Author: allen0997
The Shadow Over Innsmouth ~ A Capsule Book Review
The Shadow Over Innsmouth ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp
H. P. Lovecraft, the foremost American horror writer of the twentieth century, lived from 1890 to 1937. His imaginative novels and short stories are the stuff of which nightmares are made. This “Belle Epoque Original” contains the short novel (or extremely long short story) The Shadow Over Innsmouth, plus three (long) short stories: “In the Witch’s House,” “The Lurking Fear” and “The Rats in the Walls.”
Innsmouth of The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a coastal town in Massachusetts unlike any other. Once a thriving fishing community, it is now a hellish nightmare. The buildings are falling down because they are so old and untended. Most of the people (the ones with any sense) have left. A black reef offshore about one mile has been a curse to the town. The reef is inhabited by frog-fish creatures that come ashore whenever they want. I’m not sure what the frog-fish creatures do to the people of Innsmouth, but whatever it is, it isn’t pretty. (I think they mate with them to make more frog-fish creatures like themselves.)
The unnamed narrator telling the story is touring the region to study the architecture and comes across Innsmouth by chance. Innsmouth isn’t really where he intended to go, but it’s where he ends up on his way to some other place. He becomes more interested in the history and appearance of the town than is good for him and does some investigating (some would call it snooping), incurring the displeasure of the locals. He ends up having to stay the night in Innsmouth, in a creepy hotel; it’s not the kind of home-away-from-home experience he hopes to repeat any time soon. The frog-fish people are after him all night long, to do him great bodily harm. He never sees them up close, but that somehow makes them scarier.
In the short story, “In the Witch’s House,” a young student is staying in a house (because the rent is cheap) where a legendary witch once lived. He is a studying ancient folklore, travel to another dimension, and ancient mathematical secrets that have long since been forgotten by man. He is influenced by the long-ago witch that once occupied the space he now occupies. He becomes slowly unhinged. Is what is happening really happening or is it only happening in his mind?
“The Lurking Fear” is about the Martense family, a New England family that has cut itself off from the world and lives in a “haunted house” on a remote hill that is affected by violent thunder storms. With inbreeding, the family “degenerates,” into a path of reverse evolution. (Each family member has one blue eye and one brown eye.) When a kind of grotesque, mole-like creature is found living in the ground underneath the house, investigators deduce that this is what the Martense family members have become.
In “The Rats in the Walls” a man owns an ancient “priory” in England that goes back to medieval times. He makes a lot of repairs to the structure and makes it his home until he discovers there is a terrible problem with rats living, not only in the walls, but in the vast underpinnings of the priory. The rats living there are especially hungry and aggressive. It’s probably not a good idea to make them a part of your life.
The life and work of H. P. Lovecraft are frequently compared to that of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). They both wrote on disturbing subjects, they were both New Englanders, they both had verbose writing styles, and they both died in their forties. During their lifetimes they were under-appreciated and under-recognized but achieved well-deserved literary immorality in death.
Copyright © 2021 by Allen Kopp
Mrs. Bridge ~ A Capsule Book Review
Mrs. Bridge ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp
Mrs. Bridge, the superb novel by Evan S. Connell (1924-2013), was first published in 1959. It is a classic of realist fiction, a piece of Americana, an indelible portrait of the kind of Midwestern American woman who lived in the 1940s and who no longer exists. (The companion piece to Mrs. Bridge, titled Mr. Bridge, was published ten years later.)
India Bridge is a Kansas City “country club matron” of the 1940s. She is married to Walter Bridge and they have three children: Ruth, Carolyn (Corky) and Douglas. Walter is an attorney and he is busy, busy, busy all the time to make enough money to “take care of” his family. In fact, he believes that “providing” for them is much more important than spending time with them or showing them he loves them (even though he does love them). He works from morning ‘til night and sometimes when he gets home all he can do is fall into bed to rest up for the next day of work. (Do we detect a heart attack in the making?)
Walter and India Bridge are “well to do” rather than rich. They have enough money for just about anything. They live in a lovely house and have two cars; they belong to the country club and they have plenty of snooty friends. They can afford a tour of Europe, which they are enjoying until the Nazis invade Poland and they have to go back home.
Mrs. Bridge can afford a maid to run the household, do the cleaning, shopping, laundry, cooking, etc. The maid’s name is Harriet and she is both a blessing and a curse to Mrs. Bridge. She is efficient, but in the very fact of her efficiency she places Mrs. Bridge in a dilemma because it leaves her (Mrs. Bridge) with plenty of time to try to find something to do and think about the past when she had to do all the housework herself and her three children were little and needed her.
One of Mrs. Bridge’s endearing qualities is that she is “traditional” and resistant to change. As her three children grow to adulthood, she is frequently baffled and hurt by their behavior. Her son, Douglas, is aloof and secretive. When she finds a naked girly magazine in his dresser drawer, she burns the magazine and gives Douglas an old-fashioned marriage manual from when she herself was young. The older daughter, Ruth, is something of a bohemian and nothing like her mother. She leaves home as soon as she can and goes to New York to work and become a libertine, unashamedly “sleeping” with a number of different men that she doesn’t care about. The younger daughter, Carolyn (Corky), goes off to college and finds an “inappropriate” man that she wants to marry. Mrs. Bridge must accept the fact that Carolyn’s husband’s father is a low-class plumber instead of a doctor or a lawyer. Carolyn soon finds herself with a baby and discovers that that she “can’t stand” the man she’s married to.
Mrs. Bridge is a slice of life, a chronicle of a specific time in twentieth century American life, an engrossing account of the small moments that make up a life. India Bridge is a conflicted character: a woman with all the material comforts to make her happy but with plenty of reasons not to be happy. By the time you reach the end of the novel, you will have the feeling that India Bridge not only a character in a book but a person you know, or have known, intimately.
Copyright © 2020 by Allen Kopp
They Have All the Gravediggers They Need
They Have All the Gravediggers They Need ~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp
Somebody was knocking at the door. Who could it be? He was inclined to ignore it, but the knocking continued for longer than it should, so he felt compelled to answer it. It might be something important, but probably wasn’t.
When he opened the door, he saw a man he had never seen before smiling at him. The man was not young, not old; not fat, not thin; not handsome, not ugly; not anything.
“Mr. Arbuckle?” the man asked.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Gerhardt Arbuckle?”
“That’s me. How can I help you?”
“My name is Dexter Peebles. I’m from Sacred Heart Memorial Gardens.”
“Yes?”
“I understand both your parents are interred at Sacred Heart Memorial Gardens in our aboveground mausoleums?”
“That’s right.”
“And your mother just passed over recently?”
“That’s right.”
“Allow me to express my deepest condolences.”
“Thank you.”
“If there’s anything that we of Sacred Heart Memorial Gardens can do to help you in your hour of grief, we are always at your disposal.”
“No, I’m fine. Thanks for stopping by.”
“I wonder if I might have a few moments of your time?”
“What for?”
“I wish to discuss with you some of the services we’re offering at Sacred Heart Memorial Gardens at this time.”
“My parents are already taken care of. There isn’t anything else to be done for them.”
“Yes, I know that. It’s not for them. It’s for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Might I come in for a few minutes?”
“I’m busy right now. I was just about to wash my clothes.”
“I promise it won’t take more than a few minutes.”
“Well, all right. But let’s make it quick.”
Gerhardt Arbuckle stepped aside and let Dexter Peebles enter. As soon as he was over the threshold, he removed his hat.
“Might we sit down?” Dexter asked.
Gerhardt led the way into the living room and they both sat down.
“Now, what is this about?” Gerhardt asked with a hint of impatience.
Dexter opened the small briefcase he was carrying and took out a sheaf of shiny brochures. He held them hesitantly in his hand and cleared his throat.
“Might I inquire if you have made the final arrangements for yourself and other members of your family?”
“Have I done what?” Gerhardt asked.
“Have you secured your final resting place?”
“Do you mean when I die?”
“Yes.”
“Why, no, I haven’t.”
“Excellent! That’s what I want to discuss with you today.”
“You’re going to try to sell me a cemetery plot, aren’t you?”
“No matter what time of life you are in, it’s such a comfort…”
“I think I can save you a lot of hot air by telling you right off the bat that I’m not interested,” Gerhardt said.
“What?”
“I said I’m not interested.”
“May I ask why?”
“I don’t have to tell you why. Just take my word for it.”
“We are currently offered discounted prices.”
“I don’t care.”
“The type of aboveground mausoleum your mother and father lie in normally sell for thirteen thousand dollars apiece. For a limited time, the vaults are being discounted at twelve thousand each. That’s a savings of a thousand dollars per vault.”
“I’m still not interested.”
“Now, I must tell you, the two vaults immediately adjacent to your mother’s vault are available. These two vaults would be ideal for you and your dear wife.”
“My dear wife took off three years ago and I don’t know where she is. She might be dead and I hope she is.”
“So you have no use for two vaults.”
“I have no use for one vault.”
“Well, as you might expect, the vaults are kind of expensive for certain families. The cemetery plots sell for only a thousand apiece. For a limited time only, I can offer you four adjacent plots at the discounted price of thirty-five hundred dollars.”
“I don’t want those either.”
“May I ask why not?”
“I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
“Do you have children?”
“No.”
“So you would have no use for four cemetery plots?”
“I would have no use for one cemetery plot.”
“Well, uh, you’re getting along in years, as we all are. You must have given some thought to your final resting place.”
“None at all.”
“Most children want to be interred with or beside their parents.”
“Not me.”
“If I may ask, if you die tomorrow, where will your mortal remains repose?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care.”
“You don’t care.”
“That’s right. The city dump will suit me fine.”
“You want your body deposited at the city dump?”
“If I’m dead, I won’t know where I am, will I? The birds can peck at my eyes and the rats eat my flesh and I won’t even know it.”
“Well, I…”
“I told you right at the first I wasn’t interested in hearing your sales pitch. You didn’t believe me, did you?”
“We’re taught in salesman’s training that any sales resistance, no matter how strenuous, can be overcome.”
“You’re finding out that’s not true, aren’t you?”
“I must say your sales resistance is very high.”
“Higher than most?”
“Yes, I think I would say it’s higher than most.”
“You’re not a very effective salesman, then, are you?”
“No, I suppose I’m not.”
“How long have you been selling cemetery plots?”
“Six months.”
“Have you sold any?”
“I’ve sold a few.”
“How many?”
“Two.”
“Two in six months?”
“That’s right.”
“Some people are not cut out to be salesmen.”
“Truer words were never spoken.”
“Do you like selling cemetery plots?”
“I hate it. I’d rather dig graves.”
“Then why don’t you apply for a gravedigger’s job?”
“I’ve inquired about it. They have all the gravediggers they need right now.”
“Try something else altogether. A job that doesn’t have to do with death.”
“Well, the truth is, I don’t have much time to look for a job because I’m out selling cemetery plots all day long.”
“When you get back to Sacred Heart Memorial Gardens, tell them selling cemetery plots is not the right kind of job for you and you’re quitting.”
“They’re going to fire me anyway by the end of the month if I don’t meet my quota and there’s no way that’s going to be possible. I won’t have to quit.”
“Quit before they fire you! Tell them to take their shitty job and stuff it sideways!”
“If only I could!”
“You can! Stand up for yourself! Nobody else will!”
“I’ve thought about killing myself.”
“Don’t do that!”
“I don’t want to kill myself, but it might be my only option.”
“It’s not! It’s not your only option! That’s the wrong way to think!”
Dexter Peebles looked at his watched and slapped both hands on his knees.
“Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time already,” he said. “I should be going and let you get back to whatever it was you were doing. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. Most people just slam the door in my face as if I was a piece of filth that had blown up on their doorstep.”
“Wait a minute!” Gerhardt said. “You said you want a different job but you don’t have time to look for one?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, hold on! I have a cousin who owns a package liquor store downtown. He’s looking for somebody to train as a manager. Do you know anything about liquor?”
“No, but I could learn.”
“Do you have anything against liquor? Like religious scruples?”
“Not a thing! Both my parents were alcoholics. Also my brother.”
“Well, all right, then! You have alcohol in your family!”
He wrote the cousin’s name and also the address of the package liquor store on a little slip of paper and gave it to Dexter Peebles.
“Tell him Gerhardt sent you.”
“I certainly will!”
“If I were you, I would go down instead of calling. The last I heard, there’s plenty of competition for a manager’s job in a package liquor store.”
“You bet I will, and I certainly do thank you! I just can’t think you enough!”
“I hope you land the job. You need to stop selling cemetery plots before it kills you.”
“Say a little prayer for me!”
Before Dexter Peebles left, he gave Gerhardt a life-affirming hug. Gerhardt hated to be hugged but he tried to hide his distaste. It was a hug that seemed altogether necessary and appropriate.
Copyright © 2021 by Allen Kopp
Literary Fictions 