Favorite Weird Books

A few weeks ago, Michael AKA the Mad Hatter at The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review asked me to participate in a feature he was planning to run, in which he would ask a number of authors what is the strangest book they’ve ever read. Some pretty cool people participated, and a few days ago Michael posted the results. Here’s my own response:

I’ve read a lot of bizarre books, perhaps more bizarre than my choice, but I also have to consider literary merit…so the book that comes to mind is the novel The Other Side of the Mountain by Michael Bernanos. Bernanos was the son of the well known French author, George Bernanos, and if I recall correctly he was a troubled soul who died young. My aunt gave me this novel when I was a teenager, and its haunting imagery and desolate atmosphere have remained with me over the decades. The story itself is simple: a merchant vessel becomes becalmed at sea, and then wrecked, the only survivors being the young protagonist and an older cook. They reach an eerie island, where the trees all bow down to the ground at night, and where the statues (or are they statues?) of human beings can be found on the slopes of the island’s ominous central mountain. Did the characters survive the wreck after all, or are they actually in Hell? Their efforts to survive are both depressing in their futility, and inspiring, in that the characters never cease to struggle against their circumstances, and their friendship sustains them where nothing else can. The story can be seen as a descent into madness (the author’s?), and its hellish feel may have been inspired in part by the fact that Bernanos’ father was a devout Catholic. The novel was republished a few years ago by Cherokee Publishing Company; it’s a short read and I encourage readers of horror, dark fantasy, and the surreal to check it out.

Please read the entire article to see what other authors/editors like Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Lou Anders had to say:

http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-weirdest-book-youve-ever-read.html

And if you’re interested in ordering my choice, Michel Bernanos’ THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, it can be found here at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0877971803/?tag=jeffreythomas-20

BTW — please forgive me; I gave the author’s name as Michael in my response, but it’s actually Michel. Maybe I was thinking of the Mad Hatter himself.

Pictured above is Michael Cisco’s novel THE TRAITOR, one of author Ekaterina Sedia’s choices for weirdest book. I had considered choosing one of Cisco’s books, too, but they’re ALL so wonderfully weird! He’s one of my favorite authors. I haven’t read THE TRAITOR, yet, but I did see Michael (another Michael!) read an excerpt from it at Readercon a few years ago — he always does a mesmerizing reading.

I’d like to ask those of you who read my blog to comment below — what’s the weirdest book YOU’VE ever read…hmm?