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So far, this is one of those rare books that are composed of interlocking short stories where the conceit that ties them all together is actually appropriate and well-written, though clearly written as a binding agent. I'm curious to see how it holds up through the course of the book. Some people, I see in their reviews, don't think highly of it. For me, thus far, it's good enough.

I was listening to Black Sabbath's "Born Again" album while reading "The Lamia". The staccato, disjointed, yet strangely coherent narrative of the story fit the music rather well. Knights and demons and mistaken identities all a moil.

Interesting: Rackham's signature black trees might be the result of his living near a particularly storied set of dark trees near the house in which he was first raised.

Ah, a string of short stories composing a novel, a'la 1001 Nights (no pun intended). Much easier to read the post-apocalyptic threads than in The Purple Cloud.

Drool . . .

Though I get the feeling that if one were to get a tattoo of a Rackham illustration, it would hurt a LOT!

An intriguing, post-metafiction intro story. Fantastically well-written and atmospheric, with hints of disasters to come!

Boy, if I were to read my "Want to Read" books in the order I put them on that list, the front end of that would be a slog. There's a reason those long, difficult reads have been on the list longer than the shorter, more spritely reads!

I'm glad they included Frank Lloyd Wright in this. Too many art deco books miss him entirely.

I wouldn't have wanted to live in the 1920s or '30s, but the art and architecture of that period are sublime.

I do love a good metafiction!

Dimitri Chiparus' bronze and ivory statuettes are some of the most stunning sculptures I've ever seen. Now, if I only had 100,000 to blow on sculptures, I could get a couple. Maybe.

This is really slow going. I'm going to keep plodding for now, but if it doesn't get my interest further in . . . well, you know.

This is a sumptuous book. Beautiful photos and excellent contextual explanations. Goes hand-in-hand with (a href="https://forrestaguirre.blogspot.com/2... Van De Lemme's book on Art Deco.

Is there something about translating Spanish to English that lends itself to very short, matter of fact sentences? Honest question - I speak German and Swahili, not Spanish, so I don't know. So far, this novel is . . . sparse. Spartan, really. Which works for me some times and sometimes really doesn't. It's too early to tell yet.

I've liked Art Deco for a long, long time, but am somehow constantly amazed by the influence of the arts of Africa, Asia, and South and Central America on the art of that time. You can argue whether colonialism robbed the artistic traditions of these areas or paid homage to them, but you can't argue that European and American artists were not heavily influenced by those traditions at that time.

My, this is a very, very fast read!

The opening conceit is much like the movie Wake Wood. So much so, in fact, that I wonder if the direct didn't directly rip Starve Acre off without crediting Buckley.

An excellent look at Matisse's sculpture vis-a-vis his mentor, Rodin. I've seen Rodin's personal collection of bronzes, which were very different from his public marble works, and can see the seed of Matisse's ideas there. But Matisse infused motion into his sculpture in a way Rodin was only beginning to explore when he died. I have a newfound appreciation for Matisse's cleverness and ingenuity now.

There's something in the subtle way that Machen lays his tales out that allows for a "twist" ending that isn't a cheap-shot, like I find in many short stories (after having read so many). "Ritual" is no exception. It's microfiction, or close to it, so it relies on a twist at the end, but by the time you get there, you're like a frog that's been slowly brought to boil in horror. Your realization comes too late! Five *

"Change" is a fairy story, but not the nice kind of faeries. There is a sinister element of the tale that has, somehow, infiltrated society to a far deeper level than the reader or the narrator can even know. This hidden vein of darkness is what makes the tale so effective - you know something great and evil has spread far and wide, yet it springs up in unexpected places through seemingly innocent people. Five stars.

We start the meat of this book with the Vienna Secessionists and two of my favorite artists, Klimt and Schiele. This is auspicious, especially the photo of the House of the Vienna Secession, which I saw in person last summer and which is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever see. Figure painting is at the center of the movement, with an exaggerated focus on the inner person, rather than the mask.

"The Tree of Life" is the most Dickensanian of the stories in this volume, by far. Of course, Machen gives it his own bizarre twist, which takes it to the next level. It's a story that hides itself in layers until the very end, when the reader is left with the decision to laugh or to cry out in surprise and sadness "Oh no"! Either reaction is equally valid. This emotional knife's-edge is a great place for a reader.5*

I didn't realize this was an older book until now, because it has just been republished. Good. A new-to-me author, rediscovered!

You know, for a guy who banged a corpse (STRONGLY hinted at earlier in the novel), Adam Jeffson is a super-prude. Actually, he's a real douchebag of a man, when I give it half a thought. And probably sociopathic.

"N" is remarkable. A lost valley within London, a fae domain? The visions of madmen? Mere coincidences of hallucination? Machen doesn't tell. And by not telling, he tells! The beauty of the writing sets the baseline for this story, but the careful revelation of pieces of the puzzle allow for the missing shapes to be a sort of mirror of the reader's mind. What exactly was there, and what exactly happened? You know. 5*

Clodagh's replacement of the letter "r" with "l" is really quite annoying. I get that Shiel wants here to sound strange, but he could have done that using syntax that was a bit off, if he wasn't so lazy a writer. And, boy is the misogyny, condescension, and pedantry thick here.