 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
- General fiction - |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Incubus |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Incubus byAnn Arensberg Random House of Canada (Ballantine Books) 322 pages, May 2000 ISBN 0345438167 Reviewed by our UK Editor Rachel A. Hyde Until 1974, Dry Falls-Maine was a pleasant rural backwater where folk were honest churchgoing farmers, and nothing much happened. But then the heat came and with it, deformed offspring among the cattle and crops withering in the fields. Men stop wanting to have sex while their women are having erotic dreams and strange sexual fantasies. For an incubus is at large, preying on women and assuming human forms. Clearly, some divine intervention is needed. Dr. Henry Lieber is the local Episcopal priest, yet even he feels powerless at what to do when faced with such obvious and powerful evil. His wife Cora (the narrator) has to put aside scepticism, and trust in her faith - but this isn’t going to be easy. This is a very well-written novel with a strong literary feel. It is in part an allusion to the Persephone legen,d and an addition to the large body of horror fiction set in this part of the United States. Like most books whose best feature is the way they are written, there could have been a little more action and a few less musings, but Arensberg is highly adept at creating atmosphere. From the first page, there is a pervading sense of horror creeping in among normality and with the thin veil that exists between the everyday world and darker places, where everything is an antithesis to what we know. If you like horror but feel unsure about pulp fiction, read this book; this type of material can be literary too. There is even an interview with the author at the back of the book and a list of questions for debate in reading groups. Despite its sometimes static quality, Incubus is a very complete experience. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||