Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Let it be known that if I was writing an academic essay on Ghost Story by Peter Straub, I would have a very differing opinion of this book. During undergrad when I was in honors for literature, a thesis on this book would be easy. The structure of the novel is very intentional. From the current descriptions of the Chowder Society’s minds, to the morbid stories they tell during meetings, to the background about Donald Wanderley and his lover, every bit of this book is a puzzle piece of individual ghost stories. While at the beginning they may appear a bit disjointed, slowly but surely they all connect.
The Chowder Society tell tales of young boys killed, talk of their nightmares of each other’s ghosts, hear voices before they die. The reader gets tales of how a member, Edward Wanderley, was scared to death a year prior, and we get the backstory of his nephew who was engaged to someone who not only talked to a ghost, but seemed to have never existed at all herself based on the ‘truths’ she told. The structure of the chapters puts the reader in a sense of unease, unsure what is true or not, but always telling a version of a ghost story no matter the character’s point-of-view.
From a non-academic standpoint, I hated the structure. I’m glad that these posts are more like opinion articles from a newspaper rather than literary essays because this book did not work for me. I called it disjointed before and I stand by that, both in structure and characters.
There were too many characters. We have multiple members of The Chowder Society, all their wives, kids, other townspeople, and more. Then we learn that some of the long list of characters we’ve heard of and tried to keep track of are now all the same person. Eva Galli is also Alma Mobley, Ann-Veronica-Moore, Anna Mostyn, and Amy Monkton. Greggory Bate is also Greg Benton and Greggorio. Fenny Bate is the small boy beckoning everyone to come outside and play. So after taking extensive notes to keep track of everyone, it’s all for naught.
Up until the middle of the book, I assumed everything happening was created by the minds of The Chowder Society from untreated trauma, but near the middle-end of the book, confirmation is given on supernatural entities being behind it all. We get a ghost in Fenny Bate, and another in Lewis’s dead wife. We get a werewolf in Greg Benton. We get multiple women with the initials A.M.. Then we learn that Eva Galli is a shapeshifter. Let’s not forget the slaughtered sheep who died to a vampire (which before the scarf discovery, I assumed was a Chupacabra). So are the characters shapeshifters, vampires, werewolves, or something else? The answer is left unclear, Straub explaining it off as some greater being that can speak in and mess with the minds of humans. Great for a monster book, not as great for a ghost story. The book left much to be desired.
Overall: Too consistently confusing for 567 pages.
Also, here is a link to someone else’s review that I enjoyed.
Maddy,
ReplyDeleteI agree. A ridiculous amount of characters were in this book. I often found it hard to keep track of all the names and nicknames. When doing my post, I consistently went back and forth to my highlights on my Kindle app and searched pages for characters.
I do believe it was entirely the doing of a shapeshifter and not another supernatural creature. I feel the characters mention all the other monster possibilities was to make the readers' heads turn.
I personally found all the Chowder Societies' activities and stories rather dull. They felt lackluster. These stories also seemed to damage the fear that they were meant to instill in the readers. There was so much happening to all these people; it just numbed out. Had we had a smaller set of people with stories, maybe it wouldn't have felt so overdone.
However, I will argue that the structure was genius, and despite my personal qualms with the novel, it does deserve the reputation it has in horror. I argue this because Straub did a lot of unusual things not only with his structure but with his plot. I feel he titled it Ghost Story merely because these older men sit around and tell each other because of all the stories. They make up their hysteria because of this. AND for that single point, it should be where it is in the genre for reputation (not subgenre. I do, too, feel this is a monster story).
-Alexis
I looked it up and the book was published in '79, so I can see what you mean by a lot of unusual things, especially in that time. I do think from a literary standpoint it belongs in the horror standard (and a monster subgenre), but just personally it was too confusing for me.
DeleteI think you may be right, with them shapeshifting between what humans identify as other supernatural creatures. Once you said that, it does make a lot of sense.
I love your comment about the early portion of the book being puzzle pieces, each made up of a ghost story, that only later fits together to form the whole. I scratched my head a lot during these pages. Later, looking back through my journal, I realized Straub had answered many of my questions.
DeleteYou mention the slaughtered sheep. That seems like a thread that was left dangling. What was the purpose of all the slaughtered and exsanguinated animals? Was it to shake up Elmer Scales? Why him? I have never had so many questions after reading a book. And why Rea and her sister's horses? We can assume various motivations by the shapeshifters. But I wish I had a better idea of why some of these things happened.
Alexis, you write about how the men of the Chowder Society get themselves worked up. Is the theme of the book perhaps more about what we do to make ourselves feel haunted? Because, as you say, the book is more about monsters than it is about ghosts.
Let it be known I'm glad this isn't an academic essay as well. Academic logic exhausts me and bears no resemblance to the way actual readers (who read for pleasurable entertainment) react and interact with a novel. I hated the structure as well. There's no amount of scholarly elucidation that will change the fact that I did not enjoy 2/3 of this novel. What really grits my teeth is that I can easily see multiple alternate structures that would have kept most of the narrative elements and been much easier and more enjoyable to read.
ReplyDeleteA note on the slaughtered animals. In the 70's and 80's animal mutilation cases weighed heavily on our minds. Popular theories ranged from extraterrestrial experiments, to Sasquatch victims, to Satanic ritual sacrifice, to manitou manifestations, to high school pranks. My personal take is that Straub threw those in to add to the terror element without really considering how they were supposed to factor into the evil shapeshifter element.