When this book appeared in 2013, it was advertised as Joyce Carol Oates’s “vampire novel,” but that’s misleading. There is a vampire of sorts in it, and certainly, a curse that affects many in the story, but it’s far more than just a horror tale—this is an exhilarating historical Gothic fantasia set in the early 20th century and featuring, among others, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and Mark Twain.
I found it so gripping and unputdownable that I skipped work to finish reading it and promptly picked up Sinclair’s novel King Coalafterward simply because I was so fascinated with his character in the book. King Coalturned out to be good, but The Accursed is extraordinary.
This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset…
I’ve long been interested in the African-American authors of the mid-20th century—James Baldwin and Chester Himes are particular favorites—but until the past year, I’d never gotten around to the masterful John A. Williams.
!Click Songtells the story, in fluid, sensuous prose, of a black writer whose career begins just after World War II, and while he does enjoy some success, he is hampered, demeaned, and diminished in the New York publishing world of the time because of his race.
This book is about the terrible hidden costs and pains of racism among seemingly successful people. The fact that the protagonist’s career resembles Williams’s own only adds to the power and poignancy of this beautiful, unheralded gem of a novel.
At lunch in a restaurant on the East Side, Cato Douglas, a black novelist, learns that Paul Cummings, a white Jewish novelist and a friend for thirty years, has just committed suicide
This wonderful dark novel about H.P. Lovecraft’s relationship with a young fan, R.H. Barlow, implicitly makes the case for Lovecraft’s continuing relevance in popular culture—even as he is widely condemned for his undoubted racism.
I found one of the most human and multi-dimensional portraits of Lovecraft I’ve ever read in this book. Barlow himself is no less compelling in these pages. The prose is vivid and immaculate. If you love language and are interested in Lovecraft, The Night Oceanis a fantastic read.
From the award-winning author and New Yorker contributor, a riveting novel about secrets and scandals, psychiatry and pulp fiction, inspired by the lives of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle.
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…
Mona Straw has it all—a good marriage, a beautiful daughter, and a fulfilling job as a middle-school teacher.
But one day, a blonde, green-eyed stranger steps into Mona’s life and turns it upside down, leading her to the frenzied edge of madness and murder. The stranger’s name is Connor…and he’s eleven years old.
