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!