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The Red Tree

Caitlín R. Kiernan

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Mar 21, 2011 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror-and-dark-fiction, fiction

I have admired Caitlin Kiernan's short stories for some time now, so I was excited about finally getting to one of her novels. I wasn't disappointed. The Red Tree is a very ambitious effort, an accomplished metafiction that is certainly horrific, but also stands as a piece of literature. It's a damn shame the book is saddled with some of the worst, and most misleading, cover art I've seen in some time. (It's packaged as a YA novel, with a brooding goth chick on the front. If I were to rate this, I have admired Caitlin Kiernan's short stories for some time now, so I was excited about finally getting to one of her novels. I wasn't disappointed. The Red Tree is a very ambitious effort, an accomplished metafiction that is certainly horrific, but also stands as a piece of literature. It's a damn shame the book is saddled with some of the worst, and most misleading, cover art I've seen in some time. (It's packaged as a YA novel, with a brooding goth chick on the front. If I were to rate this, like a film, I would give it a NC-17.) The novel deserves better than that, and should be on the short shelf of genre fans, beside Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, Straub's Ghost Story (IMHO, RT is better), Arthur Machen's collected stories, Poe, and of course Lovecraft.

The story, a first person narrative, is about a middle aged writer, Sarah Crowe, who moves to rural Rhode Island after the death (a suicide) of her lover, Amanda. Sarah is suffering from writer's block, and a dwindling bank account. She sets up shop in a very old farm house, whose previous occupant, a teacher and writer from a nearby college, has committed suicide. As Sarah explores the house, she discovers the teacher's unfinished manuscript, a study on local folklore (very Blair Witch), with a particular focus on a supposedly haunted red oak tree which is about 70 yards from the house. Sarah is not a reliable narrator. What follows is a slow disintegration that is hardly detectable at first. Kieran's skill in unfolding this disintegration (which is incredibly sad) is about as nuanced as any I have read. In the field of horror, you can't help but be reminded of Jackson's Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House. But the echoes, or homages, are faint, since Kiernan is entirely her own writer, a true original. Her ability to integrate influences (and one major one here is Carrol's Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland) is astounding, leaving the reader wanting to look up the various influences for this fine novel. I'm reluctant to reveal much more. There are stories within stories, and you need to keep alert to the various clues. If you like your horror simple, with Good vs. Evil, with a Final Resolution, you will be disappointed. But if you like your reality blurred, and like to see an emphasis on atmosphere, then you should enjoy The Red Tree. Why this novel didn't win some sort of award (Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson), is beyond me. I've read enough within the genre to know this one is special. ...more

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