A new
Wilkinson collection is fast becoming something of an event. Again,
in the avoidance of showing his roots, he doesn't disappoint in this,
his third.
In 'The
Immaterialists,' the enigmatic Mr Zym was a small publisher of
unlogged poetry whose enigma has outlived his work. But, has his
enigma outlived him? A literary student investigates, despite his
dismissive tutor fearing Zym had "a bubble reputation, long
since popped." The revenant figure of a bald-headed man, close
to the former's rooms, appears portentous, unavoidably bringing
immediacy to his research.
Oftentimes, such territory is handled with a dryness that doesn't
quite succeed in engaging, or displays a colloquial familiarity that
too soon dispels the mystery. Wilkinson, however, strikes the
perfect balance. The final line devastates.
The
trope of familial psychological breakdown links some of the following
tales. 'A Coastal Quest' sees a woman leave behind her husband and
children to go in search of a 'happier life.' The quest ultimately
reveals her true whereabouts and true role as narrator; as unreliable
to herself as to us. 'The Surrey Alterations' – an uncanny tale
of State coercion, which has – with the best – meaning beneath
it's surface. 'Beyond The Lace' harbours a near-impenetrable
ambiguity, where the initial scenario of a stepfather caring for a
fantasist stepdaughter in the wake of her mother's death in a car
accident gradually shifts as his own perception proves unreliable.
Typical of Wilkinson is his ability to implicate so much in so few
pages.
In
'These Words, Rising From Stone,' a male poet appears silently
persecuted by the ghostly presence of a female rival and a curse he'd
purposely overlooked. 'The Private Thinker' – The precocious godson
of a High Court judge invites a related former school 'friend' to
make an inventory of his late father's property. When the godson
encounters the spirit of the Judge, he also discovers another spirit
with what may be an ulterior motive. 'Evening at the Aubergine Cafe'
sees a Godot-like scenario where two men – denied their past
identities and trapped by absent memory in a prison-like edgeland –
live reductive lives around the cafe of the title.
SF
territory redolent of 'A Clockwork Orange' predominate over the
following two tales. 'To Sharpen, Spin' sees an abusive familial
relationship the lesser of two evils in a society where personal
identity is passe. 'Septs' continues this theme, where the
featured boy has succumbed, squatting in properties already squatted
in, towards a new pagan dawn.
The
virtual life is the norm in the society drawn in 'The Migration of
Memories.' An ingenious tale, with a domestic take on its legal and
personal consequences. A male newly-retired, who finds his domestic
life is anything but his own, forms the basis of 'The Horseshoe
Homes,' with intimations of both The Prisoner and Animal
Farm.
'Mills
of Silence' – a novella – ends the collection. A cloak-and-dagger
tale set in Paris, involving missed appointments, a psychotic former
philosopher and war reporter, rumblings in the next hotel room, the
trail of an elusive walking 'wound,' and the production of miniature
wooden guillotines. Derivative it is not. The ambiguous perceptions –
Wilkinson's hallmark – pervade the narratives throughout.
Speed-reading Wilkinson denies the disturbing effect only achievable
through steady progression. The consequence of so doing reveals, in
all positive ways, that he's done it again.
* * *
Synchronicity is defined as 'the
simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related
but have no discernible causal connection.' Whatever the genre,
synchronicity is the guiding creative force for writers. More often
than not, you must make your own opportunities to advance towards
your goal; but, sometimes, fortune – disguised as chance - appears
merely in wait for discovery. For Jake
Fior – boutique proprietor of Alice Through The Looking Glass, 14,
Cecil Court, London – this book grew out of his specialist field of
interest: www.alicelooking.co.uk
As
a ruse to avoid her mother, having failed her Maths exam, Fior's
Alice Liddell absconds to the High Street charity shops. The last she
visits displays, amongst the bric-a-brac, a full-length, antique
looking-glass. On getting it back to her room, she discovers a rear
label, a former purchaser name, its owner's name of Bishop Berkeley,
and its provenance from 'the Dodgson sale of 1898.' It is from here
where fact and fiction merge as contemporary objet d'art
related to Carroll find linkage
to Fior.
Through
a Looking Glass Darkly –
subtitled 'a reimagination' – draws upon real-life familial links
between Carroll and The Golden Dawn. Interspersing Fior's version of
Carroll's second 'Alice' text with darker parallel scenes featuring
leadership rivals Aleister Crowley and Samual Mathers in a
metaphorical battle to gain ascendency. (Again, based upon an alleged
historical event).
Fior
tells me that, 'as
an overview I'd estimate that I've retained about 35% of Carroll's
original text and the bravura moments almost verbatim.' He adds: 'The
text itself has some allusions that don't get explained in the
afterword, but I wanted to leave some things ambiguous so that people
can find their own meanings in them.' As a reader, I'd have welcomed
an additional scene or two featuring Crowley and Mathers, those
present being wonderfully evocative; however, as a writer, I
understand how one can get sidetracked by scenes parallel to the
prioritised body of text.
This
is, perhaps, more an art book than a conventional novel; more so than
the original work, in content, while the dark presence of Crowley
doesn't deprive the text of its appeal to older children. For any
collector, it is certainly worth purchasing for the additions. There
feature three entirely new Tenniel illustrations, newly coloured by
Kate Hepburn and Fior himself. Images of demons – credited to
E.A.P., 1847 - are augmented by a night sky vista from a
photograph from the 1880s'. Fior himself re-drew Alice in the cover
image of her emerging from the Looking-Glass, hand-coloured, rather
than photo-shopped, heightening the contemporary feel.
'It
was quite a meticulous process. There's also been a lot of care in
the design. The Mathers / Crowley sections that intersperse the
central text have a different typeface headline to introduce them.
This is a modern version of the typeface as used on the spine of the
first edition of The Wind in the Willows (which is another
reason I'm flattered to be included in The Pan Review).' From
whichever field of interest you come to this book, the production
alone will delight.
I
began by defining synchronicity. You'll note that the
first tale of Charles Wilkinson's third collection is called 'The
Immaterialists.' I'd never heard the term before and wondered about
its definition. In the afterword, about six pages from the end of
Fior's book - entirely different in subject matter and content to
Wilkinson's - the author not only uses it, but tells me. His theme –
eerily enough - is synchronicity.
*
* *
Albertine's
Wooers
Steve
Toase's first collection - To Drown In Dark Water – is out
from Undertow; Paul Draper's slender volume of folk horror – Black
Gate Tales – is out via Createspace; Sundial Press are about to
release a paperback version of their out-of-print hardback classic,
the Jamesian The Alabaster Hand; speaking of which, Robert Lloyd Parry's Ghosts Of The Chit-Chat has also been re-released in paperback by Swan River Press; a selected 'best of' of Lisa
Tuttle's work – The Dead Hours Of Night – is out from
Valancourt; Snuggly Tales Of Hashish And Opium gathers
together more themed fin-de-siecle gems – many for the first
time in English - by Baudelaire, Gautier, Schwob, Lorrain and others.
