Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October has
become a modern-day October and Halloween literature classic. First published
in 1993, it made its first appearance as an audiobook this year, released at
the end of August. I’d often heard of it but never got around to reading it
over the years, so when Audible announced its publication in audio format, I
decided it would be the perfect opportunity to finally check it out. I waited
for the spooky month of October to come around to listen to it as the book’s story
unfolds from October 1st to the 31st, culminating on the
magical night of Halloween. This was Zelazny’s final novel before his untimely passing
and is considered by many as his finest.
Here’s the novel’s official
synopsis: “Loyally accompanying a
mysterious knife-wielding gentleman named Jack on his midnight rounds through
the murky streets of London, good dog Snuff is busy helping his master collect
the grisly ingredients needed for an unearthly rite that will take place not
long after the death of the moon. But Snuff and his master are not alone. All
manner of participants, both human and not, are gathering with their ancient
tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night. It is
brave, devoted Snuff who must calculate the patterns of the Game and keep track
of the Players—the witch, the mad monk, the vengeful vicar, the Count who
sleeps by day, the Good Doctor and the hulking Experiment Man he fashioned from
human body parts, and a wild-card American named Larry Talbot—all the while
keeping Things at bay and staying a leap ahead of the Great Detective, who
knows quite a bit more than he lets on.”
This is a lovely book! It’s not a
really a horror novel, but more of a fantasy with a pinch of mystery and at
times a quite humoristic story. Think of the classic Ray Bradbury novel Something Wicked This Way Comes and his
short story collection, The October Country,
but even lighter at times. It’s the perfect read for the month of October to
get you in the mood for Halloween. It’s not for everybody in the sense that it’s
entirely told from the point of view of animals, mainly Snuff, our protagonist
who is Jack’s dog. Who is Jack, you ask? I won’t divulge that here. But I will
say that this book is a love letter to the Universal Monsters movies of the
1930s, featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man and also a homage to the
writings of Ray Bradbury, old gothic novels, and features lots of H.P.
Lovecraft references with things like the Elder Gods and Cthulhu. As I said, if
a story told by animals isn’t your thing, then you should give this book a
pass. However, if you’ve enjoyed the kind of storytelling found in Richard
Adams’ Watership Down and/or Richard
Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull,
you’re very likely to enjoy this story.
The book is narrated to
perfection by Matt Godfrey who acts out a plethora of voices and gives every
animal character its own accent and personality. It was a joy to listen to him
narrate for the short running time of six and a half hours. The atmosphere he
and Zelazny paint easily comes to life in the listener/reader’s mind. One thing
that occurred to me as I was listening to it was that it’d make a gem of an
animated film, whether it be in traditional 2D animation or CGI. I’m actually a
little shocked it hasn’t been done yet!
A
Night in the Lonesome October is a novel I’ll most likely be revisiting
every year in October to go along with my tradition of watching certain movies
on a yearly basis during that wonderful autumn period leading up to Halloween.
If you’re looking for something different and new to do this year to spend the
days until All Hallow’s Eve, then I highly recommend lending your ears to Mr.
Zelazny’s now classic October tale.
Rating: Four stars out of five
Get your copy on Audible
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