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| Cover art by the Dillons for Harlan Ellison's choice of the best weird tales by Gerald Kersh, including the famous tales "Men Without Bones" & "The Brighton Monster." | |
Gerald Kersh's Men Without Bones
commentary by rbadac
Some good blurbs on the back of the Men Without Bones (World Distributors; London, 1960) paperback:
"As a surgeon exposing the inner malaise of some of our citizens, Kersh wields the keenest scalpel since Huxley and Waugh were at work in the 'twenties." -Joseph Taggert (Star)
I'll buy that. Even if it does make three great writers sound like serial killers.
"He is the real successor of Kipling; not a successor by imitation, but a successor by temperament." -Frank O'Connor (Evening News)
That too. Kipling needs a successor. Kersh needs one too by now.
"Gerald Kersh is that rare combination, a master craftsman with the popular touch; he can satisfy highbrow and lowbrow alike." -John Brophy (Sunday Graphic)
Well, that covers this discussion group, hee hee.
"I have seen the future of horror, and its name is Gerald Kersh." -Stephen King (Bangor Daily News)
Okay, I made that last one up. Or did I? It's hard to be sure.
The hardcover first is Heinemann, London. 1955. Got one? Me neither. This collection is subtitled in quotes, "the best of Gerald Kersh," and it's just as well they used quotation marks as the point is debatable. Still, it has plenty of good stories, & Kersh's worst is better than a lot of people's best.
"Men Without Bones" should be familiar, having made it in the more famous (on this side of the ocean) collection Harlan Ellison edited in the Seventies, Nightshade & Damnations. If Harlan likes it, it must be good, right? Well, generally speaking, anyway (you Dan Simmons fans shut up back there). Two explorers in the Central American jungle find evidence of Martian visitation. They also find -- yup, them. Little fat men without bones. Made out of a tough, grey jelly. They don't smell so hot, either. Well, whaddya expect of jelly in the jungle? A sci-fi actioner with a twist.
"The Whitewashed Room" is a nightmare. Athene is "a good girl with no damn nonsense about her" who has a recurring dream of the room and her place in it. Short and not sweet.
"The Guardian" is a humorous and somewhat kinky story about an animal trainer and his favorite (female) chimpanzee. Shades of John Collier ! What is it about Englishmen & monkey love? Someone ought to examine this.
"Carnival On The Downs" is a corker of a ghost story. Kersh is not one of your "slow buildup of atmosphere" writers; he simply plows through the heart of the matter & leaves the upturned clods for the reader to examine, & wonder. Poignant & well-done, & framed nicely by conversation in the local bar, the last outpost of good storytelling.
"In A Misty Window" is metaphysical, reminiscent of H. G. Wells' "A Vision Of Judgement" -- normally I hate these, as you know, but only because 95% of the time they're pretentious, sententious, or just plain botched. Not to worry, however, Kersh and Wells know what they're doing.
"One Case In A Million" is about a hangman passing on his career experience to an apprentice. The premise alone would be enough for most authors. Need I say it's just the dropping-off place for Kersh?
There are many other stories which are not fantasies, but are equally wonderful for all that: "Memory Of A Fight," about a Roman cestus boxer & his moment of truth; "Gratitude," about a rich woman's encounter with her own mortality; "The End Of A Wise Guy," about the tangled web woven by the brighter class of criminal; & "The Life And Times Of The Dog Basta," about, well, a dog, one owned by a rich countess in Fascist Italy who buys him off a no-good fisherman.
"Buried Treasure" is another droll about a man's revenge on his wife's seance-hopping. It has a first paragraph that for me constitutes my favorite blurb for Gerald Kersh:
"You may like sordid realism or wild fantasy, sticky romance or spicy sex drama, horror or rosebuds, love or hate, misery or joy-- the greatest composer of stories is life itself, and the greatest teller of stories is the man who clings faithfully to life as it is lived. The most ingenious and torturous brilliance of man can never equal the overwhelming creative combinations of the living moment."
He couldn't have said it better himself.