Bob Leman

[nomadman]

Has anyone read this writer?

He's considered something of a hidden gem amongst horror fiction afficionados. He only published fifteen short stories in his lifetime, which were later collected under the title Feesters in the Lake (Midnight House, 2002), a collection now OOP and very hard to find. A review can be found here. His most famous story is Window, which was anthologized several times and made into an episode of Night Visions starring Bill Pullman in the early 2000s. This is to date the only story of his I've read, but I was sufficiently impressed to seek out some of his other pieces. Unfortunately, due to the price of the collection, I've been forced to obtain the individual stories in the magazines in which they first appeared. I'm starting on The Pilgrimage of Clifford M (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May Issue, 1984), an interesting twist on the vampire genre written in the style of an academic paper.

 

[GOLLUM]

No I've never heard of this author but your description makes me want to read some of his stuff!

Perhaps someone will come out with a more affordable and new edition nomadman? At least we can live in hope....

 

[nomadman]

No I've never heard of this author but your description makes me want to read some of his stuff!

Perhaps someone will come out with a more affordable and new edition nomadman? At least we can live in hope....

Yes, I hope so. I'm starting my reading of The Pilgrimage... soon and will let you know what I think.

 

[GOLLUM]

Look forward to it.

 

[j d worthington]

Well, if I read any of his work I apparently should have remembered it, given what I'm seeing elsewhere; so apparently I never have. However, what is said about him by Jim Rockhill (in Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia) makes me sorry I didn't pick up that book when it was still in print. This says, in part:

each of his fifteen tales is characterized by imaginative plotting, a dramatist's flair for characterization, and an unobtrusively elegant prose style. Such is the level of their author's craft that elements as diverse as Lovecraftian cosmicism, the grim humor of Unknown, and even profound tragedy might appear in the same tale without a hint of strain. "Window" [...] demonstrates the ease with which Leman builds toward expectations based on one genre, only to slide into another, darker, one. Thus, the naive wonder of the tale's opening takes a sudden twist into terror, then reveals even worse shocks as the phenomenon's true nature and implications become clear. Persons dabbling with powers beyond their ken fare little better when faced with a panoply of creatures from American Indian legend in "The Tshama"[...]. "Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming" [...] strikes deeply as both a love story and a ghost story, because each element works synergistically to increase the intensity of the other. This is one of several tales in which Leman uses the transformation of a loved one and the threat of disruption to a person's home to add a cruelly ironic subtext to events. The best index of Leman's stature as a writer, however, may be his use of clinical, historical, and confessional documents in "The Pilgrimage of Clifford M." [...] to produce one of the most moving vampire stories of the last century, while eschewing that theme's common erotic and romantic undercurrents.

-- p. 717​

Sounds very much like someone who should be much better known....

 

[nomadman]

Well, I finished The Pilgrimage of Clifford M. Here are my thoughts.

Written in the form of an academic case study, the story charts the life of a strange individual known only as Clifford M, from his discovery in the late 1800's by a trapper's son in the deep forests of Comber County, Tennessee, to his curious and bloody adolescence, first as a captive freak, later as a parson's adopted son, later still as a brilliant but deeply troubled student at Harvard (his studies paid for entirely by the money he stole from his mutilated and exsanguinated stepmother) all the way to his eventual fate some hundred years later, now as a wealthy, powerful and still-youthful businessman, and the culmination of his search to find out what in the blue blazes he actually is...

I found Pilgrimage... excellent on a number of levels. Leman's dry vaguely ironical voice, his witty asides, his deft handing of what could have been a rather pedestrian story, create a masterpiece out of scattered parts. The life of Clifford M, we are constantly reminded, is comprised largely of conjecture and guesswork. Where Leman 'elaborates' we are told well in advance. Where Leman quotes from 'facts' or 'academic sources' we are again told in advance. This whole approach (and the smooth unobtrusive way in which Leman ties the whole thing together) lends the whole thing a degree of verisimilitude that a straight narrative probably wouldn't have had.

Pilgrimage... is not a horror story (though it can be read as one). It isn't really a coming-of-age story either. It's a study of isolation. Clifford M is a monster, true, but he's been raised as a human and has a human's thoughts and feelings. The final scene, in which the monster turned man at last comes face-to-face with others of his kind, and the horrible realization he gleans from the meeting, is as poignant and simultaneously unsettling as any I've read.

Good stories in the vampire genre are few and far between. This isn't merely good, it's superb, and well worth tracking down for anyone that may think they've read all there is to read in this particular vein.

 

[GOLLUM]

Wow! That's quite an endorsement Nomadman. Like J.D. I'm beginning to regret never having heard of this writer considering that key collection isn't too cheap to source...

Pilgrimage or at least some of its elements sound almost the reverse situation of Chile's best 20th Century novelist, Jose Donoso's, GREAT magic realist novel Obscene Bird Of The Night. I had the good fortune to literally stumble upon this masterpiece in one of our numerous second hand bookshops here. Intriguing indeed.....

 

[Connavar]

That sounds like a special story and a story of isolation sound more interesting than another vampire story.

 

[dask]

"Window" by Bob Leman is one of the top five stories I recommend to get into the Halloween spirit, the other four being: "The Father Thing" by Philip K. Dick; "Pigeons From Hell" by Robert E. Howard; "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" by Richard Matheson; and "The Mist" by Stephen King.

 

[nomadman]

Well, a few days ago I decided to splash out on the full collection (set me back about £70) and it arrived today! Very excited. Will hopefully be posting a few more reviews of tales as I finish them.

 

[nomadman]

Well, due to my backlog it took me a while to get round to finally reading this but last night I finished yet another Leman story, The Time of the Worm. This story is hellish. A boy and his father are held in thrall by a strange mind-controlling worm who emerges from their basement one day and assumes control of their lives by first killing and then impersonating the boy's mother, and later his wife. Any attempts to defy the will of the worm are punished by excruciating mental pain. Any attempts to escape are stifled. The mere conception is terrible enough, but neither the origin nor the goal of the worm is never explained, and given the young age at which the boy comes to know it, he never really feels it an obvious question to ask. He is subjected to this torturous existence for the next twenty years of his life (his father having died of the strain after ten) until he is finally freed, at which point the task of learning to live like a normal man becomes the main focus in his life.

This is a very powerful tale which the detachment of Leman's prose renders all the more horrific. Not quite as strong as the aforementioned tales, but an original and affecting piece.