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Floating Dragon

by Peter Straub (Goodreads Author)

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 4,683 ratings · 64 reviews

Two monstrous evils.

This quiet suburban town of Hampstead is threatened by two horrors.

One is natural. The hideous, unstoppable creation of man's power gone mad.

The other is not natural at all. And it makes the first look like a child's play.

Paperback, 595 pages

Published March 1st 1984 by Berkley (first published April 1st 1983)

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Apr 20, 2013 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, horror, books-i-own, must-read-in-2013

I keep on being drawn back to Peter Straub for my Horror fix. With this author it isn’t just about the nasty stuff: it’s about the presentation. Floating Dragon is a case in point: not only does Straub expose our fears; he toys with them.

The plot in a nutshell
What you’ve got here is essentially a town that is periodically plagued by a sequence of terrible events: serial killings; disappearances; children dying under mysterious circumstances. This only happens once every generation and only the i...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Eliza Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Floating Dragon could have knocked my socks off, but unfortunately the novel’s middle part got bogged down by too many abstractions, too much 80′s horror imagery – the pulsing red light, blood everywhere, visions in various stages of decomposition. Granted that it was written in the mid-80′s, but I’m reading this now in 2011, and it was just too much. Many times the horror becomes ridiculous, even cheesy, even laughable, far from the subtlety of his short story collection, Houses without Doors,...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Tee Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Die-hard Straub fans

Shelves: horror

It was long…but I finished it. It wasn’t bad, sometimes it was actually enjoyable. Nonetheless, I found it long, and so of course this little tidbit is going to prevent me from giving Floating Dragon a glowing review.
First off, I found that this novel’s strength was also its weakness. Early on in the novel, Straub delves into Hampstead’s history, a Connecticut town that almost literally goes all to hell. The town, and its inhabitants, are in terrible trouble from more than one facet of evil, si...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Squire rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A government experiment goes awry and a deadly gas is released over the affluent suburb of Hampstead, Connecticut. Meanwhile, the decendants of the town's original founders return toHampstead for the firts time in over 100 years, igniting a firestorm of events that are the continuation of an ongoing curse.

After I read (and was completely scared shitless) by Ghost Story in high school, I was afraid to read anything else by Straub. I remember passing up Shadowland and this book; by then I was in...more A government experiment goes awry and a deadly gas is released over the affluent suburb of Hampstead, Connecticut. Meanwhile, the decendants of the town's original founders return toHampstead for the firts time in over 100 years, igniting a firestorm of events that are the continuation of an ongoing curse.

After I read (and was completely scared shitless) by Ghost Story in high school, I was afraid to read anything else by Straub. I remember passing up Shadowland and this book; by then I was involved with reading too many other writers to be concerned with him. But rereading Ghost Story last year got me thinking about investigating more of Straub's work and the 30th Anniversry edition of FD seemed like a good place to start.

I was mistaken about that as this book was a huge disappointment.

I think the biggest problem with Floating Dragon was that it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a supernatural or science-gone-awry tale. It begins with a pretty good setup of a DOD expereimental project getting released into the atmosphere and then becoems the tale of a curse over Hampstead that recurs every 30 years or so. Even as the two threads continue, they never mesh in any significant way--in fact, the narrator of the story decides that the chemical accident was merely a coincidence. So the reader is left wondering why it was needed to bloat an already over-wrought story.

Then there is the narrator of the story, a black-listed author of novels/screenplays who ex-patriated himself to England and alcoloholism until the McCarthy-era ended. He begins his story in the third person, but then breaks in with a chapter of first-person narration to explain his role in the affair. He says he got most of his information from the diaries of the three other protagonmists, but he may have made some stuff up himself--he's a writer after all, and he may not have remembered stuff very well. Then it's back to the first-person (though he does break in two more times for pointless POV narration.) So now we have a unrealiable narrator to deal with.

Finally, the overall tone of the book is one of Straub being in love with his own writing. His unrealiable narrator speaks as if he is smarter than everybody else in the room and he knows it. Add to this a setting of affluent people who are feel they are better than everybody else and there's very little to care about in this confused and off-putting tale of death and destruction. In the epilogue to the story he talks about the narrator finally publishing "the excellent book Floating Dragon"--that actually made me laugh. But it just went to the overall arrogant and confused prose relating this tale.

There was about 100 pages (divided by one of the narrator's interludes) that were pretty good--they dealt with the main storyline of the curse, not the chemical accident. And I liked the climactic scene in the Gorge at Kendall Point. But overall, this was not a memorable reading expereince. If you are a newcomer to Straub, start with another title--I recommend Ghost Story; if you're already a fan, you'll probably like it.

But Cemetery Dance's edition of the book is beautiful (I gave it and extra 1/2 star for that!)

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Oct 20, 2007 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Horror fans

Shelves: favorites

What would happen if a mysterious toxic gas leaked out of a research facility and drove almost everyone who came in contact with it completely and murderously insane? This book gives one possible answer to that question through excellent character development, pacing, and high-intensity suspense.

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May 09, 2012 Venessa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't quite understand the comparison between Straub and King: sure, they both write horror, but I think they have very different writing styles that I find it hard to explain. Straub is much more blatant with his psychological horror, whereas with King it kind of just creeps up on you. Both are equally scary in their own right. In a brief summary, this book is about a group of four people who must come together to fight an evil that has lived in their town for centuries. The evil hides under...more

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Aug 07, 2012 C. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Of all the Peter Straub novels, I think I was most looking forward to reading his 1983 novel FLOATING DRAGON, but mostly just because it was referenced in Stephen King’s THE TOMMYKNOCKERS. Having finished it, I have to say other than GHOST STORY, it might be my favorite Straub novel to date.

Set in 1980, FLOATING DRAGON is set in Hampstead, Connecticut, a quiet suburb where families go to be content. At the start of the story, once we’re past the prologue and introduction, several things happen...more Of all the Peter Straub novels, I think I was most looking forward to reading his 1983 novel FLOATING DRAGON, but mostly just because it was referenced in Stephen King’s THE TOMMYKNOCKERS. Having finished it, I have to say other than GHOST STORY, it might be my favorite Straub novel to date.

Set in 1980, FLOATING DRAGON is set in Hampstead, Connecticut, a quiet suburb where families go to be content. At the start of the story, once we’re past the prologue and introduction, several things happen almost simultaneously in Hampstead that make this a very interesting time to live there. In a neighboring town, a Department of Defense project has gone haywire, releasing a deadly gas into the air, where the winds will most likely carry it to Hampstead. As this deadly gas is being released, Stony Friedgood, adulterous wife of Leo Friedgood who was sent to the chemical plant to deal with the problem, is murdered by a man she’s brought home from a bar. Meanwhile, high schooler Tabby Smithfield has just moved back to Hampstead with his father after the death of Tabby’s grandfather, businessman Monty Smithfield. In another part of town, Richard Albee, child star and current home remodeling contractor, and his wife Laura have also just moved to Hampstead, marking the first time in 100 years that descendents of all the town’s founders are back in Hampstead at the same time.

And it’s a good thing, because the Dragon has also returned to Hampstead. Hundreds of years ago, when the town was flourishing, a man named Gideon Winter, who was also called The Dragon, came to Hampstead, leaving death and ruin in his wake. The town survived and flourished again, but over the decades the Dragon has returned to wreak havoc on the town and its people. The pattern has never been detected until now, and with Graham Williams and Patsy McCloud rounding out their group, Tabby and Richard set out to stop the destruction and death before Hampstead is irrevocably lost.

The town is caught in a whirlwind it can’t comprehend nor escape from as all the birds in town fall dead from the sky, a murderer makes his way through the town’s women and the children all find their way in the dead of night to the seashore where one by one they wade in past their ability to return.

The scope of what Straub pulled off with this novel left me astounded and humbled with each page. It’s not enough his prose is simply perfect, but the plot he’s created, the characters and the town inside FLOATING DRAGON were nothing short of the work of a master. Straub was 39 when FLOATING DRAGON was published. I’ll be 39 later this year. What the hell have I been doing with my life?

Straub didn’t just pick his four focus characters and tell their story exclusively, he really took great pains to tell the story of Hampstead, Connecticut as a whole, and that’s a feat and a half. It seems with every book I read, his skill just stands out more and more and I’m once again in awe of what he is able to accomplish. His mastery of the language is unmatched.

It wouldn’t be out of the question to say Straub might just be the best American writer working today.

It’s not just that his plots work, or that he hits upon the occasional phrase that makes a reader take notice. It’s more than that. His prose is flawless. I have never found myself mentally editing a Peter Straub novel as I read it, nor have I ever found myself stuck in the mire of some scene that seemed like it would never end and the characters hadn’t done anything in 40 pages. I don’t have to worry about Straub’s characters coming onscreen just long enough to utter some witticism to get my notice before then being flattened by a semi on the highway in the next scene. Though the cast of FLOATING DRAGON was pretty immense, none of them felt like walk-ons, each character was given the time and space to grow and really inhabit their part of the story.

Nearing the end of the book, I kept having that feeling of familiarity, but I couldn’t place what it was until I was almost at the last page, and then it hit me: the feeling I was having was similar to the end of Stephen King’s IT, which just proved, to me, how much of an influence this novel had to have been on King’s work around this time. If you think about it, the end of IT (and I don’t mean the actual climax, I mean the feelings evoked in and for the character at the end, but, yes, also I suppose the battle felt similar, too) is reminiscent of FLOATING DRAGON. King’s next novel was THE EYES OF THE DRAGON, which was dedicated in part to Straub’s son. King’s next novel was THE TOMMYKNOCKERS, which made a direct reference to FLOATING DRAGON. I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only one who dug this book. It really is awesome.

I loved the feeling of completeness in this novel. I loved getting to know and care about the characters. I loved how real the setting became to me. Once again, a Straub novel has left me pleased to be a reader. This is exactly the experience that reading a novel should give me.
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Dec 15, 2009 Paul Dinger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was a really good potboiler. The biggest fault that I can see past the static characters is the confusing dragon itself. I don't think Straub really knows what caused this horror and his caricature of military and police types clashing has a real satric thrill that should have been developed. But it was still a good read. I read reviews here comparing it to Stephen King's It (which is probably the other way around considering It was written later) and The Tailsiman. I think Straub is in anoth...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Maciek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-in-paperback, owned-books, horror, big-tomes, read-in-2011, classic-horror

After the success of Ghost Story and Shadowland, Peter Straub wanted to try his strenght in tales that do not involve anything supernatural. Floating Dragon, published in 1983, was to be his final horror novel for a long time - till the 1999 return to the genre with Mr X.

As a novel, Floating Dragon operates on the ever familiar canvas of "horror in a small town", popularized in the 70's by Salem's Lot. While Salem's Lot was lean, swift and fast-paced, Straub's novel is much longer, much more com...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Jill rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I seldom read horror/fantasy or whatever you call this genre and now I know why. This book, which started out pretty well, lost me about five chapters in and I started to think that it was just rather silly. Bad things happen in a small town and are linked to a noxious gas that escaped from a laboratory and to the "dragon", an evil entity from the past. The police are of the worst stereotype, and the story is full of characters that range from wife beaters to old, washed up writers to a child wi...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Thierry Nguyen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Decent horror book. It's somewhat like It, in that it deals with a group of distinct individuals dealing with an age-old menace in a small town -- it has a bit of The Mist thrown in (where a government entity has an accident that contributes to the mayhem). The ending feels a bit rushed and WTF (especially the singing part), but the way that Hampstead gets crazier and crazier, and the revelation behind Gideon Winter, was pretty good. Though, perhaps it's an artifact of age, as I recently read Be...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Tim Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, reviewed

_Floating Dragon_ by Peter Straub introduces the reader to a seemingly normal town in Connecticut, the town of Hampstead, a New York City bedroom community. It has everything a town of the time (the book is set in 1980) might have, including a bustling main street, a commuter train station, a small town police department, restaurants, a movie theater, tennis courts, a golf course, and a nice swimming beach. Oh, and a buried, ancient evil that periodically emerges and nearly destroys the town eve...more _Floating Dragon_ by Peter Straub introduces the reader to a seemingly normal town in Connecticut, the town of Hampstead, a New York City bedroom community. It has everything a town of the time (the book is set in 1980) might have, including a bustling main street, a commuter train station, a small town police department, restaurants, a movie theater, tennis courts, a golf course, and a nice swimming beach. Oh, and a buried, ancient evil that periodically emerges and nearly destroys the town every 10 to 30 years. No place is perfect I guess.

Being a horror novel, things get pretty bad fairly quickly in the town, though most of the residents are slow to catch on and in denial when they start to notice things. In addition to the signs of an incipient, ancient evil rising once more, one dating back to the town's 17th century origins, a Department of Defense experiment goes awry, leaking a sometimes deadly but mostly hallucinogenic nerve gas into the community, a disaster that is kept quiet for a disastrously long length of time. Naturally, this gas makes it hard to parse the hallucinations from the supernatural evil. Are those real hordes of creeping red spiders coming down that wall, or it is a hallucination? Or does it really even matter?

This ancient evil capitalizes on the DOD disaster (apparently, though the evil being, while very intelligent, is not really given any point of view chapters, quite a shame) and it falls upon an unlikely quartet of people to oppose this creature, all of them descendents of townsfolk who help found the town and bested the evil when it first appeared in the 1600s. Graham Williams, an older gentlemen, writer, once an alcoholic and nearly blacklisted as a communist sympathizer in the 1950s, a man who has fought this evil once before. Patsy McCloud, a sweet woman trapped in an abusive marriage, perhaps possessing incredible hidden powers. Tabby Smithfield, a good-natured, shy teen who has bounced from home to home, state to state, with his alcoholic father who just barely manages to stay out of jail. Richard Allbee, returned with his wife Laura from living in London, hoping to continue his successful antique home restoration business and escape the long shadows of his years as a child actor on a popular sitcom.

I know this book is well loved by many fans and is considered a classic (why I read it to begin with). I really wanted to love it, hoping maybe it was something comparable to Lovecraft at his best.

I liked some aspects of it quite a bit, the small town, real feel of the city before evil started to consume it, some of the compelling secondary characters (nearly of all of which meet untimely demises), and I liked the four main characters and their final confrontation with evil. I enjoy books set in seemingly normal settings, the suburbs, areas I am quite familiar with, focusing on people dealing with something extraordinary, whether it is the apparent end of the world (_Spin_ by Robert Charles Wilson to an extent), an entire town being ripped to an alternate universe (_Mysterium_ also by Wilson), or the existence of faeries (_Songs of Earth and Power_ by Greg Bear).

The evil to me seemed very random though. I know part of that was the result of the nerve gas, but it seemed almost arbitrary at times. Sometimes a vision of something was just that, a vision, but other times it was quite real, and it was hard to distinguish what was occurring much of the time. Townspeople became compelled to do awful things to themselves and others but was that the fault of the ancient evil or the gas? Or I guess one might ask the question again, does it matter.

The exact nature of the ancient evil, while named and depicted, was never fully explained to me why it was evil, at least to my satisfaction. Also, while I liked the final confrontation scene with it, some aspects of that were hard to completely understand.

The book had a slow pace at times, though it did allow for some good character development of the four principal protagonists, and the opening chapter was very confusing, a disjointed jumble of flashbacks and vignettes of various characters' lives from different points in the town's history, though thankfully that writing style doesn't last very long.

Overall it certainly wasn't a bad book, though I think it could have used some changes. I think the book might do better in a more visual medium perhaps, maybe as a graphic novel or movie. (less)

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Jan 19, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I'm sure there are those who will disagree strenuously with me on what I think about this book.

*************************Some Minor Spoilers Below *********************

I had just read Ghost Story and found it original, frightening, and enjoyable...so I picked this one up in paperback. It's the book that put me off Peter Straub for years. I won't go into great detail here, but frankly instead of frightening I found this one while at times disgusting also to be almost silly. The pathetic pervert tu...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Marcus Trimpin rated it 5 of 5 stars

The only book that ever actually scared the s*** out of me. I am an avid fan of horror fiction but no other book, even other Straubs even came close to the visceral reaction that I had to this one. It very well may be that, as an avid cyclist that lived several towns away from the the town of "Hampstead, CT" (Wilton, CT), I could picture events in nearly every locale in this book as if I were there. But who's toe say? An engaging read and highly recommended.

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May 20, 2011 Conor rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At some level it's hard to give this book one star, since by using a plot line that's almost a mirror of King's It, and by mixing it with the premise below, Straub was able to milk almost seven hundred pages out of this.

But wait! The premise: Small, wealthy east coast town saved by battered woman and man with glowing phallic symbol before it's destroyed by evil-cloud-controled-reptilian-gynocologist.

Ok, maybe it's not so hard to give this one star.

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Jul 05, 2009 Steven Kent rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a long book and I ABSOLUTELY hung of every word on every page until the last few pages--which disappointed me so badly I stopped reading.

I give the first 610 pages five stars. If you read it and find your opinion slipping toward the end, stop reading and savor the first 98 percent.

BTW, and I am not exaggerating... there was a violent scene in this novel that was so brilliantly written I felt faint after reading it.

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May 13, 2012 Isadora Wagner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, gothic, classics

AMAZING! What Peter Straub did for a a well-to-do Connecticut town, the imagery, the imagination, the horror, the sheer playfulness--this will go down as a classic of our age. A truly modern gothic classic, if such could be said. Worthy of N. Hawthorne, the best of S.King..these were about the only two I could compare this to...On my best favorite horror story list. I also highly recommend A Ghost Story.

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Oct 15, 2011 Del de la Mare rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After a bit of a slow start I really got into this book. I found the beginning a little fragmented, a bit disjointed but it soon began to really warm up. Unlike some other reviews I've read here I also enjoyed the ending, it seemed to 'fit'.
How much of the story was down to DRG and how much to the 'dragon' if any?
I especially enjoyed the final scenes describing the encounter with Gideon Winter/The Dragon and couldn't put the book down till I had finished.
Will definitely be reading more Peter St...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Cristobal rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book I probably would have liked a lot had I read it fifteen years or so ago. Thankfully though, I’ve read a lot more things from many different authors since then and now, it feels like a lame dated story with bad and predictible dialog from uninteresting characters with a corny outcome.

So no, I can’t say that I liked this book very much.

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Mar 10, 2010 L rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

I can't believe it. I'm near the end, within 40 pages of some sort of conclusion. And I just don't care enough about the story to finish. That could be because what story there was faded some many pages ago, giving way to Straub's efforts to just pile more and more nasty on top of nasty. I suppose it's horror, in the sense of being too gross to read. But in the sense of being scary or suspenseful? Nope. Just gross. So I quit, within sight of the finish line. Bummer. Two stars because it was good...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of horror books

Shelves: horror, science-fiction, thriller

This is one of those books that you will never forget. Peter Straub is Clive Barker's equal in creating nauseating and horrible creatures. Have a gun handy and check under your bed every few minutes to make sure you're still safe. If books like this bother you, don't read this one! A fabulous and delicious book!

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Feb 24, 2010 ♥ Marlene♥ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror

This book to me ages to read. Did not think it was that good as some of the amazon reviewers say it is. From the beginning I thought it was confusing, too many people, to many time jumps, and later in the book I noticed another fault, too many plots.

It is not bad but I would not want to re-read this this in comparison with The Stand which i read so many times.

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Dec 27, 2010 Matt rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i'm sure straub is good - i've read collaborations of his and he's sold a bunch. but this was my first (and last?) book of his i read. i remember liking parts, maybe even most, but by the end my only thought was "WTF?" - not in a shocked way, but it just got ridiculously bad

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Oct 26, 2011 Tanvir Muntasim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As horror novels go, it was quite long, somehow emulating King's tome sizes, but I found it quite interesting, and this is the first solo Straub book that I read, which encouraged me to try out others by him, and so far, I haven't been disappointed.

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May 12, 2013 Amanda Raby marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: soon-next

Just began reading this and from what I have heard it is right up my alley ! Thanks to my awesome aunt for lending me STACKS upon STACKS of her old literature! I suppose these will keep my quite a busy, little, bee for a while !<3 yay

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Sep 07, 2012 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Peter Straub is one of my favorite horror authors. His stories are truly terrifying and suspenseful, building some fantasy elements in modern life that flows into such a dark, twisted tale. Floating Dragon is one of them.

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Aug 03, 2011 John added it · review of another edition

After reading his collaboration with King in "The Talisman", a natural transition occurred to read some of his books. HUGE read and there are two scenes in this book that are the creepiest things I have ever read.

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Mar 02, 2009 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was enjoyable. It definitely dragged in some parts (especially toward the end), but on the whole was a good read. Similar to "The Stand" in many ways; it was also fun to find the Talisman/Black House references.

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Aug 20, 2011 Grey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very innovative idea, well-described. Captivating until near the climax, then for some reason seemed to drag. Maybe too many words by that point. But a very worth-while read in any event.

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Sep 15, 2012 Fishface rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An all-time favorite. So many things going on at once, and all of them terrible. It's like the dream of, seeing Grosse Pointe visited by plague.

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About Peter Straub

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. The salesman wanted him to become an athlete, the nurse thought he would do well as either a doctor or a Lutheran minister, but all he wanted to do was to learn to read.

When kindergarten turned out to be a stupefyingly banal disappointment devoted to cutting animal shapes out of heavy...more Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. The salesman wanted him to become an athlete, the nurse thought he would do well as either a doctor or a Lutheran minister, but all he wanted to do was to learn to read.

When kindergarten turned out to be a stupefyingly banal disappointment devoted to cutting animal shapes out of heavy colored paper, he took matters into his own hands and taught himself to read by memorizing his comic books and reciting them over and over to other neighborhood children on the front steps until he could recognize the words. Therefore, when he finally got to first grade to find everyone else laboring over the imbecile adventures of Dick, Jane and Spot (“See Spot run. See, see, see,”), he ransacked the library in search of pirates, soldiers, detectives, spies, criminals, and other colorful souls, Soon he had earned a reputation as an ace storyteller, in demand around campfires and in back yards on summer evenings.

This career as the John Buchan to the first grade was interrupted by a collision between himself and an automobile which resulted in a classic near-death experience, many broken bones, surgical operations, a year out of school, a lengthy tenure in a wheelchair, and certain emotional quirks. Once back on his feet, he quickly acquired a severe stutter which plagued him into his twenties and now and then still puts in a nostalgic appearance, usually to the amusement of telephone operators and shop clerks. Because he had learned prematurely that the world was dangerous, he was jumpy, restless, hugely garrulous in spite of his stutter, physically uncomfortable and, at least until he began writing horror three decades later, prone to nightmares. Books took him out of himself, so he read even more than earlier, a youthful habit immeasurably valuable to any writer. And his storytelling, for in spite of everything he was still a sociable child with a lot of friends, took a turn toward the dark and the garish, toward the ghoulish and the violent. He found his first “effect” when he discovered that he could make this kind of thing funny.

As if scripted, the rest of life followed. He went on scholarship to Milwaukee Country Day School and was the darling of his English teachers. He discovered Thomas Wolfe and Jack Kerouac, patron saints of wounded and self-conscious adolescence, and also, blessedly, jazz music, which spoke of utterance beyond any constraint: passion and liberation in the form of speech on the far side of the verbal border. The alto saxophone player Paul Desmond, speaking in the voice of a witty and inspired angel, epitomized ideal expressiveness, Our boy still had no idea why inspired speech spoke best when it spoke in code, the simultaneous terror and ecstasy of his ancient trauma, as well as its lifelong (so far, anyhow) legacy of anger, being so deeply embedded in the self as to be imperceptible, Did he behave badly, now and then? Did he wish to shock, annoy, disturb, and provoke? Are you kidding? Did he also wish to excel, to keep panic and uncertainty at arm's length by good old main force effort? Make a guess. So here we have a pure but unsteady case of denial happily able to maintain itself through merciless effort. Booted along by invisible fears and horrors, this fellow was rewarded by wonderful grades and a vague sense of a mysterious but transcendent wholeness available through expression. He went to the University of Wisconsin and, after opening his eyes to the various joys of Henry James, William Carlos Williams, and the Texas blues-rocker Steve Miller, a great & joyous character who lived across the street, passed through essentially unchanged to emerge in 1965 with an honors degree in English, then an MA at Columbia a year later. He thought actual writing was probably beyond him even though actual writing was probably what he was best at - down crammed he many and many a book, stirred by(less)

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avg rating	preview: Floating Dragon Goodreads rating: 3.76 (4683 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1853610.Floating_Dragon?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1230573312l/1853610.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1853610.Floating_Dragon?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Floating Dragon by Peter Straub[/url]

Floating Dragon

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