Editor's Note: When I first spoke with Joe Hill in 2010 [link to MP3 file], I never actually put my review of the 'Horns' in the index and the review archive. Here's an edited version of that review, which is now in an archive version here; and in all the appropriate indexes.
It's funny to think of it, especially in the current religious climate, but the Devil is really an all-American figure — and often a hero. He — and it is inevitably a "he" — is certainly a common figure in our collective memory. We read about him in elementary school, in "The Devil and Daniel Webster." We encounter him again in high school and college, in the work of Bernard Malamud and Isaac Bashevis Singer. And all these are the just the academic exercises.
We actively seek out ol' Scratch whenever he gets a good airing. He was primal and utterly terrifying in 'The Exorcist.' Robert R. McCammon enlisted his help to bring about Armageddon in 'Swan Song' and Stephen King in 'The Stand.' Oh, the names are Legion, right? What's one more on the fire? In the case of 'Horns' (William Morrow / HarperCollins ; February 16, 2010 ; $23.99) by Joe Hill, he's the sort of man, or demon — whatever! -- you want on your side when the chips are down.
Hill doesn't mess around with his Devil. In an opening that reads like Kafka after a bender, protagonist Ig Perrish wakes up after a bad night — with horns. Three pages later, things start getting worse, much worse. And that's pretty hard for Ig, considering he was accused of raping and murdering the Love of His Life, only to be let off for lack of evidence — but not lack of suspicion. He's lived his life in the past year as a pariah. Now, he's grown horns. This cannot bode well — except for the reader.
'Horns' is a delightfully well-written and taut tale of internal terror. It is one thing to confront the devil. Perhaps your will might be tried, your morals might be tested, and your life might go to hell. It is another thing entirely to become the Devil, and that is the problem confronting Ig. These horns aren't just fashion-plate appliances. They're outliers of a Very Bad Thing, the externalization of a hellish internal landscape. Moreover, they seem have a bad influence on those around Ig. People tell him things, ugly things. Then there's the murder of his love, Merrin. It's never been solved other than by fingers pointed at Ig. If it were to be solved, that might not prove so beneficent to Ig's life as he would hope. Especially since he's sporting horns.
Hill does just about everything right in 'Horns.' The novel is cunningly architected, both in terms of plot and character. Hill knows how to use his supernatural tropes to chip away at chronology and re-arrange the story so that the who-done-it and the why-done-it are engagingly escalated. He's quite well aware that if he's going to wreak mayhem on the lives of these people, we'd better damn well care about them or we're just going to stop reading. He manages this through some effective rock-and-roll Americana, offering readers cringe-inducing breakup scenes counter-balanced with more visionary set-pieces of American Youth In Love. What's really interesting is that readers will speed through this mainstream fiction novella embedded in a horror novel, not realizing that they've jumped out of genre.
But then, all the way through, Hill manages to side-step the horror genre. That Kafkaesque kick-off leads Hill and readers down another path. 'Horns' is less of a horror novel and more of a Tall Tale — "Did you hear about that dude who turned into the Devil?" Sure you did. Came to a bad end, man. Took some others along for the ride. That's a ride to hell, readers will realize, and it's a fun one. Hill's Devil has more than a bit of Coyote going on, and not just the Wile E. variety, though you'll get that as well, anti-gravity and all. No matter how you tackle it, Hell is a long way down. You might as well enjoy the ride.
07-10-13:Helene Wecker Imports 'The Golem and the Jinni'
Supernatural History
It's easy to get so caught up in the tasks required to get through every day that you miss just how rich those days are. The details that comprise our lives overwhelm us, or fail to make an impression because their texture is so familiar as to make them all but invisible.
One of the many charms of 'The Golem and the Jinni' is that its richly retailed characters, natural and supernatural, and the historical setting take us far enough out of our own lives to let us see them anew when we reluctantly return. Close this book, and the magic within lingers.
Wecker's premise is admirably simple. In New York, in 1899, two very different supernatural creatures cross paths. A golem, created as a bride for an immigrant, comes ashore alone, where she eventually meets a Jinni, freed from captivity by an Syrian immigrant, polishing of course, an old brass bottle. Recognizing their supernatural similarity, they are more out cast than other immigrants and become friends. But their natures are not unknown to at leat some around them, and danger lurks everywhere.
If Wecker's premise is simple, here execution is anything but. From the first sentence, readers will find that Wecker's prose is an immersive pleasure to read. She builds New York at the turn of the twentieth century with a careful eye. 'The Golem and the Jinni' explores the different neighborhoods and boroughs with the perfect level of attention to detail. We're immersed, but unlike our own lives, we're not overwhelmed. Wecker gives us an appreciation of the grungy and the gorgeous, the language of living architecture and the lives within. The descriptions here are almost otherworldly, but grounded in a manner that makes the book feel like a memory.
Wecker's prose serves to create a large gallery of characters, and she manages to bring to life her supernatural beings with a care and intensity rarely realized in genre or literary fiction. The Golem (who does get a name) is a newborn creature but from the Old World, and though she is in some ways a child and child-like, there's a touch of ancient wisdom working in her being. The Jinni is ancient and impatient, more of a young man with a point to prove. Their ethnic origins are fascinating and Wecker offers enough to make them seem very real, but not so much as to derail the New York plotline. The rest of the characters are equally rich and fun to read about, and themselves build up the characters of the different boroughs and neighborhoods. There's a pointillist feeling to 'The Golem and the Jinni' that makes the book particularly immersive.
All this detail and immersion serve and well-designed plot. Wecker manages to keep the tension high, but not artificially so. As the paths of our protagonists cross and re-cross and the dangers to their existence increase, Wecker never overpowers her plot with either needless complications or unbelievable foes. For a book where the two main characters are supernatural creatures, she manages to easily avoid all the pitfalls of both genre fiction and literary fiction.
'The Golem and the Jinni' is the sort of book that you'll read all-too-quickly, slowing down as the end nears because you won't want to leave this world. The production values of the book are also superb; it has a great cover and the pages and design are reminiscent of a small-press limnited edition. Make sure you buy it in hardcover, as it is the sort of volume that you'll want to keep and truly enjoy reading. But when you do close the book, while the world inside may seem to end, you might just find it reborn as you look to the one around you, with a vision of magic and the details that comprise your life, now shimmering in eyes that have seen that magic from the inside.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
