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Lost Boy Lost Girl

by Peter Straub (Goodreads Author)

3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 · rating details · 2,083 ratings · 166 reviews

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son– fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill–vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother’s suicide, Mark...more

Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages

Published September 28th 2004 by Ballantine Books (first published 2003)

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The Definitive Horror Book List

93rd out of 637 books — 634 voters

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Bram Stoker Award Winners

24th out of 52 books — 81 voters

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Mar 25, 2013 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, horror, mystery-thriller, favorites

Peter Straub has a way with words. Some people don’t like that. “Too wordy”, they say. Well, I don’t share that sentiment. I could immerse myself in beautiful prose all day long, thank you very much.

Now.
lost boy lost girl
A review.

Yes I am here, yes I was real. You denied me.

This is one of the finest examples of literary horror I have ever read. I would like to emphasize that Peter Straub does.not.spoonfeed.his.readers. The “literary” bit is just as important here as the “horror” bit so an apprec...more

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Oct 12, 2007 Lara rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is the perfect illustration of why I don't read horror. The author has one mediocre idea, and forcibly bolsters it into a book with flat characters, wooden, implausible dialog and embarassing attempts at proving he did his research on youth culture by tossing in some skate shoe brand names. He's stingy with the "scary" parts, and if I want blood and gore I better stick with Palahniuk and Brite. I thought it might be fun to read something creepy for October, but I may not be finishing t...more

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Aug 13, 2007 John Wiswell rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Horror readers, crime readers, supernatural readers

The unsettling account of the connections between a suicide, a missing boy, a missing girl, a serial killer and a haunted house, Lost Boy Lost Girl is a strange amalgam of parts. Even its narrative is scattered for such a short book, with a heavy emphasis on the uncle of the missing boy. His presence is so dominant (despite him being removed from nearly all of the plot, mostly learning of events after they happen) that the more intimate perspectives that come later feel out of place. Straub summ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Jenn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: spring-challenge-2013, horror

Nancy Underhill was related to the Kalendar family, he got his wifr pregnant then said they lost the baby but instead kept her and abused her in the house. He killed many people in that house for there were secret passageways everywhere within the walls. The basement had an operating table a giant bed and 5 doors that led to unbelievable horror, scalps and blood everywhere. Mark and his friend Jimbo were in there and Mark got attached to the house and kept going back till one day he disappeared...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Melanie Lamaga rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, is part murder mystery, part ghost story and part family drama, with an unexpected, transcendent ending.

The story follows Tim Underhill, (a character from earlier novels by Straub), as he attempts to cope with a series of tragic, mysterious events afflicting the family of his dour brother, Phillip.

First is the seemingly inexplicable suicide of Nancy, Phillip’s wife. Next, their teenaged son, Mark, becomes obsessed with the abandoned hou...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-horror

For some reason I avoided Peter Straub like the plague until one day in my twenties whilst stuck in Penn Station I happened upon a copy of "Lost Boy Lost Girl" and out of desperation bought it. I have never looked back and as soon as I finished it I ran out and read everything else the man has written in something like a month.

"Lost Boy Lost Girl" is a ghost story but its also a story about surviving unspeakable loss.

Successful novelist Tim Underhill (a featured player in several of Straub's ot...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Shine rated it 4 of 5 stars

It was not scary at all. There's just this millionaire, Ronald Lloyd-Jones, who was obsessed with a serial killer named Joseph Kalendar and looked up to him so much that he kidnapped boys and tortured them in Kalendar's house since he bought the property after Kalendar left.

I think that we have to give credit for Mark and Jimbo for finding out what crept out Nancy Underhill that led to her suicide. Jimbo too for being a loyal friend to Mark even though he left Mark alone to his search for answer...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Bryce rated it 2 of 5 stars

Stephen King consistently recommends Peter Straub as one of the great horror writers of our time, so I've been meaning to sit down with one of his books for awhile. When King's cover blurb proclaimed "May be the best book of his career!" I figured Lost Boy Lost Girl was a good place to start. Unfortunately, I was completely underwhelmed.

It doesn't help that the premise is a muddled one: Famous writer Tim Underhill is called upon to help his brother investigate the disappearance of his nephew Mar...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Kathrina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: resources-for-adults, horror-thriller, american-fiction

Mark Underhill is a typical 15-year-old boy living with his mom and dad in a typical Midwest middle-class neighborhood. His dad is an emotionally distant public school vice principal and his enduring mom works the complaints desk at the gas company. Mark likes music, skateboarding, and hanging out with his best friend, Jimbo. But Mark’s regular life takes a turn when he discovers his mother has committed a gruesome suicide in their own bathtub. From this scene on, Straub’s story attempts to ter...more Mark Underhill is a typical 15-year-old boy living with his mom and dad in a typical Midwest middle-class neighborhood. His dad is an emotionally distant public school vice principal and his enduring mom works the complaints desk at the gas company. Mark likes music, skateboarding, and hanging out with his best friend, Jimbo. But Mark’s regular life takes a turn when he discovers his mother has committed a gruesome suicide in their own bathtub. From this scene on, Straub’s story attempts to terrify readers with supernatural mystique, combining a present-day string of teenage boy abductions with a decades-old backstory of a creepy modified home where lived a serial killing monster. Rape, torture, murder and ghosts all figure in, and Mark’s uncle, Tim, arrives on the scene to assist with narrating the story. Conveniently, Tim is a publishing horror author, so he’s apparently treading familiar ground...

I’ll admit now that this story really disappointed me. It started well -- the writing style had a certain sophistication I don’t often find in the mass market horror genre, and Straub wastes little time in preparing the setting and jumping to some action. But the plot construction was weak, some answers he gives up too easily and some he completely ignores, and the climax was overlong and unsatisfying. I’m not happy with his conclusion of Mark’s character -- without spoiling I can say that Mark has “disappeared”, but remains able to communicate (albeit elusively) with Tim via email, though he has no domain name to his e-address. This just bothered me all kinds of ways -- mostly because, upon entering this book I agreed to let Straub haunt me with ghosts and gross me out with maniac serial killers, but I did not agree to impossible technologies and emails from the afterlife. It felt like a breach of contract. I also have to point to the glaring lack of female characters -- the most robust one of three is a nympho-ghost, and the other dies on page one-- and the preponderance of misogynist males, not just the serial killers, that people this story. I’m guessing the reason we don’t really ever learn what happened to Mark is because he was the only likable character, and Straub knew he couldn’t get away with any bloody finality for that guy.

One-third through this book I thought I might get a genuine spook, but it didn’t pan out this time. Someday I’ll find a horror title that not only creeps me out throughout the read, but long after the last page, a story that doesn’t crumble in it’s resolution. One of the best I’ve found so far is John Dies at the End by David Wong. It’s certainly the scariest book I’ve read, and at the same time, amazingly, laugh-out-loud hilarious at the very same time. How does he do it?

I have a number of horror novels in my own collection -- of all the genres it is a perennial favorite I return to every fall for easy, creepy leisure reading. But I chose this one from the Coralville Library since I’d seen it mentioned several times in readers’ advisory materials, and I’ve been curious about Straub’s style, noting that he’s collaborated several times with Stephen King. I’m kind of King-ed out at this point in my life, and after this read I don’t expect to rush out for any King/Straub co-works. Perhaps a true crime reader with a soft-spot for the supernatural might enjoy this book, but don’t push it on your horror fans without fair warning. (less)

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Jan 14, 2009 Mark R. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Peter Straub's easy-to-read, fast-paced writing style makes this a pretty fun read. "Lost Boy Lost Girl" is a story that mashes together a few different staples of horror fiction, with ghosts, suicides, and serial killers all converging on one another, in a story that jumps between first- and third-person, past and present.

Parts of the novel are told from the point of view of Tim Underhill, the protagonist, a middle-aged novelist attempting to explain the disappearance of his fifteen-year-old ne...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Tee Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Peter Straub once again dazzles with this horror novel. Indeed, Straub has returned to the style that made him famous.

Anyway, this is a very complex literary novel, the type that begs for a second reading. Although this might throw some readers off, it is the literary complexity that draws me to Straub. The protagonist, Tim Underhill, we’ve met before. If you’re a fan, then you’ve also encountered Tom Pasmore, and the city of Millhaven; in lost boy lost girl we meet them all again.

The thing I fi...more

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May 21, 2011 S.A. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: worth-re-reading-each-year

This book is vastly underrated. It sat next to my bed for a year so I could read the last pages and feel inspired. Brilliant.

Best of all Peter signed my book at last year's Readercom. Yeah, I experienced a fan girl moment. Lovely.

UPDATE:

I just read it again this January. So, potent, so frightening, so wonderful.

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May 04, 2013 Megan rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wouldn't even really call this a horror. I'm pretty easily spooked but it didn't scare me at all! I kept waiting for something scary to happen but it never did.

I agree with other reviewers that the characters are pretty flat and its annoying that the two significant female characters are fridged (killed off solely to provide motivation and a plot point to male characters for non-comic book readers), one is literally a ghost who doesn't have any lines whatsoever but just provides a odd ending....more

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Apr 10, 2012 Suzi rated it 1 of 5 stars

I am currently taking a course that requires students to read one book from each literary genre. Recently, we began the Horror genre. I selected this book to read. I do not read horror novels often, but I have read a few and enjoyed them.

This book was neither scary nor suspenseful to me, so I was never able to become interested. I was also irritated by the poor and stereotypical portrayal of teen lingo. The odd insertions of the word "yo" in dialogue was annoying. Also, the emails shown in the b...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Zoe rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, print-books

What's not to like in this book? An all male cast filled with one dimensional stereotypes. A major failing of the Bechdel test. A serial killer sub-plot that goes nowhere. An evil house that does nothing. A story about evil where the only person who dies is a suicide, and that's on page one. A story about a ghost where the ghost who finally shows up just wants to have sex...but "off screen," of course. Wouldn't want anything to actually happen in this book, would we?

In a book of dull and offensi...more What's not to like in this book? An all male cast filled with one dimensional stereotypes. A major failing of the Bechdel test. A serial killer sub-plot that goes nowhere. An evil house that does nothing. A story about evil where the only person who dies is a suicide, and that's on page one. A story about a ghost where the ghost who finally shows up just wants to have sex...but "off screen," of course. Wouldn't want anything to actually happen in this book, would we?

In a book of dull and offensive characters, only Mark Underhill stands out as a decently memorable person. His uncle is a "famous writer," which means he needs no other personality traits, ever. His father Phillip is a walking steroetype of a racist and msyogonist who can't stop thinking of himself longer than five minutes. There's the stereotypical tough talking cop, the plot device super-private detective friend, in case Tim the famous writer needs an answer without actually performing any investigative work, the over confident but really stupid rich white male serial killer in his thirties, Mark's best buddy Jimbo, and Jimbo's equally annoying drunk dad, Jackie.

There are only two female characters who have more than a scene or two of dialogue, one of whom commits suicide, Mark's mother. She rarely talks in the flashbacks, and her presence in the book, even in flashbacks, serves no useful purpose. The other female bit character, Jimbo's mother, serves as a sex symbol for Mark, and a sidekick for grilling Jimbo with Tim. She coos and says nice things to Mark, and then when Tim needs Jimbo too talk, she wags her finger sternly and repeats the same lines over and over: "Now Jim, you tell Mr. Underhill everything you know!" But otherwise she stays barefoot and in the kitchen like a good little woman. There is also supposed to be a female ghost, but she is only mentioned in passing...having sex with one of the guys.

So Mark is the only reason to keep reading, simply because he's the only one presented with any personality and no negative stereotypes. In a book of assholes, he's the only who who doesn't stink. But that's really not saying much, and the story frequently proposes that Mark is a super-genius fifteen-year-old, and every cop who ever dealt with the house of a prior serial killer was retarded. And blind. And so is the current generation of cops as well. I frequently found myself snorting, rolling my eyes, or yelling "bullshit" at the sheer lack of logic in most every scene.

And the narration, oho ome-o my-o, what attempts at narrative emotions that pluck pluck pluck at the heart but fail to stir the organ itself. (And seriously, what did this guy's editor have against commas?) Like the sentence above, the narration FREQUENTLY tries over and over to be artsy, and instead it sucks up what little tension the book has left.

But then it never had much tension to begin with because nothing happens. What did happen is all narrated in the past tense in clinical terms. It's split between a third person narrator and Tim the famous writer's dull journal entries, and this whole story is relayed in such a jumbled way that there is never a sense of danger or dread.

The conclusion is a snoozer that frankly makes no sense. The killer claims to have been emulating The Dark Man to scare Mark, but that does not explain how he appeared in front of a cop and disappeared twice. The killer never mentions this either, so it feels like a loose thread that didn't get snipped out in editing.

This book was dull dull dull with a narrator oh me oh my who was oh-so-gosh darned irritating that I very much long to strangle him with typewriter ribbon. The only reasons I stuck with this story are that I liked Mark and I kept thinking "Any minute now, this is going to get scary." It never did. This book was a major disappointment. I give it 1 star, and I would not recommend it to anyone.(less)

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Nov 27, 2011 Emily Davidson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Okay,so I really don't know what to think about this book. The plot was very intricate, so points for that. And it kept moving, which kept me reading, but it took a little while for it to get going. At the end it seemed like there was some stuff that wasn't fully resolved. For example, does Mark really just vanish into some spirit world? I would have liked a tad bit more explanation on that front about how it happens. Or does he get killed? Or go crazy? And what about his mom's suicide? What was...more

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May 27, 2011 Andie Stockwell Johns rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adults-only, dark-fantasy, fiction, thriller, horror, bad-ending, shocking-disturbing

Picked this book up in the library because the title intrigued me and I had nothing with me to read. Couldn't put it down. A fascinating story with an intriguing and satisfying ending.

There are many disturbing elements to this story, but for me personally, that simply adds to the overall effect. I know some people who hate disturbing books to the point where they will throw the book out in the trash, and while I don't like seeing mistreated books like that, it's your book so whatever. That's fin...more Picked this book up in the library because the title intrigued me and I had nothing with me to read. Couldn't put it down. A fascinating story with an intriguing and satisfying ending.

There are many disturbing elements to this story, but for me personally, that simply adds to the overall effect. I know some people who hate disturbing books to the point where they will throw the book out in the trash, and while I don't like seeing mistreated books like that, it's your book so whatever. That's fine. But if you do like (or at least can tolerate) disturbing and sexual things, this is a great book.

There were a few things I didn't like about the book. The characters were relatively flat, which was a little disappointing as one of my favorite things about horror/thriller/disturbing stories is the characters' personal reactions to the things that happen to them. However, the small amount of depth they had was just enough to make this story enjoyable.

Also I didn't like the fact that (view spoiler)

The ending also seemed a bit weak. I don't understand why anything at the end happened. (view spoiler) Seriously, what the fuck? She sounds like a yandere psychobitch. Even if she was mentally the same age as her body, or even younger, nobody is that random. Total logical disconnect there.

That said, it was still an amazing book.
(less)

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Feb 17, 2013 Melody rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: blah, suspense-horror

2 1/2 stars....I'm not sure how I've never read one of Peter Straub's books before, since I grew up reading Stephen King. Well I have to say that I was just not that impressed.

Sure there are creepy parts and a little suspense, but there were a few times when I got confused because he flips the time line around a little. I also found the book sluggish until about 3/4 of the way in.

I also found that some of the dialogue between the 2 teenage boys was unnatural and forced. Teenage boys just don't...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Alazzar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’d never read a Peter Straub book before, but I’d always wanted to because I’d heard that Ghost Story was supposed to be pretty darn scary. The only problem with Ghost Story was that it was 567 pages, which is a whole different type of scary when you’ve got the reading speed of a brain-dead koala.

For me, 567 pages is an awfully big commitment to an author I’m not sure I’ll like. So when I went to the library recently and found myself in the Straub section, I pulled out the thinnest book of the...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

I can remember exactly where I was when I read THE TALISMAN and BLACK HOUSE, co-authored by Straub with the genius Stephen King. I was in my bed in my small apartment, too afraid to get up to go to the bathroom or to get a drink. My two cats were staring at me with even more disdain than usual...anyway, the tension Straub and King created in those books was only matched by descriptions of the kind of evil that makes you afraid to get out of bed. This book, however, simply wasn't scary. In the ha...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Shelley rated it 3 of 5 stars

There were parts I liked like how Straub creates a creepy tone from the get go reminding me a little of Bram Stoker"s Dracula' Guest (short story). There is an ominous sense of foreboding in the setting from the get-go. The novel was also framed in layers where the reader pulls back one layer only to find another waiting, building an eerie suspense. Well done. However, it was anticlimactic. I loved the ending but by the last layer, I was expecting more character definition and action in the anta...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Jenny Saul-avila rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had my heart in my throat for a good deal of this book. It is a mystery, it is a psychological thriller and it's a story about family and love of a child. I don't think I could read it now, as a mother, but when I read it a handful of years ago, I adored it and was thrilled to find out that there is a sequel.

If you wish to read this book, do NOT under any circumstances read any part of In the Night Room by Straub first - do not look at the back cover, because you never know what they'll put th...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The ebook version I read was 236 pages, so the story moved along rapidly. The notable events and discoveries jump back and forth in time, but the author does an admirable job at keeping you queued in to when the occurrences take place. I read this quickly since I wanted to see how it would conclude. I read the last 25% in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. :-)

As for the ending it did seem it bit abbreviated but on the other hand it answered most or all of the mysteries which is good.

I...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Kylene Nickerson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

I was hugely disappointed in this book. It is the story of a young teen that becomes obsessed with an empty house on the other side of the alley where he lives. It is a house that horrible murders took place many years prior. His mom knows the secret of the house and she ends of committing suicide and then the boy disappears. There is a serial killer on the loose and the assumption is he was now a victim of this man. There were parts of the story that were quite interesting but it did jump aroun...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Greg Schell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A quick and enjoyable read, with a bit of bitter aftertaste when it's all said and done. The story is engaging for most of the novel and there are parts that are genuinely scary, but it's wrapped up in a very unsatisfying way. On top of that, I couldn't help but think that parts of the story line were "borrowed ideas" from three of Orson Scott Card's stabs at the horror genre... "Treasure Box", "Homebody" and the wonderful "Lost Boys" all come to mind. Only difference being that Card's novels an...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Christa rated it 1 of 5 stars

The story seemed intriguing but I kept feeling like the author didn't give any credit to his readers. The reader is constantly being told things explicitly rather than letting anything be left to the imagination ["Jimbo hesitated, and now I know exactly why. He had to think about going further" (p. 224)].

Another annoyance is that the narrator switches even within a paragraph so the author can tell you exactly what every single person is thinking and feeling. "In Jimbo's frank stare, Tim could se...more The story seemed intriguing but I kept feeling like the author didn't give any credit to his readers. The reader is constantly being told things explicitly rather than letting anything be left to the imagination ["Jimbo hesitated, and now I know exactly why. He had to think about going further" (p. 224)].

Another annoyance is that the narrator switches even within a paragraph so the author can tell you exactly what every single person is thinking and feeling. "In Jimbo's frank stare, Tim could see that he was deciding to part with a share of his secret" (p.127) is an example of the author's indecisiveness regarding whose point of view we're getting. It's followed a few lines later by "A tremor like an electrical current moved through the boy's entire body," which seems like awfully intimate knowledge for the seeming perspective-holder, Tim, to have of the boy, Jimbo.

Aside from the constantly-changing, everyone-is-omniscient-sometimes narration, the actual descriptions of events were often heavy-handed. "He really was a natural comedian, and under other circumstances, this little performance would have made Tim laugh out loud. However, what he said in response took Tim completely by surprise" (p. 127). I get that the author is trying to add some depth to his characters, but it doesn't actually matter at all that he was a natural comedian, because it has nothing to do with the story. To me, this mention is the equivalent of the author saying, "The kid usually pooped in the morning, but today he pooped at 3 p.m. instead." It changes the tone of the paragraph, which the author then immediately (clumsily) attempts to reestablish by saying "what he said in response took Tim completely by surprise."

I understand the author is attempting to be evocative when he says things like, "After losing the yolky look of the afternoon, the sunlight had muted itself to a dispersed, fleeting shade of yellow that struck Mark Underhill with the force of a strong fragrance or a rich chord from a guitar" (p. 75), but it's obviously over the top, and to me, a distraction in the context of the rest of the language used. And following "struck" with "rich chord from a guitar" is... gross to me, but admittedly probably perfectly fine to other readers.

Anyway. I don't want to tear this book apart line-by-line. Parts of the book were intriguing, and part of the resolution of the mystery was satisfying, but overall the writing was so unrefined that I couldn't handle it. (less)

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Feb 11, 2011 Maciek rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, own-in-hardcover, read-in-2011

This is a short story that could have worked at 20-something page count, but instead was stretched to 300. The best thing about it was meeting the familiar characters from Koko, but that's pretty much it.
Lost Boy, Lost Girl is divided into three parts - presentation of the mystery and introduction of the characters and setting - the investigation - the conclusion. Narrated in the third person, the narration constantly switches between the characters and sometimes parts are relayed through one c...more

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Jun 28, 2009 William Herschel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-thriller

Lost Boy Lost Girl is my first book by this author. This would be my last but I'm going to give one of his other books a chance.

The first 30 pages of the book are very slow. And then it gets very confusing. Something will happen, and then something else will happen, and then it'll go back to the first thing that happened and write it over again in another character's perspective-- barely adding any new information to the story.

As you know from the description, Mark's mother commits suicide and t...more

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Jun 30, 2008 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who likes scary stories

Shelves: mystery-crime-fiction, sf-f, best-of-2008

What a great spooky story!
Writer Tim Underhill travels back to his small hometown, Millhaven, to attend his sister-in-law's funeral. While there, he learns that she committed suicide. He comforts his distant brother and his 15 year old nephew as best he can, then goes home. Shortly after returning to New York, Tim must again travel back to Millhaven because his nephew has disappeared. As he attempts to unravel the mysteries of his sister-in-law's suicide and his nephew's disappearance, Tim disco...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Kirsten rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-library, read-pre-12-07, fiction

Ok, so this is definitely a book that improves with re-reading. When I first read it, I only rated it three stars. This time, it blew me away! I had forgotten how creepy and atmospheric the novel is, particularly several scenes inside and abandoned (and possibly haunted) house. Last night I had to put it down to go to sleep during a particularly creepy bit, and I actually found myself turning off the light and then immediately pulling the covers over my head because I was feeling so spooked. Gav...more

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Andie Stockwell Johns Don't see how it's up to interpretation whether or not anything supernatural has happened. I mean Mark keeps seeing ghosts. The girl at the end whose...more
May 27, 2011 09:19am

Andie Stockwell Johns [[p.s. Rereading, that comment sounded a bit hostile. Sorry about that. I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, I just want to hear your view...more
May 27, 2011 09:19am

Kirsten *Warning to others: spoileriffic!*

If you think about it (and if you read the book "straight" without assuming that since it's by a horror author there...more
May 27, 2011 10:05am

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South Shore Readers: Discussion: Lost Boy Lost Girl	10	15	Nov 01, 2012 06:17pm

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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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