I think I may have to finally cave on my (admittedly foolish) no-new-books-for-2010 policy, if only to buy a copy of Joe Hill‘s new novel, Horns. I’ve been a big fan of Hill’s writing since his debut short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and while I didn’t think his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, quite lived up to those stories, it showed a whole lot of promise and was a really fun read. The new book sounds like it will be, too.
I particularly liked this recent interview with Hill at the AV Club:
AVC: Horror fiction tends to operate on a strict, E.C. Comics-style morality. In your stories, bad people still get punished, but there’s more sympathy toward people who make mistakes.
JH: There’s two things to say about that. First of all, I was talking to someone the other day who was talking about a line in the new Peter Straub novel [A Dark Matter], which I haven’t read. A character in the book’s saying, “What am I feeling here, horror or terror? I think it’s horror.†There is a difference. Terror is the desire to save your own ass, but horror is rooted in sympathy. It’s really rooted in this notion of imagining what it might be like for someone else to suffer the worst. On that level, I suspect that horror fiction is very humanizing.
Though he goes on to acknowledge that
Okay, one of the great flaws of genre fiction is, characters understand each other. They talk about a situation, they trade information in a way that makes perfect sense to both of them. I almost never have conversations like that in real life. I think that one of the things you see in literary fiction is a much more honest and daring approach about character, where characters have a tendency to talk past each other. They’re each talking… This is something I learned from watching John Sayles movies. A couple who are in love will sit down at a table and tell each other about the day, and neither one is really hearing a word the other person says. They’re talking, the conversations are existing on two different planes. I kind of love that. Because real connection is rare.
Yeah, I think I’m going to have to read this book. Maybe Straub’s new novel, too, come to think of it.
I’ve been eyeballing the new Straub but trying to show restraint. Now, I’m considering it and Horns. You’re killing me here!
No new books for 2010? That’s worse than no TV for Lent!
You win for total sacrifice. Hands down.
Well, I’m reading plenty of books, or at least no fewer than usual. I don’t think I could give up books altogether, even for Lent. It’s just, I already own a lot of books that I haven’t read yet and that I should maybe finish before buying any others that will just add to the pile.
I’ve been trying to cut down slightly on the book-buying for a while now — although I gotta say that buying no new books is just crazy talk — but I’ve already picked up a copy of Horns, just on the strength of his previous books. No idea when I’ll get around to reading it, but I’m looking forward. I really recommend the graphic series Locke & Key, too. I just recently read the first two volumes, and am now kind of wishing I hadn’t, only because it means that now I have to wait for the next one.
I’ve only read the first volume of Locke & Key, but I agree it’s very good. I was a little underwhelmed by Heart-Shaped Box, but I’m seeing a lot of good things about Horns and am definitely doing to read it.
The no-new-book policy is probably a little ridiculous. I’m just tired of buying books I never get around to reading. It would be easier if there weren’t so many good books out there left to read.