The Great and Secret Show

Product Information

The thing about Barker is his imagination is one of the most fecund of any writer in the world. What for some storytellers would be the premise of an entire book, film, or TV series, is, for Barker, just one small part of a macro-cosmic whole. The Great and Secret Show is divided into seven parts, and each feels unique. We move from a story of an insignificant but secretly corrupt man’s rise to demi-godhood through a discovery of the “secret world” around him, to a war between two evolved beings, to a tale of four virgins collectively assaulted by a force beyond their control, to the story of a quiet American town’s demise and lost dreams, to a Lovecraftian narrative of an impending confrontation with eldritch beings. Somehow, all are intimately connected. Barker has said in interviews that this novel was the hardest to write of all his books, I can appreciate this, he never gave up and I suppose there's loads of people out there who see this as a masterpiece; i can appreciate that too - but this one just isn't for me. Jo-Beth McGuire: She has always had an abnormally close relationship with her twin-brother, Tommy-Ray, but her love for Howie changes that, causing conflict and jealousy. Although Jaffe is the surrogate father of the siblings, she comes around to Fletcher’s and Howie’s side in the battle over the Art.

This book has divided critics for many years, and it’s easy to see why. It is both horror and epic fantasy and may displease fans of each. In some scenes, the metaphysical complexity of Barker’s ideas, and the sense of wonder and mystery he evokes are dazzling. In others, he gives us scenes of repulsive horror that yet are not easily quantifiable by any existing trope. These letters had been sent from coast to coast looking for someone to open them, and had found no takers. Finally they’d ended with him: with Randolph Erniest Jaffe, a balding nobody with ambitions never spoken and rage not expressed, whose little knife slit them, and little eyes scanned them, and who--sitting at his crossroads--began to see the private face of the nation. In December 2016, filmmaker Josh Boone announced that he is adapting the novel as a television series with co-writer Owen King. [2] Reception [ edit ] Howard Katz: After his mother Trudi dies in Chicago, he decides to go to Palamo Grove to discover the mysteries of his birth. There, he meets Jo-Beth and immediately falls in love with her. Because their surrogate fathers are enemies, their relationship is problematic. Whenever you start to feel a bit confused with this convoluted and brilliantly conceived plot, keep the following line in mind: ”Reason could be cruel; logic could be lunacy.”The novel is about the conflict between two highly evolved men – Randolph Jaffe and Richard Fletcher – over the mystical dream sea called Quiddity. Jaffe hopes to tap into Quiddity's power while Fletcher wants to prevent it from being tainted. The conflict between the two men spills into the real world in a decades-long feud, distorting reality and affecting the entire human race. The story is near impossible to explain without making it sound like a cliche, boring horror novel. Palomo Grove is a small California town where two ancient powers awaken, Jaffe and Fletcher. The Jaffe is an evil entity while Fletcher seems to be good. Their presence seems to be having a mysterious effect on the town and its residents. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-12-10 10:45:51 Boxid IA1998117 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

I could try to praise The Great and Secret Show for its merits, for the characteristics that endear it to other readers. Clive Barker brings an impressive imagination to the table. His credentials portray him as someone more in the “horror” camp of speculative fiction, and that’s borne out by the book—not horror in the nu-school sense of gore and death, but horror in the old-fashioned sense of dread, evil, and doom. Clive always had the coolest names of people, places and things in his books (too numerous to name!). Armageddon begins with a murder in the Dead Letter Office in Omaha. A lake that has never existed falls from the clouds over Palomo Grove, CA. Young passion blossoms, as the world withers with war. The Great and Secret Show has begun on the stage of the world. Soon the final curtain must fall.A gorgeous, sensuous dream of a novel that is, not surprisingly, about the stuff of dreams. Barker's signature wild mix of fantasy, sex and horror is on full display in this apocalyptic story as is his richly evocative prose. I lost myself in this story for hours on end and even ignored my dog's feeding time twice (sorry, Jake!). This is the kind of virtuoso performance I have come to expect from Barker (and what I expected, and didn't get, from The Scarlet Gospels). Jaffe is a man whose life is going nowhere. There is nothing special about him he is just an ordinary Joe that takes a dead end job at the Post Office. Jaffe’s supervisor assigns him the most boring job imaginable and tells him to sort through the dead letters. Jaffe ends up sitting in a room by himself, going through all of the undelivered mail and salvaging any important stuff, like money, before sending it to the furnace. If Jaffe does find anything ‘important’ then he has to split it with his supervisor. It turns out to be an interesting job for Jaffe and one that changes his life.

I even liked his children's book, The Thief of Always -- *True story: I once attended a Greek synagogue in San Francisco where Clive talked about everything under the sun, answering questions of all types, most by audience members. My two questions: 1. Are you a fan of Dario Argento? He said something to the affect of, "I like several of his films, but, not all." 2. Would you ever consider writing a children's book?" Clive looked surprised, and answered a bit bright-eyed, "Yes...in fact I'm working on one now", ending that answer with a kind of wistful, puzzled grin. --Maybe I was the first person to ever ask him that, I wonder? :D Behind everything — all of life and non-life — is Quiddity: a metaphysical dream-sea, a sort of collective consciousness that is accessible only thrice in life. Those moments are just after birth, while lying after sex for the first time with one’s true love, and, finally, after death. To access it is nearly impossible, divine; it is the Art. If that sounds heady and über philosophical, especially a dark fantasy/horror novel, it is. And in a lesser author’s hands it would fall apart; this is Clive Barker, however, so 1989’s The Great and Secret Show is a masterwork.In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.