Books give Halloween‘ chills

T IS a day unlike

any other of the

year; one when the
dying light presages not
sleeping but an eery
awakening. Into a darkness
broken only by spectral
glimmerings and the feeble
illuminations of candles
guttering in the gaping
maws of jack-o’-lanterns
slithers a host of denizens
of the netherworld: ghosts
and goblins, wraiths and
witches, vampires and
werewolves (and of course,
this year, a selection of
political hopefuls with their
own version of
trick-or-treat’).

To the Spanish it is El Dia de los
Muertos (The Day of the Dead)
but to most of us it is better known
as Halloween (and formerly
‘Hallowe’en or All Hallows Eve).
Whatever we call it, it is undoubt-
edly our most enduring contact
with the pagan beliefs of old.

At the end of October, thin ten-
drils of superstition still insinuate
themselves through the cracks in
concrete and steel of a modern
world textured by technology and
link us with ancestors who sought
protection behind mud-daubed
wails on the one-night they
believed belonged to the Dead.

With Halloween lurking in the
shadows just around the corner it
seems only fitting that we take a
spine-tingling glimpse into some of
the literary stuff that celebrates the
forces of Good and Evil. Here
then, ripped from the crypts of
publishing’s legions, are three
works specially disinterred by your
reviewer,

The Penguin Book of Vampire
Stories is a softcover collection of
32 tales where the protagonists
had more than their lives ‘at
stake,’ so to speak. Vampire
Stories is a Who’s Who of the Liv-
ing Dead in print, with stories
ranging from an 1816 piece b
Lord Byron to contemporary fic-
tion of the 1980's.

The Penguin Book of Vampire
Stories (Penguin Books; 620 pp.;
$12.95) includes an examination
of the origins of vampire legends
as pen-fodder and even makes
reference to masters of other hor-
ror-related stories (such as Stephen
King) with recommendations as to
which authors/titles the reader
should seek out if his or her
sanguinary inclinations are un-
sated by this volume.

Then there is the new release in
hardcover of a Halloween classic:
Ray Bradbury‘s The Halloween
Tree, a marvellous tale entirely
faithful to its 1972 original.

The Halloween Tree (Alfred A.
Knoph, Publisher; 145 pp.; $18.75
in hardcover) lends itself beautiful-
ly to imaginative narration by
adults. The language is pure Brad-
bury at his best: writing that suc-

cinctly and almost magically
creates word-pictures of incredible
clarity. Here, ‘““wind...prowled
the sidewalks in invisible treads
like unseen cats’’ while smoke
“panted up out of a thousand
chimneys like the plumes of
funeral parades.”

The Halloween Tree tells the
story of a group of young boys
whose visit to a haunted house on

MIKE
STEELE

book reviewer

All Hallows Eve is but the beginn-
ing of a journey down the dark
corridors of 4,000 years of Hal-
loween observance."

They prowl through ancient
Egyptian burial tombs, Mexican
cemeteries and dusty American
catacombs thanks to the strange
powers of the house’s singular oc-
cupant, Carapace Clavicle
Moundshroud. In the process they
not only discover the meaning for
the costumes they wear, but also
find themselves put to a test of
friendship that involves their very
lives.

The Halloween Tree should be
part of every family’s library, a
delightful story that can be read
and re-read with no lessening of
the pleasure at retelling.

The third and final book this
week is your reviewer's way of
sinking his teeth into a bit of liter-
ary dessert, a feast for the mind
and the eye: Dean R. Koontz’ fab-

ulous fable, Oddkins.

Oddkins (Warner Books; $24.95
in hardcover) is a 183-page,
magic-brimming, large-format
book that serves as the battlefield
for the opposing armies of Good
and Evil. .

If the writer’s name seems to toll
a distant bell it may be because
this is the best-selling author of
Watchers, Strangers and Lightning
who has, in Oddkins, combined
his considerable literary talents
with those of illustrator Phil Parks.

The result of this fortuitous col-
laboration is a superb ‘read’ for
anyone over eight years of age
{although adults will, after opening
the covers of this book, undoubt-
edly be its most ardent sup-
porters).

The Oddkins of the book’s title
are very special toys crafted by Mr.
Isaac Bodkins, a toymaker whose
creations are imbued with life for
the purpose of providing compa-
nionship for children in need of a
friend. Bodkins confides to one of
his toys that the secrets of his art
are to be passed on to the
toymaker’s successor but this plan
is thwarted when the kindly old
man dies prematurely.

Bodkin’s untimely death not on-
ly breaks a magical thread but
allows the creations of an evil
toymaker to emerge from the
cellar where they have been kept
for many years. Now the good
toys of Isaac Bodkins must carry
on his work and combat the
dark-hearted toys that have unfor-
tunately been unleashed on an
unsuspecting world.

Oddkins is scary, heart-warm-
ing, loving and just plain spooky.

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