The worst of Bloch's novels I've read by some distance; one can see why he introduced the twist that is the story's most redeeming feature, but it doesn't redeem enough of the weight of bad feeling that had attached to others making ever more foolish films of his characters (and more money from their foolishness) that one senses while reading it. It's not a fully worthy sequel to the novel Psycho II, much less the brilliant short novel that was the original. You won't suffer too greatly, to be sure, but keep your expectations low if you pick it up, and certainly don't use it to gauge whether you want to any of Bloch's other fictions, few of which are as ultimately dispirited as this one. American Gothic (which anticipated The Devil in the White City by more than some years--see also Bloch's novella-length nonfiction "Doctor Holmes' Murder Castle" [1983]), The Scarf and any number (in fact, essentially all) of his other novels are better (even his most minor sf novel, Sneak Preview, though I've only read the 1959 novella version; perhaps the 1971 expansion for book publication is better), and reading his short fiction is always recommended (however, one edition to avoid is the trade paperback reprint of sorts of The Selected Stories of RB, retitled for no good reason The Complete Stories of RB, which is riddled with typos and other distractions, aside from the false advertising of the retitle). The Best of Robert Bloch (a 1977 Ballantine Book mixing fantasy, horror, and sf) and its companion Such Stuff as Screams Are Made Of (Ballantine/Del Rey 1979, mostly devoted to horror and crime fiction) are among the best bets in introductions to his work, along with the original edition of the Selected Stories volumes. Or, for fine selections from the shank of his short fiction career, the largely crime fiction Blood Runs Cold (Simon and Schuster, 1961--with another cover, after his cover for Psycho with that distinct font, by Tony Palladino) and the largely fantasticated, leaning mostly but not exclusively to horror fiction, Pleasant Dreams (in several configurations, originally Arkham House, 1960). I had the 1963 Popular Library paperback of Blood and the Jove Books 1979 version of Pleasant...
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I'm partial to THE KIDNAPPER and the quasi-thematic follow-up to PSYCHO, THE DEAD BEAT.
ReplyDeleteI recall reading "Best of" when it came out. Man, what a book!
ReplyDeleteJack, SUCH STUFF...genuinely is a true companion to the BEST OF volume, by Bloch's intent (and one of the relatively few books to bear the Del Rey Horror logo). Though the SELECTED STORIES might be one (if one wants Just One for some reason) to find, if improbably affordable (even as the "COMPLETE" STORIES reprint is one to avoid at any price/cost).
ReplyDeleteJerry, I like THE KIDNAPPER a lot as well, and need to read THE DEAD BEAT still (shame!). One aspect of PSYCHO HOUSE that strikes me as odd/amusing, if unsurprising, is that it does explicitly feature the old house even in title, when I've taken PSYCHO and Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (both 1959 novels) as twin monuments in suspense and horror, by writers of similar talent and ambition, and with some similar aspects that help to illuminate their times (and all too much of what has continued since), including their relative brevity and friendliness to cinematic and longer-form a/v adaptation. I still think someone should publish an annotated double-volume of them both. The best films aren't quite up to the novels, but both aren't to be dismissed...and clearly they continue to inspire attempts to do better.