John Saul - Suffer the Children

[nightreader]

Black Lightning - John Saul (BCA 1995)

I’ve not read a John Saul novel for years, often finding him fairly predictable in his plots – usually an isolated small town/community haunted by a dead child/youth etc. He seemed to do this over and over again: ‘Suffer The Children’, ‘Punish The Sinners’, ‘Comes The Blind Fury’ etc all come to mind. With ‘Black Lightning’ he looked like he was tackling something different.

Set in Seattle the book begins with the execution of serial killer Richard Kraven, closely observed by the police and the journalist who pursued his story in the media. Anne Jeffers is granted one last conversation with the killer before he goes to the electric chair. Kraven continues to deny responsibility for the murders and says: “When I’m dead, and it all starts again, how will you feel?” But Anne has no doubt at all that justice is being done and the real killer is to be executed.

While Kraven is being strapped into the electric chair Anne’s architect husband Glenn is suffering a massive heart attack. As Kraven dies so does Glenn, just for a couple of minutes. This is where the story starts to get interesting.

Naturally the killings do start again, the bodies are cut open and organs removed in a familiar pattern, and a signature mark that resembles black lightning is found cut into the victims. But who is the killer? It seems that there could be more than one, or maybe a copycat, and for a while it becomes confusing.

Anne’s husband also starts behaving strangely following his recovery from his heart attack. He has blackouts and strange dreams, or maybe they are memories. Some of the background history of the killer comes out, how he was horribly abused by his father and put into psychiatric care by his mother.

The murders get too close to Anne for comfort when she herself finds the body of her next door neighbour cut open in the park as she takes her morning jog. Then her daughter’s cat is found dead, also cut open. And Anne can’t understand why her husband suddenly wants to go fishing, just as Richard Kraven used to…

It’s fairly obvious that the spirit of the executed serial killer entered Anne’s husband when he had his brush with death, but there is enough in the story to make you unsure about who the murderer is until the last quarter of the book. Kraven is a satisfying baddie, as barmy as they come yet clever and with enough of a terrible past to make him credible.

Overall I’d give this a tentative thumbs up. It’s well written without a lot of padding, the characters are all plausible and keep your interest. I think my only hesitation about this book is it’s a bit light on the horror aspect, given the grisly murders that take place there isn’t enough punch or shock, there’s just something missing. I guess I’m contradicting myself here but I generally liked this book, but not enough to recommend it or probably to read it again…

[vaughan]

One of the signs of a good author, in my never to be humble opinion, is when you keep reading even though there’s something nagging at the back of your mind saying: ‘When the f*ck is something actually going to happen?’ It’s the writing that keeps you marching on. I mean, over 315 pages, something is bound to happen, right?

In Suffer the Children, in truth, nothing much does actually happen. People walk about, an annoying couple are – well – annoying. There are silly time shifts (100 years, 15 years, and an obviously not present). Sure, some people die. There is some hilarious stuff with a cat. There’s a hole, and a rope ladder. Stuff that might constitute a decent premise if only 100 pages were loped off. But nothing much happens.

If that sounds like a damning condemnation, think again. Because John Saul is an entertaining bugger, and with ‘The million copy bestseller’ plastered on the cover, it isn’t easy to turn away. I’m not sure if I was riveted or comatose, mind you.

The cover blurb states: “A novel of unnatural passion and supernatural terror”. That alone kept me reading. Unnatural passion sounded good, and supernatural terror sounded better. Combine the two and you’ve got a heady mix. But it’ll not come as a shock to you that there’s some exaggeration going on. In fact, from my reading of the book, nothing supernatural goes on. I suppose the fun of this title might well be that others read it differently. With my reviews I don’t like to go over the plot, so let’s just say there is a question mark over this one, and you’ll have to make up your own mind.

It’s also funny that we read books on ridiculous subject matter, but we’ll sometimes balk at some fine point. Take Guy N. Smith’s Deathbell as an example. It’s a silly book on the face of it. If someone was ringing a bell in the dead of night, killing people, you’d go tear the thing down – no? I mean, people are DYING. Would a padlock and chain hold you back? It’s silly, it bothered me, but that was half the fun.

In the case of Suffer the Children there’s a cave. In an easily accessible cliff face. And four generations of people have been looking for it to no avail. People started to wonder if it even existed, as though it were a myth. But it’s there. And I ask you, FOUR GENERATIONS weren’t able to find a cave that you can walk too?!?!? Silly.

And in the end that was what I was left with. Silly. And not scary. I’m not sure it was even trying to be scary. But damn it, Saul writes well. My wife also read this book, and she finished it – despite nothing happening. We kind of looked at each other and said – “but why did we finish it?” And it’s all down to Saul, he’s decent.

I bought a stack of four Saul titles, and I wonder if anything happens in those other books, they all claim to have something happening 100 years ago. But does anything actually happen? Or maybe he specializes in books where nothing happens. Or maybe a young boy attempting to have sex with cat entrails isn’t ‘nothing’, maybe it’s just the tone of this book that fooled me into thinking, ‘nothing happens’. But it has fooled at least one other as well, and that’s my defense.

Suffer the Children, as a synopsis, reads like every other Saul novel I’ve seen. Something (maybe) happens 100 years ago, and it comes back to modern times. Modern times in this case being 1977. And something happens (perhaps). Although, in all probability, nothing happens.

You know, this title even has a ‘Book II’, known as an epilogue to you and me. It doesn’t do anything major to the main story, and it runs – get this – for thirty pages. Thirty pages. Three-o. Damn. And in it, virtually nothing happens. Because the story had already ended. And that’s Suffer the Children. And if I had a time machine I’d go back to 1977 and interview 999,999 other people who read this and ask, “Why? Why did you read this? Was it word of mouth, reviews in the papers, were you drunk, on drugs? Did a friend you no longer like recommend it?”

But I read it. Saul wouldn’t let me go. It’s a thumb up from my left hand, and a thumb down from my right. You’re going to have to take your own chances.


ps: At least the cover shown, not the one from the 1976 second impression I have, has the correct arm torn off!

[dem bones]

"Suffer The Children: A vile book, just shy of "kiddie porn." The real horror is that this was a bestseller!"- R.S. Hadji '13 Worst Stinkers Of The Weird' (Scream Factory #10, Autumn 1992).

John Saul - Punish The Sinners (Coronet, 1979: Dell, 1978)
Blurb:

ITALY, 1252
Inquisition. Accusation. Fear. Torture.
The guilty and the innocent dying for sins real and imagined, in the flames of the burning stake . . .
NEILSVILLE, l978
Peter Balsam has come to this sleepy desert town to teach its youth, and finds a mystery of mounting horror.
Something is happening to the young girls of St. Francis Xavier High School — something evil.
In bloodlet and terror a suicide contagion has swept the town . . . while a dark order of its holy men enacts a secret medieval ritual.
ls hysteria manipulating these innocent children into violent self-destruction? Or has a supernatural force, a thirteenth-century madness, returned to . . .PUNISH THE SINNERS

John Saul - Comes The Blind Fury (Coronet, 1981: Dell, 1980)

Blurb:
AMANDA
A century ago, a gentle blind girl walked the cliffs of Paradise Point. Then the children came — taunting, teasing — until she lost her footing and fell, shrieking her rage to the drowning sea...
MICHELLE
Now Michelle has come from Boston to live in the big house on Paradise Point. She is excited about her new life, ready to make new friends ... until a hand reaches out of the swirling mists — the hand of blind child. She is asking for friendship ... seeking revenge... whispering her name ...

The times I've pulled these down from the shelves, read the blurb, thought "that sounds interesting" — and put them back. It's neither R.S.H.'s criticism nor the fact that these books are best-sellers put me off, just .... something. Anyone read these, and, if so, are they really as distasteful as Hadji seems to suggest?

[Jojo Lapin X]

Nov 12, 2017 17:28:36 GMT dem bones said:

Anyone read these, and, if so, are they really as distasteful as Hadji seems to suggest?

I believe I have read SUFFER THE CHILDREN, but it was a long time ago and I basically remember nothing except that it was about children killing each other. Obviously it is not in the best of taste. But there was a lot of stuff around at that time that was in even poorer taste. I might mention Ross Berliner's THE MANHOOD CEREMONY, a novel about a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by a homicidal pedophile and grows to love him. This is not a recommendation, mind you. In fact, we should all forget I mentioned it.

[andydecker]

After reading Hadji's "A vile book, just shy of kiddie porn. The real horror is that this was a bestseller" for the first time - I missed this thread back then – I knew I finally had to read this.

Spoilers follow, by the way.

John Saul is basically Terra incognito for me. I know he was very successful back then – the numbers are indeed impressive -, that he mostly did those children in peril stuff I am not wild about and that he has the reputation of being a kind of low rent King. I read his serial "The Blackstone Chronicles" back then and all I can remember about it that the ending was a serious let down. But  I have truly forgotten what it was about.

So it is time for a re-evaluation. Or rather first impression. Of course I started with "Suffer the Children", Saul's first novel, albeit in its translated form. So some of the following may be not universally true.

100 years ago (in 1977). An eleven year old girl is playing in the wood next to a New England cliff side manor. She is raped and killed – off page - by a drunken man who later is revealed to be her father. He hides the corpse in a secret cave in the cliffs, then he kills himself with a jump into the sea.

1962. Port Arbello is a little town above the ocean. The rich Congers have fallen on hard times. Jack Conger is the last of the family. Nearly broke he is the owner of the local newspaper. But he is still living in the house by the cliff with his wife Rose and his two daughters Elisabeth (13) and Sarah (11). One year ago his life became a nightmare. He had a blackout in the wood – which is forbidden for the Conger children to play on as is the cliff; since a few generations there is talk about a curse – and beat Sarah so severely that he put her into a coma. Now she is still traumatized. She speaks no word, has hysterical fits and has to visit a school for "special children". Only her sister Elisabeth seems to understand her. The marriage of the Congers is all but over, not only because of Sarah's condition. They fight constantly because Jack is heavily drinking and impotent, which frustrates Rose to no end.

Then Elisabeth finds the oujia board in the attic next to a portrait of an unknown child, a forgotten Conger. The girl Beth – of course the child form the beginning - has an uncanny resemblance to Elisabeth. While Elisabeth channels the vengeful ghost of Beth and becomes possessed and Sarah has screaming fits, their parents have not a clue. Possessed Elisabeth finds the cave with Beth' bones, which can only be accessed with a rope ladder, and kills the family cat, which she then puts into baby clothing. And this is only the beginning because after this she lures some children of Port Arbello into the cave.

This is a surprisingly mean-spirited novel of supernatural mayhem. I wouldn't call it well written; it is told in a straightforward prose which is not polished. Saul is one of those POV hoppers which I don't like. But it grips you, I have to confess. I finished this in a few days. While the gore is sparse, it is effective. While the domestic drama and the disintegration of the parents life takes up most - too much? - of the novel, some characters are not convincing and very Hollywood and the whole curse-thing is underdeveloped. But some scenes of the possessed Elisabeth doings are unflinchingly gruesome and surprisingly effective.

The ending is truly bleak and as dark as imaginable; frankly I was surprised that the publisher had the balls to go through with this. No happy end in sight. Frankly I waited for the heroes to battle the curse, the usual bag of cliché horror. But here the writer just ignore this and throws his characters before the bus. Remarkable. How could this become a bestseller?

I can understand the negative reviews back then. It is an uncomfortable subject matter handled without much finesse or taste. Some of the exposition stretches the suspense of disbelief to a breaking point and beyond. The whole thing with Jack putting his daughter into a coma and not suffering any consequences is even for 1962 straight-out unbelievable.

It misses the better and more thoughtful writing guys like King, Straub or Simmons writer put in their American small town horror novels. Also it doesn't ooze the wonderful atmosphere like McDowell did so well.

But for all its faults and typically first novel roughness it is a good and honest horror novel. A product of its time and a fast read.

[dem bones]

John Saul - Punish The Sinners (Coronet, 1979: Dell, 1978)

Blurb:
ITALY, 1252
Inquisition. Accusation. Fear. Torture.
The guilty and the innocent dying for sins real and imagined, in the flames of the burning stake . . .
NEILSVILLE, l978
Peter Balsam has come to this sleepy desert town to teach its youth, and finds a mystery of mounting horror.
Something is happening to the young girls of St. Francis Xavier High School — something evil.
In bloodlet and terror a suicide contagion has swept the town . . . while a dark order of its holy men enacts a secret medieval ritual.
ls hysteria manipulating these innocent children into violent self-destruction? Or has a supernatural force, a thirteenth-century madness, returned to . . .PUNISH THE SINNERS

Andy's excellent, commendably even handed commentary on Suffer The Children decided me to break my duck, attempt the following year's Punish The Sinners.

A four year old boy is hiding in the closet, watching his mother and abusive father grappling on the bed. The child is frightened that father is hurting her, but mum seems to be enjoying it! His sister, Elaine, creeps into the room with a meat cleaver and attacks both parents. When they stop moving, she takes a coil of electric cord and attaches it to the light fixture. He tries to stop her, but Elaine hangs herself. As if his life isn't screwed enough already, the boy is adopted by the Convent and raised by Nuns. At the triple funeral he asks where Elaine is? A Sister tells him she is being punished for her wickedness and he must never mention her again.

So begins Peter Balsam's lifelong investigation of, and persecution by evil.

That's just the prologue.

Twenty (?) years later. At the request of his old friend, now Monsignor, Peter Vernon, Balsam travels to Neilsville, Washington, to teach a psychology course at St. Francis Xavier's High School. The nuns are up in arms. Psychology has no place in the Dominican faith. Several of the girls' parents threaten to boycott the class. Even the Monsignor has his doubts, having since examined Balsam's controversial thesis, "Suicide as sin: An investigation of the validity of the doctrine." Balsam finds Vernon much changed from their last meeting. The Monsignor has adopted St. Peter Martyr, "the scourge of the heretics," as a role model. Neither is he impressed that Peter has recently separated from wife Linda. Balsam's instinct is to quit Neilsville - the place reeks of evil - but loyalty to Vernon wins out. He explores the small desert community that is to be home for the year. The locals are generally rude and standoffish, prone to gawping at him on the street, but Margot Henderson is different. Peter met her on the train journey and she's already called at his apartment and invited herself on a dinner date.

Vernon doesn't have a high opinion of her.

Tongues will wag.

TBC