he title FANTOMAS OF LONDON, as this book’s compiler David White admits in a brief forward, was inspired by another non-Fantomas affiliated Allain novel entitled FANTOMAS OF BERLIN–and also because “quite frankly Fantomas needs the publicity.”
As the title promises, this short story collection purports to be a compilation of memories, most of them fantastic and/or macabre in nature.
A young man’s elders attempt to transform him into a tree(!) in this German-originated nightmare in ink. Quintessentially European in tone and conception, it’s been compared with THE METAMORPHOSIS, yet A FAMILY FAILURE occupies a category of its own.
One of the great modern horror novels, this is the unquestioned masterpiece of the eccentric William Hjortsberg, who’s dabbled in science fiction (GREY MATTERS), ribald comedy (TORO! TORO! TORO!) and historical speculation (NEVERMORE).
The chilly and idiosyncratic WILLY is one of the most memorable thinking-person’s horror stories to appear in some time, and one of 2011’s standout publications.
It’s the first and thus far only English language collection of stories by the late Jesus Ignacio Aldapuerta, the so-called “Andalusian de Sade” who specialized in scatological excess.
Quite simply one of the great unsung discoveries of recent years, a mini-epic that explores death and decay in a manner that no other novel ever has.
This depraved yet undeniably artful late-sixties artifact is one of American literature’s great unheralded sickies.
I know quite a few critics have proclaimed this sprawling epic, the middle portion of Clive Barker’s still-unfinished trilogy that began with THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW, an imaginative masterpiece. I, on the other hand, find it a mess.
Here’s something I know will scare off quite a few of my readers: an overtly experimental novel about a post-apocalyptic England.