I read this book after it was mentioned in a round up by Damien Walter
in The Guardian. It was enjoyable, though I think that Ms Tanzer will
write better, and to a British reader there were a number of howlers
where very un-British phrases were placed in the mouths of English
characters.
The book consists of four short stories and a novella
("A Pretty Mouth"). These are based around the mythology of the
aristocratic Calipash family of Devon, different stories being set from
the Roman occupation to the 1920s (they go backwards in time) although
the dating of some is vague.
The Calipashes are a cursed family,
their affliction having distinctly Lovecraftian overtones (though mainly
of the Innsmouth, children-with-webbed-feet variety rather than the
unspeakable-horrors-from another dimension sort). This allows the
author to spin a variety of spooky Gothic stories told in different
forms, loosely suited to the different times they're set in.
The
first story, "A Spotted Trouble at Dolor-on-the-Downs" is a PG Wodehouse
pastiche, narrated by Jeeves, Bertie Wooster's gentleman's gentleman,
who has to investigate some fishy goings on at a seaside resort. I take
my hat off to Tanzer's ambition here. Mimicking Wodehouse's style - or
even his ambience - would be a tall order for any writer, and while the
story is fun, I don't think that she quite hits the mark with this.
There's also, perhaps, a slight cultural unfamiliarity which shows up:
for example the English seaside town was at its peak in the 20s and 30s
and Dolor-on-the-Downs would not have been "seedy" (in any case, Aunt
Agatha would not have visited anywhere that could have been so
described).
The second, "The Hour of the Tortoise" is much more
successful - set in the late 19th century, it's basically a Gothic tale
of a young girl returning to her childhood home, Calipash Manor, to find
her guardian dying, and something distinctly rum going on. There's a
twist in that the young lady is a writer of literary smut, and another
in the ending of the story. Again, though, Tanzer misses one or two
points of etiquette - the servants wouldn't have addressed Chelene by
her first name, she would be "Miss Chelene". The phrase "visit with" is
also out of place
The third, "The Infernal History of the
Ivybridge Twins", set in the very early 19th century, is perhaps written
in the vein of MR James, though like most of the others in the volume
it is rather more saucy than he would have liked. It manages to both
chill and amuse.
The novella, " A Pretty Mouth", takes place
around the time of the Restoration and is set in an Oxford college
(Wadham). It has something of a Hell-fire club ambience, recounting the
doings of a particularly debauched member of the Calipash family who
befriends a young man, Henry Milliner, with unfortunate consequences for
the latter.
The final story, "Damnatio Memoriae" is almost an
origin story for the Calipashes, based on a Roman expedition to
Britannia. Alone in this volume, it has (almost) no supernatural
aspect.
The stories are all satisfyingly creepy, the effect being
heightened by one's growing knowledge, through the book, of the
Calipashes and what they're capable of. Tanzer has clearly given some
though to creating an overall story arc. Given the family's history of
dealings with the unspeakable over many centuries, it would have been
tempting to set them up by the end as potent villains, to the detriment
of the story but she avoids that by hinting at and then describing
various failings and twists of chance that limit them.
Where I
felt the stories fell down slightly was in some of the language. For
example, "A Pretty Mouth", set at Oxford in 1660, was full of what read
to me as modern US college slang including references to "grades" and
terms like "whatever!" and "awkward!" and a discussion in one place of
the effect of "social class" (I think this anachronistic and natives of
17th century England would have been more likely to use a term like
"station".) I may be being over sensitive here. After all, the story
is written in Modern, not Jacobean, English, so why not go the whole way
and use up to date terms? And as Tanzer is (I'm pretty sure) an
American writer, it's clearly no more wrong to use Modern American
English here than Modern English English (as it were). Nevertheless
this grated on me in places (though the story is good enough to carry
it) and I wondered how far it was deliberate - in some places she has
used 17th century terms (such as referring to the "middling sort" when
describing Henry's background)
So I'm giving this three rather
than four stars. But all the same I hope she writes more soon, because
hers is a distinctive voice and I think she's found - or created - a
richly unsettling vein of horror to exploit.
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