The Pantomime

by Ralph Johnston

Trevor Trimble, ex-bodybuilder and recipient of someone else’s heart, has a dinner party to host and a big announcement to make. What’s more, tonight may be the last chance he gets to take the plunge and let his pragmatic young housemaid know how he truly feels about her. Keeping friends and family members fed and entertained is already a hard enough task, but the night takes a serious turn for the worse when an unfortunate mistake opens the door to a disturbing underworld that nobody wants to talk about or acknowledge. As the evening wears on, screams and histrionics take their toll on Trevor’s health and drive him ever deeper into the domain of the mysterious ‘snail man’ who lurks below.

160 pages, Paperback

Published February 8, 2017

Reviews

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pantomime by Ralph Johnston takes place during one day and evening, during which Trevor, the ex-body builder and now-heart-transplant-survivor, hopes to give his friends and family the big news: he will be moving on. Trevor's health is not in great shape, he has to take many pills that turn his pee strange colors, and the treadmill is more a torture than exercise. He is not the chiseled man he used to be. With the help of his amazing helper, Kelly, he organizes a party in the evening for his sister, who is very rich and has paid for everything Trevor owns, his neighbors, the wife a soon-to-be-ex-lover, and his former gym buddy, who has a surprise of his own to share with Trevor. And then the hunchback shows up at the door, who Trevor leads swiftly to the basement for the procurement of fillets of meat from live animals for the extra-fresh five course meal Trevor has planned for the dinner party. As the night goes on, things start to go wrong, confrontations take their toll, secrets are revealed, the child gets sicker and sicker, pigs try to fly, and Trevor's heart gets an undue workout trying to handle it all. His only hope, that Kelly will return in the evening to consider his invitation to make a new life together, seems dim.

The novel mostly takes place in dialog, which is mostly witty banter and ridiculous dinner party chatter, though later events in the story shed a different light on seemingly harmless conversations. There is a lot packed in the pages from adultery to illness to talking pigs. Taking a rather surreal and horrific turn toward the end, the story does realize it's horror potential; the lurking horrors from the basement finally catch up with Trevor in a way he never expected.

There are a few things that are never explained and were puzzling, like why Trevor was such an epicure, why he had to cook dinner as the party was ongoing, why he had to have the animals slaughtered during the dinner party and not before, why such obsessive and extreme measures for such a meal among friends and family. I also did not understand fully why everyone was so upset that Trevor decided not to serve the pork, having had much meat before. This was perhaps hinting at events to come or was meant to be allegorical, but even after I finished the book, I am not sure what it meant. Were they upset that he was skipping a meal and they would be hungry and would have to do something about it? Were they just trying to stress him out so he would be easier to deal with come the "last meal"? Lastly, I am not sure of Kelly's involvement in all of this. Was she aware of what was going to happen or is she poised to walk in on something horrific at the end?

Recommended for those who like pigs, dogs, blocked toilets and soundproof doors.

Thanks to the author and LibraryThing for a copy of the novel in exchange of my honest review. I enjoyed it!