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Sunday 27 February 2011

Book: Sacrament (Clive Barker, 1996)


Anyone who knows me well enough will know that Clive Barker, like Stephen King and James Ellroy, is an author who I enjoy greatly. Every one of his works I have read with fascination and elation, culminating recently, with my reading of his best work to date, Everville, the second book of his yet to be concluded Art Trilogy. He has a way with words that is flowery yet unpretentious and has an imagination that has no fear in blending the fantastical, the sexual and the macabre.

Which is why it is with a heavy sigh that I report that Sacrament is not very good. His most straightforward novel since his terrific debut, The Damnation Game, Sacrament is a novel that seems totally unsure of itself. This may be in turn due to my lack of understanding in the book’s message. As far as character motivations go, I can understand Will’s obsession with extinct animals falls back to his encounter with Jacob Steep, the antagonist, as a young boy yet Steep’s sudden decision to kill adult Will baffled me. Its philosophical message also feels muddled and somewhat incomprehensible. Either that or I’m just being stupid.

Effectively, it’s a 600-page book that doesn’t really go anywhere. The beauty of The Art saga (The Great and Secret Show and Everville respectively) is that the mythology behind it is concrete and meticulous, with Barker able to guide his readers through a multitude of fantastical places and ideas that compliment each other to great effect. With Sacrament, his intention appears to be that of a philosophical debate about the nature of life and death and the importance of both. It fails to become muddled and, at times, completely up itself.

I think my next Barker read will be Weaveworld, his second full novel. It has all the classic Barker tropes that I love. Unfortunately, Sacrament doesn’t.

2/5

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