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COLD HOUSE
By T.M. WRIGHT (Catalyst Press; 2003)
Another bizarre, fascinating, deeply
enigmatic novel by T.M. Wright, one of the horror genre’s most singular
talents. COLD HOUSE is even more enigmatic than normal for Wright, as it
forsakes most of the genre trappings of his previous books (which include
essentials like STRANGE SEED, THE WAITING ROOM and THE ISLAND) in its dreamlike
account of star-crossed lovers Michael and Elizabeth, each trapped in a strange
alternate reality.
Don’t expect any
conventional “explanations”, as none are offered, although we do learn in the
course of the book that Elizabeth was killed in a car accident years earlier and
is now stuck in a scary old house “as big as Cleveland” where she sometimes sees
a young boy flitting around. Michael finds himself in a dark city, searching
for his lost love and finding only desolate landscapes, apathetic fellow
residents and annoying radio programs, at least until an unnaturally pasty
tennis player named Fredric Strasser (who implores Michael to “simply address me
like I were anonymous, okay?”) enters his life.
Copious flashbacks fill us in on the protagonists’ respective
backgrounds and extramarital courtship. Michael, it seems, has since childhood
had the ability to travel into other realities, which provided an ideal escape
from his redneck father’s mental abuse. The young Michael also finds himself
drawn to an ominous old house where he spies a woman staring back at him from an
upper window--a woman, the adult Michael reflects, who looks an awful lot like
Elizabeth.
T.M. Wright is a celebrated poet in addition to a prolific
genre novelist, and COLD HOUSE is his most overtly poetic novel. The narrative
proceeds in short, self-contained scenes that put one in mind of bursts of
memory or hallucination. Past and present are juxtaposed freely and the
narrative voice alternates between the first and third person. This is a novel
that, more than telling a story, is primarily concerned with illuminating
concepts like loneliness and love (although strictly of the unrequited
variety). It’s a somewhat frustrating, self indulgent book (I probably could
have done without the gusts of poetry that frequently interrupt the narrative)
that’s nonetheless a beautiful, haunting and even profound evocation of longing
and regret.
COLD HOUSE, it should be noted, comes complete with an
admiring introduction by Jack Ketchum, whose standard fare (which includes
hard-core horror like OFF SEASON and
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) is light years away
from Wright’s. Still, Ketchum’s observations are dead-on (“It’s a work by a
writer who started off with courage and resourcefulness and just seems to get
and better and better over time”).
This book is a must for genre fans in the mood for “something
different”, but it also seems pitch-perfect for the upscale crowd who ate up
literary horror efforts like David Searcy’s ORDINARY HORROR and Mark
Denielewsi’s HOUSE OF LEAVES…but I know they’ll never read it. For that matter,
I’m certain most genre mavens will pass it up, if only because it was published
in a limited edition paperback by the indie publisher Catalyst Press.
Nevertheless, I applaud Catalyst’s decision to take on such a unique work, and
urge you all to track it down ASAP!