"The House On The Brink" by John Gordon
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darkling_talesAny John Gordon fans in the haus? Pottering about in the Ghosts & Scholars Archives (repository of many an intriguing and out-of-the-way article on Jamesiana and supernatural fiction in general) I recently found a really good interview with the author by the knowledgeable Rosemary Pardoe. It was the first time I'd ever heard of Gordon, but from the interview he sounded fascinating: an author of 'young adult' fiction whose work spans four decades and draws comparisons with Alan Garner, who evinces a passion for M R James, the ancient East Anglian landscape and mystical and lyrical prose, while keeping attuned to the problems of young people in the present day. In fact, he sounded too good to be true, and some days later when I opened my hastily-ordered (and completely battered) copy of The House On The Brink I was almost expecting some level of disappointment.
And I must admit, Gordon's writing style wrong-footed me a bit at first. For a so-called 'young person's author' his prose is surprisingly dense and concise - the short choppy sentences are packed with meaning and on occasion Gordon's turn of phrase and choice of words favour the poetic over the crystal-clear. Pardoe may describe his work as 'Jamesian' in its preoccupations but the lilting, stately pace of many old supernatural stories is absent here and you do have to concentrate to get into Gordon's own rhythms. But even at the outset, the striking Fenland imagery forces the reader to commit to the book. It all begins with an imaginative young widow - said by some to be neurotic - who glimpses a strange, oily, black rolling figure in the water one day on a walk, which turns out to be a tree trunk. Or is it? Soon a couple of teenagers - Dick and his friend Helen - spot the log too, in different places, and sense a malign and long-buried force stirring in the sun-baked fens and overgrown hedgerows which they must try to stop.
There are undeniably strong Jamesian vibes, and the beautifully evoked landscape should be familiar from some of his best stories, like A Warning To The Curious. A large part of the mystery is centred around a real old English house - Peckover House, now open to the public - and Gordon, like James, is adept at using architecture as an integral part of the narrative. And if the linked article is anything to go by, fact and fiction blur rather eerily on the premises! The hauntings are well worthy of James, and one particular appearance of the log in an overgrown field is as hair-raising as anything 'Monty' ever did. But then there's also the 'young adult' angle. Here, Gordon has little to envy a Robert Westall or Garner even though his prose is less approachable at first. Dick is a supremely adolescent character, eternally restless, inquisitive, and a touch cocky, and his burgeoning romance with Helen is handled in a realistic manner. Though personally I was more intrigued by the pair's flexing of their fledgling psychic abilities - post-Buffy, you'd think a breeding pair of psychically inclined ghost-hunting teenagers would be about as appealing as a cup of cold sick, but in this case, it's not only bearable but interesting subject-matter. You get the feeling Gordon remembers what it was like to be a real teenager, and you can hardly believe The House On The Brink is over 40 years old, it hasn't dated a bit.
After finishing this book I spent several days mooning about wishing it hadn't ended, and I've just received a cargo of three other Gordon books! Though his most famous work seems to be his oldest (he rose to fame during the 'Puffin Plus' teen fiction boom of the late 70s and early 80s) you can pick up tonnes of his stuff in paperback form online. None of his books have cost me more than £0.50, so I would urge you to give The House On The Brink a whirl!
And I must admit, Gordon's writing style wrong-footed me a bit at first. For a so-called 'young person's author' his prose is surprisingly dense and concise - the short choppy sentences are packed with meaning and on occasion Gordon's turn of phrase and choice of words favour the poetic over the crystal-clear. Pardoe may describe his work as 'Jamesian' in its preoccupations but the lilting, stately pace of many old supernatural stories is absent here and you do have to concentrate to get into Gordon's own rhythms. But even at the outset, the striking Fenland imagery forces the reader to commit to the book. It all begins with an imaginative young widow - said by some to be neurotic - who glimpses a strange, oily, black rolling figure in the water one day on a walk, which turns out to be a tree trunk. Or is it? Soon a couple of teenagers - Dick and his friend Helen - spot the log too, in different places, and sense a malign and long-buried force stirring in the sun-baked fens and overgrown hedgerows which they must try to stop.
There are undeniably strong Jamesian vibes, and the beautifully evoked landscape should be familiar from some of his best stories, like A Warning To The Curious. A large part of the mystery is centred around a real old English house - Peckover House, now open to the public - and Gordon, like James, is adept at using architecture as an integral part of the narrative. And if the linked article is anything to go by, fact and fiction blur rather eerily on the premises! The hauntings are well worthy of James, and one particular appearance of the log in an overgrown field is as hair-raising as anything 'Monty' ever did. But then there's also the 'young adult' angle. Here, Gordon has little to envy a Robert Westall or Garner even though his prose is less approachable at first. Dick is a supremely adolescent character, eternally restless, inquisitive, and a touch cocky, and his burgeoning romance with Helen is handled in a realistic manner. Though personally I was more intrigued by the pair's flexing of their fledgling psychic abilities - post-Buffy, you'd think a breeding pair of psychically inclined ghost-hunting teenagers would be about as appealing as a cup of cold sick, but in this case, it's not only bearable but interesting subject-matter. You get the feeling Gordon remembers what it was like to be a real teenager, and you can hardly believe The House On The Brink is over 40 years old, it hasn't dated a bit.
After finishing this book I spent several days mooning about wishing it hadn't ended, and I've just received a cargo of three other Gordon books! Though his most famous work seems to be his oldest (he rose to fame during the 'Puffin Plus' teen fiction boom of the late 70s and early 80s) you can pick up tonnes of his stuff in paperback form online. None of his books have cost me more than £0.50, so I would urge you to give The House On The Brink a whirl!
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Date: 2012-05-10 01:27 pm (UTC)You also mention in passing another special feature- that this Jamesian tale mostly happens in the blazing sunshine... there's a bit of this in Amis's The Green Man, and it has an extraordinary effect there, too.
Thanks