Ghost Story

Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Blogger Note: At the beginning of January 2017, I found myself unexpectedly, and abrasively unemployed for the first time in my 28 years of working professionally. This put quite a jolt on my well-being, and I found myself not wanting to read, much less write about what I’ve read.  Fortunately, I now find myself once again happily employed and up to the task of taking up my indulgent hobby.  The upshot of this is that some of these books (such as this one) were read before my above-mentioned travails, causing me to not to remember many of the intricate details of the particular work.  Believe it or not, this was one of the main reasons why I started this project – to have some sort of record of my thoughts while they were still fresh in my mind. So some of these reviews won’t get the due diligence of mass recollection.   And so it goes….

Many years ago, author Stephen King was asked to list his favorite works of horror.  This book made the top of his list.  If Stephen King thought that this book was the best horror book ever, then it must be incredible. Right?  Well……

This book was very good.  I would even, daresay that it resembled a Stephen King book in many ways. It was released in 1979 which was right around the time that Stephen King started to make a name for himself, so it’s difficult to say if either one of these authors were subconsciously borrowing from the other. This story in many ways reminded me of King’s “Salem’s Lot”. Although I wouldn’t say it was as good.

Straub is definitely a superb writer.  I’m a big fan of his prose. He’s one of those guys that makes me realize that I could never (nor should never) attempt to tackle the task of writing a novel. Being the fact that this book was written almost forty years ago, it does seem dated when one, such as myself, picks in up for the first time in 2016. The story takes place in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Since time hasn’t invented the internet or Facebook yet, people have to, you know, go out in public and talk to each other.

It's hard to nail down a specific plot other than to say that strange things have been happening in this small town, and none of them good.  The reason I say it’s hard to describe the plot is because Straub doesn’t tell a linear story.  He bounces back and forth quite a bit in terms of present day versus the past. In fact, the premise of the story is four older gentlemen that meet on a semi-regular basis to tell stories. So when these seniors start reflecting on what the “scariest thing that has ever happened to them” was, we see a story unfold.

I found this book to be a good exercise and use of my time.  I can’t honestly say it’s the best, nor scariest thing that I’ve ever read, but it was well written.  The jarring time sequences might put some readers off, as might the late 1970s feel, but Straub is worth giving a try if your palette of horror consists of only the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz.