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Toplin (1985) by Michael McDowell
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I bought a copy of Toplin last year but haven't read it yet. Maybe we could do a group read on it.
We can definitely see that it's nominated and go from there. If it doesn't make it, we can always do a buddy read or read it with the Valancourt groupies. Which is what I call this group of McDowell lovers:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(Problem is I might not be able to wait that long since I already have a copy of it that's itching to be read.) :)
I have a copy of the old paperback so I'm game.
Oh, I meant buddy read. I doubt that it would win a group read poll since it's so obscure.
It looks pretty short, so I'm willing to set aside what I'm reading to read Toplin. Whenever is good for everyone else is good for me.
If we shot for February that might best for me.
Yes, February would be better for me too.
I've got House of Leaves on tap for February, but I'm sure I could read this too. Can you wait, Janie?
The Valancourt buddy read is going to read Toplin next, starting in February. Here's a link. I hope to see you guys there!https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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Is it February yet??? ;)
BUT COME BACK SOON, the sign said. Obviously it was a lie. The people in the grocery store just wanted to make sure he couldn’t buy the spice he needed to make the recipe he’d selected for that night (recipes must be followed exactly). Obviously they wanted him to eat out ... to meet the waitress, Marta, ... to see her horrible, unspeakable, unbearable ugliness. It was obvious to him: her maimed, twisted face was the living desire to be dead. He had to help Marta be dead.
His teeth are perfectly white. He can’t see colors. He keeps a combination lock on his door and has twelve shelves of cookbooks. His walls bleed blood. His suits each have a number, S-1 through S-6. And life goes on.
Life goes on, if you can stand it. Life goes on, for the brave and the damned.
Reviews
“An ambitious novel of psychological horror.”— Publishers Weekly
“Compelling—a tour-de-force of storytelling and style . . . recalls the anonymous dereliction of David Lynch’s Eraserhead ... McDowell tells Toplin’s story with considerable artistry, marvelous pacing, and a welcome dose of macabre humor. His prose is clear, precise, and tightly controlled ... and his imagery ... startling and vivid ... McDowell has populated his underworld with as bizarre a cast of grotesques as you are likely to find outside a Fellini film ... In its power to transport the reader into a wholly insane mind, Toplin ranks with Stephen Gilbert’s Ratman’s Notebooks and Ramsey Campbell’s The Face That Must Die— distinguished company indeed.” — Fantasy Review
“One of the best writers of horror in this country.” — Peter Straub
“A cause for great rejoicing ... a first-person account of one man’s psychological nightmare ... succeed[s] so well in its atmosphere of profound alienation.” — Fangoria
Available worldwide in paperback and ebook
http://www.valancourtbooks.com/toplin...