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A review by verkisto
In a Shallow Grave by James Purdy
2.0
Valancourt has reissued a lot of old Gothic/horror books over the last few years, so I've become a big fan of the stuff they publish, enough so that I'll buy a lot of their reprints sight unseen. That was the case with In a Shallow Grave. Unfortunately, not all of Valancourt's reprints are hits with me. That was also the case with In a Shallow Grave.
Most of my feelings about the novella, though, are due to my expectations. I think I was expecting the book to be a literary horror novel, not a literary novel with some supernatural overtones. The story is essentially plotless, relying on the characters to carry the story, and there wasn't much in them to which I could relate. The central characters are a Vietnam veteran who has suffered an injury that has turned him inside-out (I kept getting hung up on the impossibility of such a thing), a black man who serves as a caregiver for the veteran (who in turn raises some racist feeling in the narrator), and another caregiver who shows up on the veteran's property one day and forms a friendship with him. The three of them then spend the novella developing their relationships.
The story seems to be the kind that begs examination and discussion, and due to its themes, I can see it being the subject of many English literature courses. It just didn't do anything for me, again because I was looking for something a bit flashier, a bit more entertaining. I don't mind stories with literary ambitions, or that are unafraid to address complex themes, but I want it to be entertaining, as well. I'm much more interested in books that have been blurbed by Adrian Tchaikovsky or N.K. Jemisin than I am in those blurbed by Gore Vidal or Tennessee Williams. Call it anti-intellectual if you like, but it's the truth.
Fortunate Musical Connection: "Shallow Grave" by A Pale Horse Named Death
Most of my feelings about the novella, though, are due to my expectations. I think I was expecting the book to be a literary horror novel, not a literary novel with some supernatural overtones. The story is essentially plotless, relying on the characters to carry the story, and there wasn't much in them to which I could relate. The central characters are a Vietnam veteran who has suffered an injury that has turned him inside-out (I kept getting hung up on the impossibility of such a thing), a black man who serves as a caregiver for the veteran (who in turn raises some racist feeling in the narrator), and another caregiver who shows up on the veteran's property one day and forms a friendship with him. The three of them then spend the novella developing their relationships.
The story seems to be the kind that begs examination and discussion, and due to its themes, I can see it being the subject of many English literature courses. It just didn't do anything for me, again because I was looking for something a bit flashier, a bit more entertaining. I don't mind stories with literary ambitions, or that are unafraid to address complex themes, but I want it to be entertaining, as well. I'm much more interested in books that have been blurbed by Adrian Tchaikovsky or N.K. Jemisin than I am in those blurbed by Gore Vidal or Tennessee Williams. Call it anti-intellectual if you like, but it's the truth.
Fortunate Musical Connection: "Shallow Grave" by A Pale Horse Named Death