Pinning the sheet up, shapes wriggled where she wasn't looking directly. She stood well back. Here was the cylindrical folly as seen outside, while around it were other shapes in which the dome, door and arrow-slit windows were the only recognisable features. Mystifying, the folly as a doughnut ring, the folly fattened into a pumpkin. There were versions of it in knots and teasing convolutions that made her feel faintly nauseous.
The first story in The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies and Grottoes is a remarkable hybrid of M.R. Jamesian and Lovecraftian sub-genres. Sam, a volunteer at a country house run by a National Trust-like organization, is curious about a relatively new folly in the grounds. It seems the landowner who created the mysterious tower-like building was a mathematical genius with some very odd ideas. His heir, Rupert Baines, who lives on the premises, is engaged in research whose ends are obscure. Sam has a series of odd experiences that she does not share with her boyfriend, Frank, who meanwhile becomes interested in Rupert for reasons of his own.
As always, Harman creates a believable but disorienting narrative in which twisted geometry plays a key role. Strange voices are heard by Sam when she ventures into the folly. The final twist reveals what these portended - in a way. As with Lovecraft and some stories by Blackwood, the disturbing implications of space-time theories are brought home at a personal level. Sam makes for an enigmatic protagonist, not a victim or a hero, but perhaps someone who becomes entranced by the folly and maybe its acolyte.
An excellent start, then. I'll share my views on the second story very soon!
1 comment:
When is some brave publisher going to give us a voluminous collection of Harman's tales (I treasure Sarob's much-too-short The Heaven Tree & Other Stories)? I guess a man can dream!
Post a Comment