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A review by deadletterboy
A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by John Hornor Jacobs
5.0
'A Lush and Seething Hell' is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. John Hornor Jacobs has gone and stretched what most of us think of as cosmic horror. This is not the gooey tentacles of HP Lovecraft. Instead, we are grounded in a very human world, with just enough of the unknown creeping in at the edges. I agree with Chuck Wendig's introduction: it makes a writer want to give up.
I had an entire review typed, but sadly an errant slip of the finger deleted the entire thing. I'll try to recreate it as best I can.
The first of the two novellas, 'The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky,' is placed in a context most of us can relate to, something we read about daily in the newspaper. Isabel, an academic and refugee, meets Avendaño, a famous poet from her home country. Both fled when a dictator took over and began committing atrocities. However, when Avendaño returns home, he leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she discovers photographs of an ancient manuscript, one she, like Avendaño, can't help but begin to translate.
'Sea' deals mostly with very human types of horror. War, genocide, the terror of "disappearances"... these are all things humans can do to one another. There is something there, lurking just out of sight, but maybe it's not causing these things to happen. Maybe it's just taking advantage.
The second novella, 'My Heart Struck Sorrow,' is my favorite of the two. It travels in time, with Cromwell, a librarian for the Library of Congress, traveling to Louisiana to catalogue the estate of a woman who recently died, leaving her estate to the LoC. There, they discover a secret room containing strange recordings and the journal of a man, Parker, who had made them. Cromwell, recovering from a devastating tragedy of his own, pours himself into sorting out these records, containing music from folk musicians. But there might be something more on the records as well. One of the songs holds a horrifying secret.
I love music. I love folk music. And I absolutely love the idea of recording variations on songs, a kind of oral history. This one really stuck with me.
Some people may find these novellas frustrating. They don't give easy answers at the end. There are unanswered questions, and no easy "Cthulhu wuz here" written on the wall. They make one think. And they are beautiful and interesting, and I'm immensely glad to have read them.
I had an entire review typed, but sadly an errant slip of the finger deleted the entire thing. I'll try to recreate it as best I can.
The first of the two novellas, 'The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky,' is placed in a context most of us can relate to, something we read about daily in the newspaper. Isabel, an academic and refugee, meets Avendaño, a famous poet from her home country. Both fled when a dictator took over and began committing atrocities. However, when Avendaño returns home, he leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she discovers photographs of an ancient manuscript, one she, like Avendaño, can't help but begin to translate.
'Sea' deals mostly with very human types of horror. War, genocide, the terror of "disappearances"... these are all things humans can do to one another. There is something there, lurking just out of sight, but maybe it's not causing these things to happen. Maybe it's just taking advantage.
The second novella, 'My Heart Struck Sorrow,' is my favorite of the two. It travels in time, with Cromwell, a librarian for the Library of Congress, traveling to Louisiana to catalogue the estate of a woman who recently died, leaving her estate to the LoC. There, they discover a secret room containing strange recordings and the journal of a man, Parker, who had made them. Cromwell, recovering from a devastating tragedy of his own, pours himself into sorting out these records, containing music from folk musicians. But there might be something more on the records as well. One of the songs holds a horrifying secret.
I love music. I love folk music. And I absolutely love the idea of recording variations on songs, a kind of oral history. This one really stuck with me.
Some people may find these novellas frustrating. They don't give easy answers at the end. There are unanswered questions, and no easy "Cthulhu wuz here" written on the wall. They make one think. And they are beautiful and interesting, and I'm immensely glad to have read them.