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From: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Zelazny: A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER
Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator)
Message-Id: <9312132141.AA09850@gw.PacBell.COM>
Date: 14 Dec 93 05:06:16 GMT
Status: RO

A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny
Review Copyright 1993 Dan'l Danehy-Oakes


Ever since he encased himself in "Amber," I tend to look at each new Zelazny 
novel with doubt and trepidation.  Typically, I will pick it up in the bookshop,
read the first few paragraphs, and put it back on the shelf with regret. Thank 
God he still writes marvellous short stories, or we would have the self-
destruction of a talent here unmatched by any but Piers Anthony.
 
As it happens, though, I looked into the first few pages of his newest, A NIGHT 
IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER, with the usual doubt and trepidation. . . and wound up 
buying it in the hardcover, a choice I do not at all regret.
 
The "purchase" decision was undoubtedly influenced by the Gahan Wilson
illustrations.  Since the deaths of Chas. Addams and B. Kliban, Wilson is my
uncontested favorite one-panel cartoonist (and, unlike them, he does good strips
too: if you get a chance to pick up his collected "NUTS" strips from early 
NatLamps, do so; they're delightful).  But it was influenced even more by those
first few paragraphs.

As usual, Zelazny has chosen to use a first-person narrator.  Less usually, the 
first-person narrator in this case is a watchdog.  Named "Snuff."  Who works in 
London.  For a man named Jack.  Who goes out into the night with a knife to do 
. . . things.  Jack is under a curse, you see.  He also has a Thing in a Circle,
another Thing in a Steamer Trunk, and several Things in Mirrors, and a big part
of Snuff's job is to make sure the Things stay in their various places of
confinement.

The other human characters include the Great Detective and his bumbling 
assistant (the Great Detective spends most of the book in drag); the Count; the 
Good Doctor and his deformed assistant (who are building. . . something. . . out
of parts of human cadavers in the basement); Crazy Jill (who rides a broom); the
Vicar; and others.  The American, Mr. Talbot, is particularly noteworthy.

But the human characters are really the background: the *real* characters are 
their "companions" -- Jill's cat, Graymalk; the Count's bat, Needle; the 
Doctor's rat, Bubo; and so on.  Only Talbot lacks one, because he doesn't. . .
need one (heh, heh), and the Great Detective, who isn't a player in the Game.
 
The Game?  Yes.  There is a great Game going on, one which is played every time 
the full moon falls on the thirty-first of October, played by the Openers 
against the Closers.  Part of the game is trying to figure out who the players 
are, and what side they're on; and that is indeed a significant part of the fun
for the reader.  (There's at least one ringer.)  But seeing all this through the
eyes of the familiars gives it a strange and lovely feel, one which I enjoyed 
thoroughly.
 
If "openers" and "closers" sounds familiar, it ought to; A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME
OCTOBER turns out to be Zelazny's contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.  It 
wanders around the edges of being a horror novel without ever quite deciding to 
settle down and become one, but this is all right; it is a delight of whatever
genre it belongs to.  Actually, I think it's damn near sui generis despite being
Lovecraftian.



	%A Zelazny, Roger
	%T A Night in the Lonesome October
	%I Morrow/AvoNova
	%D 1993
	%G ISBN 0-688-12508-5
	%O hardcover, $18.00