It is a collection full of short pithy and ironic pieces of sardonic humor and rye observations on the human condition. The shorter pieces that make up the bulk of the collection show the clear evolution towards what could be called the twin pinnacles of his fiction work A Dim-Remembered Story and The Night Ocean (well the one before and hte couple after are quite good to).

His work clearly shows the influence of CAS HPL and especially Dunsany

Most of the fiction is no more than a page or three long but Barlow manages to make his point with out the redundant fill often used to make up the word count and therefore profit he author.

Unfortunately he stopped writing fiction when he was just getting good.

Quote:

Edited by S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz and Douglas A.Anderson. October 2002.
ISBN 0967321549,. 209 pages. Paperback. $15.00
[www.hippocampuspress.com]

Boyd,
Right on target, sir. IMO "The Night Ocean" is a masterpiece. It is possible that Barlow could have been almost as good as HPL or CAS if he'd taken a different path.
Best,
Scott

I, too, regret that Barlow did not continue to develop in this vein. I have great admiration for Barlow's work, as well, although I have to demur a little regarding "The Night Ocean". It is superbly poetic, evocative, and atmospheric, but it also takes far too long to develop, and the "climax", such as it is, disappoints. My sense is that Barlow couldn't decide whether to make it a short story or a poem in prose, and the result suffers somewhat from this hesitancy. Of course, all this is merely my opinion, as well, and is also a minor quibble, as I love the tale, but the aspects I've noted are what would keep me from calling it a masterpiece. Joshi would also disagree with me, if I recall his comments from his HPL biograrphy correctly, although he seems there to advance the slightly peculiar (to me) idea that the vaguer the weird tale, the more "artistic" it is.

I've recently made my order; I shall get it within 3-4 weeks, tops. I'm looking forward to it.

*Author of Strange Gardens [www.lulu.com]


*Editor of Calenture: a Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse [calenture.fcpages.com]

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