Midwich Cuckoos and The Beast
One of the great strengths of Charles Lambert’s eerie, unsettling short novel is that he sets up an odd world, one which seems inherently plausible but he does not attempt to dot the is and cross the ts of logic. There is sufficient day to day, detailed reality to carry the fantastical elements, and the writing style, which eschews whimsy and the ethereal, rather serves to underline the strange normality of its weirdness. This means that the odd and the more usual versions of ‘reality’ sit alongside each other in a kind of delicious tension of opposition
Morgan Fletcher is the heavily disfigured scion of an extremely wealthy family, whose strange family business goes back for at least a couple of generations. The reader (and Morgan himself) is not quite sure what the family business was – some kind of world trade, as his grandfather amassed all sorts of strange travellers’ curios from far off lands.
Something has happened, some kind of breakdown in society, and Morgan lives in isolation. His wealth means there are various retainers and servants about the place, but no one sees Morgan except his housekeeper, Engel, who arrived some time ago. Outside the walls of Morgan’s empire, there were at some point violent encounters between citizens. We assume as a result of some kind of apocalyptic collapse of society. Various myths have probably circulated about Morgan’s terrible disfigurement, and it’s quite possible that everyone is as afraid of seeing the terribly damaged man as he is of being seen. So one myth which Lambert’s book is hinting at is ‘Beauty and the Beast’ – and of course, in the fairy tale, the Beast is actually possessed of far more beauty in his soul than most of the ‘unbeastly’, of unexceptional physiognomy. There are mismatches between the outward mask and the inner beings of many. And Morgan is clearly a good man. However, children begin to arrive at his domain, no one is quite sure from where, or indeed, why. And Morgan’s goodness is shown by the fact he gives them sanctuary. And, pleasingly, the mysterious children are not repelled or frightened by his damaged appearance. Instead, they trust him.
The children are not quite what they seem. They have some curious abilities – their ferocious intelligence, their speeded up development, for one thing. Another literary memory being used is John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos. The reader, like the children, like Morgan, begin slowly to become a little less sure of their own, or anyone else’s agenda. There is also a ‘good doctor’ who comes initially to take care of the children’s health, and a firm friendship develops between Morgan and Crane, as they try to understand where the children have come from, who they are, and what is the purpose which Morgan is playing out in their lives.
There are also sinister forces outside, figures of authority, who threaten the children.
Lambert’s great skill is to start his story in the sweet and light, and by increments to turn those lights down, to create shadows, twilights, rustlings, and slowly leave the reader feeling more and more unsettled and uneasy.
As others have noted, this book crosses genres – it is a literary fiction, post-apocalyptic, science fiction-ish horror fantasy thriller digging around in dark myths and imaginings.
And its knotted up genres are brilliantly woven together. Lambert leaves the reader (well, for sure he left this one) with the feeling that there are probably further allusions to be found. There is some very dark and shocking stuff – but the darker Lambert gets the more delicately and subtly he describes things. He understands that less is far, far more, he really does
it set me thinking about those books we were given to read as children, about travellers and shipwrecked sailors. How they found themselves in strange lands. magical lands where time went backwards or animals spoke their language. But they weren’t strange or magical to the people who lived there, were they? The people who lived there were normal. How formless it all is until an outsider gives it form
I recommend this strongly – and suggest it is best read when the nights are still quite long, for full uneasy hairs up the back of the neck effect!
I was very happy to receive this as an ARC, from the publishers, Aardvark, via NetGalley. This is the second book I’ve read from Aardvark – on this showing, a most interesting publisher, going outside the mainstream
I was alerted to this wonderfully satisfying and strange read by Fiction Fan. You can read her great review with unsettling graphics here
The Children’s Home Amazon UK
The Children’s Home Amazon USA
Oh, so glad you enjoyed it! Super review – yes, definite Wyndham undertones in there though not at all derivative. It’s so great to be able to read intelligent well-written sci-fi/horror, though a bit sad that when it is intelligent and well-written we all feel the need to lift it straight out of those genres! Great pic at the bottom – very appropriate. Where does it come from, do you know? (I don’t mean internet-wise – I mean, is it from a film?)
Ha! – that image, I have absolutely no idea – other than that it turned up on one page in a Czech site and another in a Polish site which seems to be involved in the far out side of spooky wooky woo and esoteric cultism. I was searching for photographs of figures hidden in mist, drifting landscapes and general terms of envionmental betwixt and betweens,
I think part of the challenge with Lambert’s book is that it does cross so many genres – or the genre is the subject, but the quality of the writing is literary. I think part of the problem I have with genre is that it can be a resting place for formulaic – and it can of course be a home for the brilliant. Whilst reading Lambert’s brilliant book I was unpleasantly reminded of a truly teeth achingly bad genre book covering much of this territory – gifted, strange children, children to perhaps be a little afraid of, post-apocalytptic scenario, on the borders of horror, suspense and SF – but it represented the worst excesses of all the formulas of those genres. Quite possibly both writers were influenced by Midwich cuckoos, but Lambert takes he own good writing and goes interesting places. The other was horror all right – a horror to read (a bad book club choice) Never mind, we had Philip K Dick The Man In The High Castle this month (review still to write, verdict : I loved it) And we seem to be litficcy next month, and possibly the month after, authors who write well.
Yes, ultimately it comes down to whether the author has anything worth saying and the ability to say it well. So often genre writing is derivative – some people seem to think that being able to write sentences makes you a writer. In fact, some of them don’t even think the whole sentence thing is important!!
Interesting about The Man in the High Castle. I was asked to review the audio version a few months back and couldn’t get into it at all. I’ll wait for your review and decide whether to have a go at the paper version – audios are so dependant on the quality of the narrator.
Yes, and the problem I find with listening to things being read that if your attention is not completely 100% there (possibly because you are listening whilst doing something else) you can miss quite a lot. Whereas it seems to me reading puts you much more in control, and if you realise you’ve missed something, much easier to go back. Of course, you may have lost trust in me, when you realise I’m mulling over the review I must do tomorrow, for HeavenAli’s Woolfalong, as she suggested Feb for either Mrs Dalloway or To The Lighthouse. Now I always loved Woolf, at TTL one of my favourites. Haven’t read it for 20 years, and I must say it was an utter, utter, rapturous delight to revisit it. I’m afraid I shall be at my most purple and ecstatically overwrought! She’s rather driven everyone else into the shade for a while.
Hehe! Really I could cut my TBR in half by just asking you to score through all the ones you like! I wouldn’t have minded Woolf so much if only she’d been as ecstatic about clarity of sentence structure as she was about everything else… 😉
We should probably avoid each other tomorrow then, ‘cos I think I’m going to return with a rip of someone else you like… *chuckles* Thank goodness for Patrick Flanery! Oh, by the way, did you spot the new Michelle Paver is on NG? I’ve requested but heard nothing – the publication date isn’t for ages yet, so I’m hoping that’s the reason. Sounds a bit like a re-run of the last one only in a different location…
Oh no……surely you aren’t going to diss Tana French???!!! Now I LOVE Woolf’s style. Painterly, musical, I think she does most interesting things with language. I will go and have a look re the Paver. I did read another of hers shortly after reading Dark Matter, and was a little disappointed. Good, but not a patch on DM
You’ll just have to check in tomorrow to find out…
Dreadful teasing woman that you are…………………
Great review – this sounds absolutely fascinating (but one I would probably need to read in daylight as I get easily spooked….)
Chocolate, warm weather and sunshine needed for you then. it IS a fascinating read
I really like the images you chose for this post – eerie and haunting. From what you say of the novel, perfect illustrations 🙂
Thank you Madame Bibi. I must admit the choosing of media for the blog is my very favourite part of blogging. Once I have put my thoughts in order, I like to find things which create the tone of my reading experience. So I WAS pleased with these ones, as looking at them reminded me of how that reading felt
now this is a genre I would normally never go near but this does sound tremendous. And I know someone in my family who will love this – so birthday present solved too
Oh excellent, I’m so pleased. I’ve never read any other Lambert, and am now interested to do so
I love the strange and unexpected when it’s coherent (in its own terms) and well-written. I’m not easily unsettled, but the darkness in this tale may get to me, which makes me even keener to read it.
As stated, one of the things i really appreciated about this one is that Lambert doesn’t overdo and overdescribe the ‘unsettle’ moments. And to my mind that rendered them far more unsettling than an excess of lurid description would have been
Great choice of images indeed and you make the story sound inviting even if hair raising! I’m really impressed with the titles Aardvark are putting out, some excellent choices!
Aren’t they an interesting publisher, Claire, I’m putting them on my ‘list’ of publishers worth watching. I’m so glad that Lambert sounds appealing and hope your enjoy the hair raising!
I’ll have to toss this one onto the pile. It sounds too intriguing to pass by. Perhaps because we’re swirling in fog tonight, I’m in the mood for something that will give me chills.
Oh hurrah! I’m doing well with you at the moment. I’ll probably lose my touch any time soon though…………………
This books seems like some of the others that you have reviewed recently that cut across fantasy, mystery and horror. Is this a trend in new books?
Interesting comment. I’m not sure, is the answer. I’m not really a genre (any genre) reader, but follow the writing itself. I suppose we use genre labels to try to give a flavour of the ‘about’.