The Fisherman by John Langan
.jpg)
The Fisherman by John Langan is a disturbing and
disquieting novel that contained both disgusting and fantastic imagery and
situations, which is probably why it was one of my favorite horror novels that
I’ve read this year. Although the book came out nearly 10 years ago, the story
is almost timeless and reflects the qualities and characteristics of many great
American horror and gothic writers. I loved the way that Langan frames the
story of Abe, a widower who befriends a co-worker who also experienced the
tragic loss of his family. While Abe and Dan came to their grief in different
ways, Abe, whose wife died of cancer a few years prior to Dan’s family’s car
accident, recognizes the signs of grief that mark Dan as adrift and struggling.
Abe uses fishing as a means to pull himself out of the house and eventually uses
it as a means to bond with and support Dan as he tries to navigate his loss and
life without his family. Abe is a great narrator, and I loved his candid
revelations about his grief and behavior after his wife’s death. His story is
both relatable and engaging, making the sense of loss accessible as well as
creating a sense of empathy for him. It’s also why his ability to notice Dan’s
sense of grief after his family’s accident makes Abe even more likeable. There’s
something about Abe’s narrative that reminds me of some of the best Stephen
King narrators. He is honest and lays his grief bare, but at the same time presents
his loss and grieving behavior in some kind of humorous and relatable hindsight.
Abe’s story takes a detour as he and Dan set out to fish at
Dutchman’s Creek, a remote and legendary fishing spot in upstate New York. On
their trip to Dutchman’s Creek, they stop at a diner where the owner, Howard,
shares a legend about the creek and its supposed mythical qualities. I was
really surprised at this shift of perspective from Abe and Dan’s bonding over
their grief to a story told to Howard by an elderly resident of the town about
her father and husband’s experiences with The Fisherman of Dutchman’s Creek.
This part of the story was incredible and had so many different influences streaming
through it. The story is a story of immigrants who take the opportunity to make
a new life for themselves in New York, with Rainer escaping from his studies at
a university in Germany for initially unknown reasons. There’s also the mysterious
Dort, who loses his wife and becomes somewhat reclusive, but also wealthy after
her death. Dort also befriends a mysterious man in black who ultimately
overtakes his home. There seem to be parallels between Dort and Abe and Dan,
who have all lost their spouses. In many ways too, Rainer also experiences a kind
of cultural death, but he sees opportunities to remake himself using his
intuition, knowledge and skills rather than relying on other means, like his
esoteric linguistic studies from the university. His rebirth/renewal is similar
to the reemergence that Abe experiences with fishing. Both men find new life
through water, as Rainier eventually becomes a mason working on a new reservoir.
I also couldn’t help but think about Moby Dick with some of these
elements in both narratives. Abe, a shortened version of a biblical name, tells
a story of his own previous experiences much like Ishmael, the narrator of Melville’s
classic. Furthermore, Rainier’s colleagues in masonry are primarily immigrants
as well, similar to the diverse make-up of the Pequod’s crew. Both stories also
feature a Leviathan-like beast, a large, terrible beast whose whiteness
represents death and the unknown. Furthermore, the little community that Rainer
settles in with mysterious older men kind of reminded me of Hawthorne’s work where
members talk about one another and gossip occurs. However, I think that Poe and
Lovecraft probably stood out as one of the most prominent examples from Howard’s
nested narrative. There are elements of guilt that some of the characters
experience from their losses and actions, and this grief ends up haunting them
in ways that they cannot imagine. However, it is the strange creatures that
come from the waters that eventually become Dutchman’s Creek that resemble the
kinds of cosmic horror that Lovecraft described as the old gods. Rainier’s
application of his university studies, his mystical learning and ability to craft
sigils and symbols to harness the dark powers really reminded me of Lovecraft’s
work. There are also many references to mythology, particularly Egyptian
mythology (Apep or Apophis) and Biblical mythology (Leviathan). This was also a
really cool reference and a way to represent the kind of power and chaos that
can be unleashed when people try to challenge nature.
One other reference I couldn’t help but notice from this
story was that of RW Jacob’s classic story “The Monkey’s Paw” or its more
recent novelization in King’s Pet Semetary, where the message is to be
careful what one wishes for (or maybe sometimes dead is better). Part of Dutchman’s
Creek’s allure is its ability to conjure up the dead and bring them back to
life; however, like all of these great stories, this kind of return comes at a
cost, primarily to the wisher or those that seek to spend some last moments
with their lost loved ones. Helen, a wife and mother who dies and “comes back
wrong”, helps to remind readers of this important message, and she was one of
the more terrifying examples of the unnatural consequences of trying to cheat
death. Langan repeatedly describes her eyes as a haunting, glowing yellow, but
also notes how her body, destroyed by a carriage accident, remains bent at odd,
unnatural angles. She speaks in a watery, garbled voice, and eventually
undergoes a kind of piscine transformation. Her husband, George, struggles to
keep his sanity after Helen’s return, and eventually experiences one of the
more frightening and gross deaths, spewing continuous streams of black water
and eye-headed tadpoles. I loved Langan’s imaginative creatures and consequences
of exploring the dark arts. He created such a terrifying vision and unique spin
on these stories, making it compelling to read. Rainer and colleagues
eventually must battle Der Fisher, the mysterious man who has brought so much
chaos to the town, and the remainder of Howard’s story details these events.
There’s so much inventive cosmic horror happening in these sections, it was
really cool to read. However, I loved how Langan uses this story about death
and grief to set us up for Abe and Dan’s visit to Dutchman’s Creek, leaving us
to wonder about Dan’s intentions of visiting this creek where the dead seem to
return, but possibly all wrong or at a cost. It’s a great narrative structure
that has several interconnected stories all tied together. It’s a brilliant
book, and I’m glad that I was finally able to read this amazing story. I know
it was on my to-read list, and after reading Langan’s essay from the excellent
collection Why I Love Horror edited by Becky Siegel Spratford, I knew
that I wanted to read this book. It exceeded my expectations, and is a book I
not only recommend, but would love to revisit.
No comments:
Post a Comment