The Tribe by Bari Wood Publisher : Valancourt Books (2 July 2019) Language : English Paperback : 316 pages ISBN-10 : 1948405326 ISBN-13 : 978-1948405324 Horror was doing big business in the bookstores in the 1960s. This was largely thanks to gothic literature which promised gentle tales of haunted manors and melancholy spirits on their covers. Things took a more devilish turn towards the end of the decade with the release of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 1967, followed by William Peter Blatty’s ‘The Exorcist’ and Thomas Tryon’s ‘The Other in 1971, but the real fun began in 1974 with the release of two books that would open the floodgate for pulp horror. Jaws (Peter Benchley) and The Rats (James Herbert) proved that there was an appetite out there for books that weren’t ashamed to be all-out horror. The publishing industry took note and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, companies such as Zebra, Tor and Pinnacle published a seemingly endless supply of books promising unspeakable terrors and sporting covers that had to be seen to be believed. Sometimes the content was great, other times… not so much, but one thing that you could always be guaranteed was a fun and entertaining read. By the mid-90s, horror paperbacks were seemingly out, and thrillers were in. Gone were the lurid covers of skeletons, evil dolls, creepy kids and flesh hungry critters. The horror was still there, it just wasn’t marketed as such, treated like a shameful secret. As titles fell quickly out of print, many of the horror authors and their work became increasingly forgotten by all but the most avid fans and collectors. Enter Will Errickson, Grady Hendrix and ‘Paperbacks From Hell’. In 2017 Hendrix and Errickson released their seminal love letter to the horror paperbacks of a bygone era, shining a light on some long-forgotten classics and renewing interest in the mass market horror paperbacks of the 1970s and 80s. Not content to simply share their passion for these oft maligned but much missed books, thanks to their partnership with Valancourt Books, we are being treated to new reprints of the best of these decades-old, forgotten gems. To date, thirteen reprints have been published (with a fourteenth on the way), retaining the original cover art and boasting brand new and insightful introductions from Hendrix and Errickson. In this series I’ll be reading each and every one and posting articles at Ginger Nuts of Horror looking back at the best books two decades of horror has to offer. The name Bari Wood may not be a well-known name among horror fans, but David Cronenberg certainly is. His film Dead Ringers is based on her 1977 book ‘Twins’ (co-authored with Jack Geasland). Having also had her work adapted by Neil Jordan (1999s ‘In Dreams’) I was surprised that this was the first book of Woods I had heard of and read. First published in 1981, its sprawling cast, vividly described locations and unique antagonist combine to make this the best Paperback From Hell yet. The story begins in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 and follows a group of Jewish survivors as they subsequently make a new home in modern-day New York. For this group of eight men, the atrocities they faced are not ones they can ever truly leave behind and their experiences have left their mark on them all. When the son of one of the group, now a rabbi beloved by his community, is brutally killed in a senseless act of violence, these survivors seek out their own vengeance. When police detective Roger Hawkins finds his suspects for the young man's murder torn apart by someone or something that can’t possibly exist, he finds himself embroiled in a web of secrets and a community bond so strong that more death and bloodshed seem sure to follow. Off the top of my head, I can think of very few horror books that feature a Golem (a mythical Jewish creature that is man-made, formed from clay and brought to life to do its creators bidding). Aside from the famous classic by Gustav Meyrink, plus a pretty decent Edward Lee novel and an excellent comic book miniseries by Steve Niles (‘Breath of Bones’, published by Dark Horse in 2012), it seems to be a largely underutilised creation. The reason may lie in how deeply rooted the Golem is in Jewish folklore, making the practicalities of producing a faithful depiction something that requires significant research to do the creature justice. In this regard, The Tribe is a rousing success. The depiction of Jewish culture and history throughout the Tribe is one of the things that really resonated with me while reading. It is a vital part of the story and makes no effort to simplify the beliefs, rituals or attitudes of its Jewish characters for the reader. A lot of Yiddish words and phrases are sprinkled throughout the text (always defined, not to worry) and a lot of page time is dedicated to seemingly small, everyday elements of the faith that build up to a complex and thorough look at a culture that I wasn’t overly familiar with beforehand. It added an extra layer of enjoyment for me to be guided through the story by a group of protagonists so different to those you would typically expect in mainstream horror fare, particularly from this era. To call The Tribe a slow burn would be an understatement. In terms of action set pieces, I can recall only one. The story opens with a prologue whereby an Army Major who was present for the liberation of the Belzec concentration camp in 1945 is awaiting the capture of the camps commandant so he can ask him a question that has plagued him for years. The answer to that question hangs heavy over the remainder of the book and creates a tense air of intrigue and inevitability that carries the story. Despite the proclamations of its blurbs (including one from Stephen Kind himself), The Tribe is far more concerned with looking at how these events have impacted its characters and those they surround themselves with, and less so about being a ‘horror’ book. Reading more like a family drama piece than a horror story, for the most part, Wood keeps the Golem an absent presence for almost the entire book. Most of the action happens off-page, often told either via descriptions of the aftermath of the event or through vague remembrances of witnesses. If this sounds like a criticism, it is not. The creature is a huge presence throughout, made all the more terrifying for the fact it is never seen, its absence causing both the books’ characters and us, the reader, to fill in the gaps in such a way that nothing actually described on the page could possibly live up to it. This is one of those situations where not showing the monster makes it that much scarier. I can well imagine some finding the book a frustrating read. The switches between 1945 and the present day, both told from multiple different perspectives, coupled with the firm focus on character and drama over action and horror mean that anyone wanting a fast-paced book would be best looking elsewhere. They would be missing out on a rich and rewarding reading experience, however, as the Tribe is not like any other book I have read before. It’s a chilling and grounded take on real-world atrocities, that uses the supernatural as a hook to draw its readers into the story it really wants to tell. Valencourt have put out a consistently great line with Paperbacks From Hell and, so far, this is the one to beat. Join me next time when I’ll be sharing my thoughts on The Spirit by Thomas Page. If you’d like to read along with this series and want to pick up copies of the books, or learn more about Valancourts’ Paperbacks From Hell line, visit their site at www.valancourtbooks.com/paperbacksfromhell The Tribe (Paperbacks from Hell) Paperback |
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