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hux 's review for:
The Green Face
by Gustav Meyrink
This was both strange and creepy. I'm tempted to describe it is a horror novel but it goes beyond that and is more surreal and disturbing. It reminded me a little of 'The Tenant' by Torpor in the sense that it was just a little unnerving and obscure. Written at the height of the war in 1916, the book actually takes place after the war has ended and implies (quite correctly as it turns out) that the consequences of this war will change the world and lead to even greater upheaval. Especially, Meyrick predicts, for the Jews.
A man named Hauberisser lives in Amsterdam and visits a magic shop where he encounters a creepy old Jew who works there. As the book goes along, his friends and others have also seen this 'wandering' Jew either in paintings or in real life. He has a green, bronze face and seems to be neither a harbinger of good nor bad. What follows is Hauberisser trying to make sense of what he has seen and what it might mean. He returns to the magic shop only to discover that it has a new name and no-one knows anything about the Jewish bookkeeper. Meanwhile, Hauberisser has a friend named Pfeill who has friends who appear to be in a spiritualist cult. One of them is murdered by a Zulu warrior (did I mention there's a Zulu warrior?). Then he meets a woman called Eva who he instantly falls in love with (there follows a chapter where the Zulu warrior follows her and tries (via some African magic) to control and rape her). She then disappears. But reappears in a haze of fog and dies. I mean... it's all a bit weird and hard to explain. But it's good.
I enjoyed it a lot and was fascinated by the creepiness of it all. There are huge swathes of Jewish and Christian myth involved and, to be fair, those parts of the book were the only ones that I didn't care for. I find it hard to take religion seriously especially when it takes itself so seriously. Meyrink throws a lot of this stuff at the reader and talks about Elijah and Cabala and a bridge from this world to the world beyond. From a religious point of view it didn't interest me. But from a creepy novel point of view it was highly effective.
A strange and interesting book.
A man named Hauberisser lives in Amsterdam and visits a magic shop where he encounters a creepy old Jew who works there. As the book goes along, his friends and others have also seen this 'wandering' Jew either in paintings or in real life. He has a green, bronze face and seems to be neither a harbinger of good nor bad. What follows is Hauberisser trying to make sense of what he has seen and what it might mean. He returns to the magic shop only to discover that it has a new name and no-one knows anything about the Jewish bookkeeper. Meanwhile, Hauberisser has a friend named Pfeill who has friends who appear to be in a spiritualist cult. One of them is murdered by a Zulu warrior (did I mention there's a Zulu warrior?). Then he meets a woman called Eva who he instantly falls in love with (there follows a chapter where the Zulu warrior follows her and tries (via some African magic) to control and rape her). She then disappears. But reappears in a haze of fog and dies. I mean... it's all a bit weird and hard to explain. But it's good.
I enjoyed it a lot and was fascinated by the creepiness of it all. There are huge swathes of Jewish and Christian myth involved and, to be fair, those parts of the book were the only ones that I didn't care for. I find it hard to take religion seriously especially when it takes itself so seriously. Meyrink throws a lot of this stuff at the reader and talks about Elijah and Cabala and a bridge from this world to the world beyond. From a religious point of view it didn't interest me. But from a creepy novel point of view it was highly effective.
A strange and interesting book.