20th Century Ghosts
by Joe Hill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joe HillEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-16
ISBN: 0061147982
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Product features:
- Joe Hill
- 20th Century Ghosts
- Stephen King's son
- John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children
- Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust
Book Reviews of 20th Century Ghosts
Book Review: An Interesting Mix
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm a pretty big fan of short stories. Instead of sitting down to a huge literary cake, short stories are a box of assorted chocolates that one can pick and choose from. You can eat just one at a time or gorge yourself - you've got options.
"20th Century Ghosts" quite a few tasty treats and no gross nougat center ones. (Though there were a couple of stories that I might liken to the type of chocolate one might eat and be OK with - but not be 100% sure what the filling was. Caramel, butter cream...? Without one of those handy charts, sometimes it's hard to tell.) OK - I'm done with the candy thing. Sorry.
"Best New Horror" was, if a bit predictable, wonderfully disgusting and chill inducing. Made me think of that episode of the X-Files, "Home", I think? Ruined Johnny Mathis songs for me. Very vivid - I could so clearly see the ending in my mind that I had to make sure that my husband and kids were nearby and looking just the way they should.
"Pop Art" is a sweet, sad story that I enjoyed a great deal, even if I felt like I was missing the main message of the piece. The humanity of the maybe not so human focus of the story was heartbreaking...and mirrors a small piece of the mina characters soul, one he keeps carefully hidden away.
"It is my belief that, as a rule, creatures of Happy's ilk - I am thinking here of canines and men both - more often run free than live caged, and it is in fact a world of mud and feces they desire, a world with no art in it, or anyone like him, a place where there is no talk of books or God or the worlds beyond this world, a place where the only communication is the hysterical barking of starving and hate-filled dogs."
I read this paragraph over and over - forgetting a moment about the rest of the story - and several people who receive far too much attention in our world today leapt to mind. As sad as it is, I could not agree more with the character/author.
"My Father's Mask"? CREEPY! And? In my head, takes place in the same cabin where Joe Hill's father's book "Gerald's Game" occurred. Only increasing the creepy factor.
This book is a very interesting mix of the creepy, gory, sad and thoughtful. A good example of the creepy/gory is this - in "You Will Hear the Locust Sing":
"He still wore his former skin like a coat, the skin of who he had been when he was human. Four of his six legs poked through rents in the damp, beige, pimpled, mole-studded, tragic, reeking cape of flesh." And later in this story, "The memory of that day in the dump made him a little sentimental for his father - they had had some good times together, and Buddy had made a decent meal in the end. Really, what else could you ask from a parent?"
So, add tragic-comic to that list as well.
I think, what will stay with me over time as I think of this book, is the thoughtful. The reflections on "What Is" among all the "What Ifs".
From "The Black Phone": "He did not sleep, he was not awake. Minutes did not pass, collecting into hours. There was no point in thinking about time in the old way. There was only one moment and then another moment, in a string of moments that went on in a quiet, deadly procession."
Among all the sweets, something to savor.
Sorry.
Summary of 20th Century Ghosts
Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .
Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .
John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .
Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of '77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .
The past isn't dead. It isn't even past. . . .
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