October 2021 monthly read (1 of 2): Ramsey Campbell's The Searching Dead

[Bill]

Please join us for one of our two October monthly reads: Ramsey Campbell's The Searching Dead.

A couple reviews:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
https://www.britishfantasysociety.org...

It's available in all formats. Let's start close to next weekend.

[mark]

I will be joining! Very enthused. I planned on reading a book this month by Campbell and here it is already picked out for me.

[Adriane]

I ordered my copy, which will be here on Oct 7th. Excited to read this one!

[Netanella]

It's been a whiles since I've read Ramsey Campbell. I'll be following along with the group.

[Dan]

I just obtained my copy and am looking forward to my first Ramsey Campbell read. I have certainly heard of him before, could have sworn I read something by him previously, but a careful search through My Books on GR and looking over his top 40 rated--man is he prolific--yields nothing. Well, I hope this is a good starting point for Campbell then, because here I go!

Wow! He wrote a novel based on a Howard character: Solomon Kane. If I like this one, that might be my next Campbell read.

[Dan]

Okay, almost ten percent of the way into what promises to be a fairly long novel and I'm really liking it. Other than the fact that the protagonist has a window view of a cemetary, there's no element of horror yet. I have no idea where it's going to come from.

I don't mind the slow start though because Campbell's writing style is so engaging. He makes reading him fun, easy to follow, and interesting. I wondered why this was. In part, I suppose it's because I can identify easily with the protagonist. At Dominic's age, or slightly younger, I too was attending a private Catholic school in an English town, albeit twenty years later than when this story is set, and well to the southeast of Liverpool. But Campbell really captures the atmosphere, the ambivalent feelings about wearing a school uniform--thank God mine wasn't solid green--ugghh, having to wear that tie and jumper (what Brits call a sweater) was bad enough.

I think the biggest part of what makes Campbell so readable is his use of first person simple past. I hadn't really thought of it before, but I suppose I like this form best. If one stops to think about it, this is the most natural form for a person to use. I mean, let's say it's Monday morning and we are having a chat with a friend in school and we ask him how his weekend went. How is he going to tell us? Well, he will use first person simple past and tell us only what he could possibly know. It's the format for listening to a story we're most naturally familiar with because we have been hearing and speaking it ourselves all of our lives. Why would any author ever use another way of relating a story than the most natural, familiar, and comfortable one?

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this particular story develops.

[mark]

I love your point about that being a very natural perspective to read. Hadn't thought of it that way before, but so true.

Looking forward to getting into this one! But it will be a couple days, at least.

[Dan]

This is one slow, if at points enjoyable, read.

[mark]

A little over 100 pages in and I'm enjoying it. I like the slow, thoughtful pace. The horror is only slighty rearing its head, but the moments in Mrs. Norris' home were genuinely creepy. Quite dismayed at the idea of leaving her dog alone in there with... whatever may be there. Doesn't quite sound like Mr. Norris!

I'm appreciating the view of a boys' private school that feels realistic. Not a wonderful experience for the boys but not an especially dreadful one either. Especially since the last book I read set in that milieu, Skippy Dies, was a wallow in misery porn. Campbell's depiction feels very real, especially in comparison to that terrible book.

[Dan]

I wonder if Ramsey Campbell really wanted to write a memoire of his school days in a private Catholic school, but was constrained by the fact he was a horror writer and so had to add that element. I am so far definitely getting the feel his primary purpose is to reminisce, a popular pasttime among the advanced in age.

I'm enjoying the book too for the most part. My very similar childhood experiences of private Catholic school in England were mixed not miserable either. Campbell does do a good job of conveying the fairly antagonistic and rather demanding attitude of staff to students. That's all too typicaI, I imagine. (view spoiler)[ I was sad that Mr. Noble lost his job because of student loose lips. He seems to be the only teacher who gives our protagonist Dominic an ounce of respect or is ever on his side to any extent. (hide spoiler)]

My one real frustration with the plot is how much adults are trying to hide facts from the children. It's good fodder for causing problems and advancing a plot, I suppose, but I find it implausible. Not every adult will level with a child, I grant, but I remember as a child always being able to find and trust at least a few who would tell me like it is. These guys have no one.

I'm really curious to see where the last third of this book goes.

[Netanella]

I'm rounding on to Chapter 5 and I'm enjoying the pace so far. I feel as if I've quite gotten into the narrator's head, and I'm interested in hearing more about what strange Mrs. Norris has to say about her husband. I have no personal experience with the schooling that Ramsey describes, but it does set a nostalgic atmosphere. Of course, there's also the fact that the narrator is looking back into his childhood, in the same way that Ramsey possibly was.

[Adriane]

mark wrote: "A little over 100 pages in and I'm enjoying it. I like the slow, thoughtful pace. The horror is only slightly rearing its head, but the moments in Mrs. Norris' home were genuinely creepy. Quite dism..."

I am approaching halfway, and I agree with you, slow-moving but enjoyable. I was also creeped out by all the passages with Mrs. Norris, and I love Mr. Noble and can't wait to find out more about him!

[Whitney]

I'm only 10% in, but really enjoying the journey. I don't find it slow; I think Campbell is in the Stephen King camp of "long novels that are 95% character development but fool you into thinking they are primarily horror novels."

The quote from Revelations of Gla'aki in the front of the book seems to be telegraphing a cosmic horror story (Gla'aki is Campbell's main contribution to the Lovecraft Mythos). Tiny Tina (view spoiler)[ yelling "star thing" (which Noble tries to pass off as "starling") pretty much seals the deal (hide spoiler)].

[Bill]

Please share Nov monthly read nominations here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Dan]

I finished the book and give it four stars, rounding up from three and a half. My spoiler free, I think, review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Bill]

Poll for November is up! Please vote by Fri 11/5.

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

If you vote for a book and it wins, you are committing to participate in the discussions.

[mark]

Finished the book today, really enjoyed it! It was fascinating seeing the threat at such a remove, despite the protagonist having a central role in pushing back on that threat. Haven't read many novels where so much is being observed and contemplated, rather than actually experienced. Although of course plenty of haunted experiences in the book. Looking forward to where this is all leading to in books 2 & 3.

Noble reminded me rather of the villain from Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Also interesting on a technical level how Campbell kept some of his more idiosyncratic prose stylings in check, in favor of capturing the realism of the milieu. No doubt due to the autobiographical, personal nature of the project.

[Bill]

Last call to vote in the poll to decide November's monthly book:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

The two leaders are neck and neck!