![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Although Judith identifies Gentle as her would-be assassin, the reader knows that Estabrook made his contract with a denizen of London's backstreets who goes by the name of Pie. Gentle, as Zachariah is known to his friends, is the lover Judith left for Estabrook. When the attempted murder fails, it draws John Furie Zachariah into the picture. Typical for Barker, the story begins with a display of human nature at its worst: Unable to bear the thought of his ex-wife Judith seeing anyone else, love-crazed Charlie Estabrook hires a hit man to dispose of her. Imajica is Barker's longest and most complex novel to date, but like Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show (1989) it explores the theme of the creative imagination and its relation to life. In Barker's fiction human nature is always the starting point for epic fables about life in alternate worlds uninhibited by conventional notions of society, sexuality and mortality. Though the motives and concerns of characters on the other side of Barker's looking glass frequently mirror our own, this should not be mistaken for a lack of imagination. SINCE the publication of his second novel, Weaveworld, in 1987, Clive Barker has played the role of a latter-day Lewis Carroll, using the materials of the mundane world to build bridges to the fantastic. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |