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A review by justinkhchen
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher
5.0
5 stars
Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse + Iain Reid's I'm Thinking of Ending Things + Stanley Kubrick's The Shining = Herman Raucher's Maynard's House
This is the PERFECT psychological horror novel to read during winter. Without knowing much about it prior, (picked up on a whim through a discussion thread), I'm completely in awe at how atmospheric and effectively written this is. Released in 1980, I would consider this is a lost gem well worth rediscovering.
"His house, for some time, had been schizoid. By day it was as bright and inviting as a house could be—a Christmas card, a Robert Frost poem. But by night it was Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a foreboding thing of shapeless terrors and casual shadows, a cold place where no lantern lasted the night and no fire emanated any warmth."
Maynard's House manages to be unsettling, but still maintains a high level of levity, leaning too much one way would make it a bleak, dreary read, the other a comedic satire losing all its horror intensity. Referencing a wide spectrum of psychological condition (PTSD, cabin fever, and maybe actual supernatural manifestation), Herman Raucher purposefully sets up a regimented narrative structure (present time, flashback, dreamscape), and as the protagonist's mental stability deteriorates, the framework starts to lose its boundary, and elements gradually blend and encroach, until everything entangles into a singular madness—if you have seen Darren Aronofsky's film The Mother!, Maynard's House goes to a similar territory of sheer hysteria in its final act.
Another stroke of genius from Herman Raucher is making his deranged protagonist extremely sympathetic; while Austin Fletcher is clearly mentally unstable from the get-go, by giving his personality a sarcastic, self-aware edge, the humor helps humanizing his behavior (I can relate to his hilarious attempts (and failings) at being a woodsman), and providing an air of melancholy when the relatable anti-hero meets his demise.
There are not many horror novels I would consider re-read, but I'm happy to say Maynard's House is definitely a delightful outlier (I'm Thinking of Ending Things being another); thanks to its meticulous structure, imaginative writing, a strangely relatable protagonist, and a story rooted in the desire to belong.
Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse + Iain Reid's I'm Thinking of Ending Things + Stanley Kubrick's The Shining = Herman Raucher's Maynard's House
This is the PERFECT psychological horror novel to read during winter. Without knowing much about it prior, (picked up on a whim through a discussion thread), I'm completely in awe at how atmospheric and effectively written this is. Released in 1980, I would consider this is a lost gem well worth rediscovering.
"His house, for some time, had been schizoid. By day it was as bright and inviting as a house could be—a Christmas card, a Robert Frost poem. But by night it was Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a foreboding thing of shapeless terrors and casual shadows, a cold place where no lantern lasted the night and no fire emanated any warmth."
Maynard's House manages to be unsettling, but still maintains a high level of levity, leaning too much one way would make it a bleak, dreary read, the other a comedic satire losing all its horror intensity. Referencing a wide spectrum of psychological condition (PTSD, cabin fever, and maybe actual supernatural manifestation), Herman Raucher purposefully sets up a regimented narrative structure (present time, flashback, dreamscape), and as the protagonist's mental stability deteriorates, the framework starts to lose its boundary, and elements gradually blend and encroach, until everything entangles into a singular madness—if you have seen Darren Aronofsky's film The Mother!, Maynard's House goes to a similar territory of sheer hysteria in its final act.
Another stroke of genius from Herman Raucher is making his deranged protagonist extremely sympathetic; while Austin Fletcher is clearly mentally unstable from the get-go, by giving his personality a sarcastic, self-aware edge, the humor helps humanizing his behavior (I can relate to his hilarious attempts (and failings) at being a woodsman), and providing an air of melancholy when the relatable anti-hero meets his demise.
There are not many horror novels I would consider re-read, but I'm happy to say Maynard's House is definitely a delightful outlier (I'm Thinking of Ending Things being another); thanks to its meticulous structure, imaginative writing, a strangely relatable protagonist, and a story rooted in the desire to belong.