himself.
As a heartbroken Marina follows her missing husband's trail in an attempt to learn the truth, the novel moves across the decades and along the length of the continent, from a remote Ontario town, through New York and Florida to Mexico City.
The Night Ocean is about love and deception -- about the way that stories earn our trust, and betray it.
So, one might ask, what's a decidedly non speculative fiction fan doing reading a book about Lovecraft, the most famous speculative fiction writer after Tolkien? I have never read anything by Lovecraft, nor have I ever had any desire to. Back in high school, I was friends with a kid who was also a big reader, but he read exclusively thick, musty-looking mass-market paperbacks by big name fantasy and science fiction writers. He was a big Lovecraft fan, and that's probably why I never bothered with Lovecraft, because as much as I liked the kid, I would never have the stamina to read the books he did. So the answer to the above question is just that I liked Night Film and wanted to read a book similar to it. This book came up and the synopsis intrigued me enough to give it a shot.
So naturally, I will not speak to the accuracy of anything that goes on in this book, because I wouldn't have any idea what I'm talking about. So I will only be talking about whether or not this is a good book as opposed to whether or not it is a good representation of Lovecraft. Okay? Cool.
This book is written from the perspective of the world's most tolerant wife. It's kind of sweet, actually, just how much Marina cares for and the extent she's willing to go to support her husband, Charlie, even long after most spouses would stop trying. She also never divorces him, though the two do separate. It's kind of admirable actually, and the relationship between Marina and Charlie is really the best part of the book. The rest of the characters? Well, they're interesting at first. And then I just kind of lost interest in them.
I think part of the problem is that the book loses its way a bit. It was hard to stay invested in a novel that went on long, seemingly random tangents about the lives of Robert Barlow and Spinks. I mean, that also a problem I had with Night Film, but the tangents in Night Film felt more like they were actually related to the central story. Not so much in this story. I found them boring and pointless, basically.
The story behind it is fascinating, and that's what ended up saving The Night Ocean. It isn't a bad book by any means, though, and I think it would make a nice creepy read for the Halloween season. I wouldn't recommend it over Night Film, but if someone really liked that book I'd recommend this one.
7 out of 10
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