tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post5987783855007647296..comments2023-09-13T10:48:58.940-07:00Comments on The Forbidden Books Group Presents, Necronomipod: The Lair of the Bookish Worm: Episode 49, Peter Straub's Lost, Boy Lost GirlNecronomipod@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18334862493870239161noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-7850605325459424622010-06-29T17:13:22.195-07:002010-06-29T17:13:22.195-07:00Peter Straub is interviewed at length, complete wi...Peter Straub is interviewed at length, complete with a discussion of <i>Lost Boy, Lost Girl,</i> on the Pod of Horror podcast, episode 60. Check it.Necronomipod@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18334862493870239161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-45545960065889517832010-06-22T19:45:54.538-07:002010-06-22T19:45:54.538-07:00Thanks for your insightful comments, Emphyrio. Sor...Thanks for your insightful comments, Emphyrio. Sorry to take so long to respond. <br /><br />Regarding your first comment: Tim Underhill is, to me, like Philip Roth's Zuckerman character, that is, just a way to insert a lightly fictionalized version of the author into the text. That narrator, like the author, is mostly there to tell the story and to have deep feelings about the events related. I pretty much buy the conceit, but I can see how you cannot.<br /><br />I agree about all the lovely parts of the book, and I did indeed find the lostboylostgirl Web site (a nice touch).<br /><br />I haven't read much of Straub's work, just _Shadowland_ (which I didn't much enjoy) and his books cowritten with Stephen King (didn't much care for the first but liked the second quite a bit). I hear that _Koko_ is the one to read, so I will. Later.<br /><br />Thanks again for your engagement, Emphyrio.Necronomipod@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18334862493870239161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-77976801106144114762010-04-08T15:53:55.255-07:002010-04-08T15:53:55.255-07:00This sent me back to Straub's "The Ghost ...This sent me back to Straub's "The Ghost Village," which is actually an exerpt from his novel <i>The Throat</i>, about Tim Underhills' hitch in 'Nam. It was in the anthology <i>The Mists from Beyond</i> (Roc books, 1995).<br /><br />In it, Underhill encounters the ghosts of dead comrades and Vietnamese children, an underground torture pit/altar to evil, madness and near-death.<br /><br />The guy ought to be so PTSD'd he sees agonized spirits in his cornflakes every morning.<br /><br />That's why I find his matter-of-fact authorly voice irksome.Emphyriohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07297822556240522301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-68272057635041922002010-04-05T23:54:53.042-07:002010-04-05T23:54:53.042-07:00Some nice things, since I'm being so cruel:
-...Some nice things, since I'm being so cruel:<br /><br />-the chapter where Tim and Philip tag along with their dad to his sketchy deals in bars, and hear his philosophy of women. <br /><br />-the description of Mark and Jimbo's perfect day before everything goes bad, particularly their joke about Eminem, which perfectly captured the joy of spontaneity.<br /><br />-Joseph Kalendar's habit (imitated by Ronnie) of turning his back to cameras, and to people. That's a tasty tidbit of creepiness.<br /><br />-you're right, there was plenty of local color. That's a big plus.<br /><br />-I liked the fact that Straub thanked his Visconti pens and Boorum & Peasse journals in Acknowledgements. It's a pleasure to think about a craftsman developing a fussy emotional attachment to his tools (and that he writes longhand, the old relic).Emphyriohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07297822556240522301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-58325317563260009122010-04-05T23:40:21.605-07:002010-04-05T23:40:21.605-07:00The other thing that bugged me about Tim Underhill...The other thing that bugged me about Tim Underhill was his affable, grounded, rationalist persona -- which in no way prepared us for his swift acceptance of the mystical denouement.<br /><br />Some expressed belief in ghosts and the afterlife early in the story, or (even better) a whiff of mental illness about Tim Underhill, would have made this go down more smoothly.<br /><br />By the way, the website with the elegiac movie of the ghostly couple is here: <a href="http://lostboylostgirl.com/" rel="nofollow">lostboylostgirl.com</a>Emphyriohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07297822556240522301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-31495328283372010342010-04-05T23:31:29.439-07:002010-04-05T23:31:29.439-07:00I had some raised expectations because an interest...I had some raised expectations because an interesting early scene. Tim Underhill sees a man run down by an antique car on the street below his hotel room window. Later, he realizes they're shooting a movie and nobody was hurt.<br /><br />This seemed like foreshadowing of a story which revisited events, shatteringly correcting misapprehensions.<br /><br />That can be pretty fun.<br /><br />However, while he revisited a couple of events from different viewpoints -- Nancy's funeral comes to mind -- it wasn't exactly Rashomon. No exploded assumptions, just a little more info about what the boys were thinking.<br /><br />That reminds me -- much was made of the sexual charisma of Jimbo's mother, and how she is nevertheless shunned at the funeral. Did I miss a payoff for this? All I recall of this subplot is Mark's embarrssing stiffie when he speaks with her in another scene.<br /><br />You tease, Mr. Straub.Emphyriohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07297822556240522301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2606699906808150572.post-60518193955951999202010-04-05T23:17:43.227-07:002010-04-05T23:17:43.227-07:00I was disappointed.
Biggest reason: Tim Underhill...I was disappointed.<br /><br />Biggest reason: Tim Underhill.<br /><br />Why is he telling this story? He has no great emotional stake in these events, though he likes his missing nephew well enough.<br /><br />He doesn't solve the mystery.<br /><br />He drops out of the story for all the important developments, which are conveyed in a third-person omniscient voice privy to Mark's experiences, thoughts and perceptions that Tim could never know.<br /><br />It's Mark's story. It should simply have been told that way. Promoting Tim as a viewpoint character was an unfortunate distraction; he added next to nothing -- not even, if you ask me, writerly eloquence (I thought that was Straub's strength. Where was it this time?). <br /><br />And since my browser's crashing tonight, I'll leave the rest of my gripes for later.Emphyriohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07297822556240522301noreply@blogger.com