With NECON (the Northeastern Writers Conference) a week away, it's only appropriate I read a book I picked up at last year's event.
House of Windows by John Langan is a bit of an anomaly for me, a foray into the world of literary horror. I tend to lean toward books written in the vernacular of the common people, like myself. And then I go and use a word like vernacular, seems John's work is already having an affect on me. I'm pretty sure that is the correct usage of affect.
House of Windows is a story told by Veronica Croyden and is mostly about the events leading to her husband's disappearance. It's a ghost story, of sorts. Or at least a haunting since you could say both Veronica and her much older husband are haunted by the death of Roger's son from a former marriage.
Central to the tale is the Belvedere House name for a minor painter who had summered there half a century ago.
"We bought the house for a song and a fairly cheap tune at that."
Along the way, Langan provides occasional insight into the human condition. I particularly liked his take on being a teenager...
"When you're a teenager—or at least, when I was, the last thing I wanted was for my parents to identify with me. I wanted them to respect who I was, which was, of course, completely different from either of them, let me do what I wanted to, and provide food, shelter, and cash as needed. Neither of them lived up to that ideal—not even close. What it boiled down to was, Dad was slightly less annoying than Mom."
There were times I found myself asking, "Do I really care about any of these characters?" But, I just couldn't pull away from the drama.
House of Windows was John Langan's first novel and it had a hard time finding a home. The genre people weren't happy with all the literary stuff, and the literary people weren't happy with the genre stuff.
I am glad the story found a home which made it easier to get John's next work published, the critically acclaimed novel, The Fisherman.
Recommended.
Originally published in 2009, House of Windows, found a new home with Diversion Books in 2017 and is currently available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats.
From the author's bio - John Langan is the author of two novels, The Fisherman (Word Horde 2016) and House of Windows (Night Shade 2009/Diversion 2017), and two collections of stories, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies (Hippocampus 2013) and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Prime 2008). The Fisherman won the Bram Stoker and This Is Horror Awards for superior achievement in a novel in 2016. He's one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards, for which he served as a juror during its first three years. Currently, he reviews horror and dark fantasy for Locus magazine. In 2018, his next collection, Sefira and Other Betrayals, will be published by Hippocampus Press.
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