Title The CollectionAuthor Bentley Little
Pages 449
Year 2002
Publisher Signet
Reading time 4 days (February/March 2009)
Rating 8 / 10
Having read The Association I started reading this book. Then I read The Walking and then The Resort. All of them I made reviews and strangely or not I gave the first book 8,5 then 8, then 7.5 and finnally 5. You can read them here. It's falling down. I have more three books by him and I really hope this doesn't mean anything because I like the novels but something doesn't feel right in them.
Now this one...
This is a collection of short stories. Some are good some are not and some are so so... There are historical stories, horror stories, satirical stories, religious etc... I thing Bentley Little grabs everyday things and turns into something... else? It's quite good. Look at his books... Who had thought of things like The Policy? The Association? A good writer he is...
The most famous story is the Washightonians in which a man finds a letter where it says George Washinghton was a cannibal (eating children) and there are still people following that cult. It became so famous that an episode in Masters of Horror was made. (It was a little different than the story but good nevertheless). Colony is the other "historical" novel where things are not what they seem. USA is still a British Colony but nobody knows with the exception of a few key people. Then there is another war for indepedence.
Confessions of a Corporate Man is about the disagreements of several departaments in a company. But involves murder and betrayal. It's quite good.
The Sanctuary is a religous story that deals with Cal and his family. His mother sometimes enters a stage called "The Rage". It's quite good and ends beautifully.
Then we've got some other excelents stories like the The Phonebook Man (Paranoia just goes another level), Comes the Bad Time, The idol, Pillow Talk (What does it "thinks"?) and The Show (This one has a good twist in the end). Another good story and one of my favourite is Life with Father. Recylcing just goes another level. And not a particular good one.
There are in all 32 stories. Must of them are pretty good if you want to read bizarre stories. Not all of them are of Horror. Some just make you shake your head and laugh a little...
I enjoyed them. They are the reason I don't give up on Bentley Little even if the last two books were not of my liking.
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