Take a photo of a barcode or cover
myweereads 's review for:
The Great and Secret Show
by Clive Barker
“Memory, prophecy and fantasy - the past, the present and the dreaming moment between - are all one country, living one immortal day. To know that is Wisdom. To use it is the Art.”
This story unfolds in the town of Paloma Grove, California. Here a lake which has never existed comes to be. It’s the start of Armageddon being fought through the children of Jaff a man-spirit obsessed with darkness and Fletcher a being of light. Both are wanting to possess “The Art” the greatest power known to mankind. Nightmares walk the streets and dreams are real in this Great And Secret Show.
What’s fascinating about how this book was written was that Barker was inspired by Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious. He believed it to be another world both strange to us filled with images remote from our domestic lives and closer than concrete reality in which we live because the door that leads to it lives inside us. This Barker called Quiddity. A place we visit three times in our lives. First when we are born, second when we lay with someone we love and third when we die. The three confrontations with the show of our dreams.
This is the basis and beginning of this story. It’s a dark fantasy masterpiece. Quiddity is in Paloma Grove and we witness the fight for “The Art” written in Barkers unique style. There are so many protagonists in this story but of course the evil one of all Jaff sticks out for me as he’s as evil as they can get. Monsters are unimaginable and are made from fear and dreams and actual shit 💩🙈
This novel is not for the easily offended as Barker does graphically bring to life events which are disturbing and the imagery of which is disgusting yet intimately and beautifully written.
I couldn’t put this book down. Reading it again after many years I picked up on things I had missed before and enjoyed this book. Full of dark disturbing imagery and twisted romance, The Great And Secret Show is a must read for every Barker fan 👍🏽
This story unfolds in the town of Paloma Grove, California. Here a lake which has never existed comes to be. It’s the start of Armageddon being fought through the children of Jaff a man-spirit obsessed with darkness and Fletcher a being of light. Both are wanting to possess “The Art” the greatest power known to mankind. Nightmares walk the streets and dreams are real in this Great And Secret Show.
What’s fascinating about how this book was written was that Barker was inspired by Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious. He believed it to be another world both strange to us filled with images remote from our domestic lives and closer than concrete reality in which we live because the door that leads to it lives inside us. This Barker called Quiddity. A place we visit three times in our lives. First when we are born, second when we lay with someone we love and third when we die. The three confrontations with the show of our dreams.
This is the basis and beginning of this story. It’s a dark fantasy masterpiece. Quiddity is in Paloma Grove and we witness the fight for “The Art” written in Barkers unique style. There are so many protagonists in this story but of course the evil one of all Jaff sticks out for me as he’s as evil as they can get. Monsters are unimaginable and are made from fear and dreams and actual shit 💩🙈
This novel is not for the easily offended as Barker does graphically bring to life events which are disturbing and the imagery of which is disgusting yet intimately and beautifully written.
I couldn’t put this book down. Reading it again after many years I picked up on things I had missed before and enjoyed this book. Full of dark disturbing imagery and twisted romance, The Great And Secret Show is a must read for every Barker fan 👍🏽