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darkling_talesHere is a quick review of The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker.
This book came to my attention via the famous film adaptation Hellraiser, which Barker directed himself. I love the film and have found it to repay multiple viewings, so when I got hold of Barker’s original novella I had high expectations of it. My hopes of a good read proved justified – though the plot was obviously no surprise to me, there was still much to enjoy in this unusual tale of Frank Cotton, a burnt-out sensualite whose attempts to invoke some priests from the occult Order Of The Gash lead him straight into the jaws of Hell, whence his old lover Julia strives to rescue him by any means necessary... The things I liked best about the film were amplified in the novel. The inscrutable, androgynous nature of the Cenobites, and the author’s obvious familiarity with deep spiritual suffering – the agonies of Frank as he waits in the Wall, and the despair that underpins Julia’s life and prompts her to view Frank’s return as her only hope in Hell, both ring true, almost too true for comfort in fact! And of course the medium of writing enables Barker to dwell on aspects of reality that the medium of film is unable to convey – smell, for instance (who’d have thought the Cenobites tried to hide their rotten-meat stench with the cloying scent of vanilla? And yet it seems so right!) and the almost imperceptible workings of the human heart. And of course there's plenty of blood and organ spillage to keep the ghoulish happy ;)
Barker is a good writer, and though The Hellbound Heart does not quite find him writing at his fluid technical best, his impressive leaps of imagination more than make up for any deficiencies in grammar and suchlike. In just over a hundred pages he has created a mythos that Lovecraft would be proud of. The novella is unafraid to be genuinely ambiguous (as opposed to merely coy, as is the case with many modern horror authors) – if the Cenobites are an enigma, the human characters can be pretty puzzling themselves, the tortures of their conditions traced with brushstrokes bold enough to bring the players in the drama to life, but delicate enough to leave the reader wanting more detail.
By and large, fans of the film should like the novel, and vice versa. The only character in the novella who differs significantly from her film incarnation is Kirsty – in Hellraiser she is a beautiful, soulful young woman with an ever-helpful boyfriend at her side, whereas in the novella she is a pale, frumpy presence whose relation to Julia’s husband Rory is unclear – she wants him to love her, but in what way? – and who appears totally alone in life, forever eclipsed by the charismatic Julia. Perhaps we can just put this down to the film industry’s need for good-looking heroines (though in the novella, if there is a heroine, it is Julia in my opinion.) The film actually has the edge on the book in one way: the portrayal of the house is very good in the film - when Julia and Rory take possession of the house where Frank spent his last days on earth, the defaced religious imagery, winding staircases, lack of daylight, filthy mattresses and piles of obscene photos build the house into a malign character in it's own right, whereas Barker overlooks all the rooms save the landing and attic in the novella. But the vibe of both works is very similar.
Anyway, I warmly recommend this book to anyone in need of a good concise journey through a dark and unusually visionary mind :)
Here is Clive Barker's official wepsite, from which it can be seen that he really loves himself. I don't blame him though, as quite apart from being a good writer and director he's also much hotter than most horror writers, even at his current advanced age ;) This transcript of a press conference featuring Barker and Ashley Laurence (Kirsty in the film) in honour of a recent screening of Hellraiser is quite funny and may be of special interest to devotees of the movie.
This book came to my attention via the famous film adaptation Hellraiser, which Barker directed himself. I love the film and have found it to repay multiple viewings, so when I got hold of Barker’s original novella I had high expectations of it. My hopes of a good read proved justified – though the plot was obviously no surprise to me, there was still much to enjoy in this unusual tale of Frank Cotton, a burnt-out sensualite whose attempts to invoke some priests from the occult Order Of The Gash lead him straight into the jaws of Hell, whence his old lover Julia strives to rescue him by any means necessary... The things I liked best about the film were amplified in the novel. The inscrutable, androgynous nature of the Cenobites, and the author’s obvious familiarity with deep spiritual suffering – the agonies of Frank as he waits in the Wall, and the despair that underpins Julia’s life and prompts her to view Frank’s return as her only hope in Hell, both ring true, almost too true for comfort in fact! And of course the medium of writing enables Barker to dwell on aspects of reality that the medium of film is unable to convey – smell, for instance (who’d have thought the Cenobites tried to hide their rotten-meat stench with the cloying scent of vanilla? And yet it seems so right!) and the almost imperceptible workings of the human heart. And of course there's plenty of blood and organ spillage to keep the ghoulish happy ;)
Barker is a good writer, and though The Hellbound Heart does not quite find him writing at his fluid technical best, his impressive leaps of imagination more than make up for any deficiencies in grammar and suchlike. In just over a hundred pages he has created a mythos that Lovecraft would be proud of. The novella is unafraid to be genuinely ambiguous (as opposed to merely coy, as is the case with many modern horror authors) – if the Cenobites are an enigma, the human characters can be pretty puzzling themselves, the tortures of their conditions traced with brushstrokes bold enough to bring the players in the drama to life, but delicate enough to leave the reader wanting more detail.
By and large, fans of the film should like the novel, and vice versa. The only character in the novella who differs significantly from her film incarnation is Kirsty – in Hellraiser she is a beautiful, soulful young woman with an ever-helpful boyfriend at her side, whereas in the novella she is a pale, frumpy presence whose relation to Julia’s husband Rory is unclear – she wants him to love her, but in what way? – and who appears totally alone in life, forever eclipsed by the charismatic Julia. Perhaps we can just put this down to the film industry’s need for good-looking heroines (though in the novella, if there is a heroine, it is Julia in my opinion.) The film actually has the edge on the book in one way: the portrayal of the house is very good in the film - when Julia and Rory take possession of the house where Frank spent his last days on earth, the defaced religious imagery, winding staircases, lack of daylight, filthy mattresses and piles of obscene photos build the house into a malign character in it's own right, whereas Barker overlooks all the rooms save the landing and attic in the novella. But the vibe of both works is very similar.
Anyway, I warmly recommend this book to anyone in need of a good concise journey through a dark and unusually visionary mind :)
Here is Clive Barker's official wepsite, from which it can be seen that he really loves himself. I don't blame him though, as quite apart from being a good writer and director he's also much hotter than most horror writers, even at his current advanced age ;) This transcript of a press conference featuring Barker and Ashley Laurence (Kirsty in the film) in honour of a recent screening of Hellraiser is quite funny and may be of special interest to devotees of the movie.
