#BookReview #SummerThrills ‘Frights 1’ edited by Kirby McCauley

About the book…

This anthology was published in a single volume, in 1976, I bought this in parts as it was more affordable hence ‘Frights 1’, which was about 3 pounds on ebay.

The book contains 5 short stories, the first is more novella length and a foreword by Fritz Leiber as well as an afterward by Kirby himself.

The first thing I noticed is the lack of female writers, only one is included as the co-author of a story named ‘The Kitten,’ and that is Karen Anderson with her husband Poul.

The second thing to note is that this anthology is 160 pages long, however, unlike the unwieldy anthologies you might see today, this slim volume packs one heck of a wallop.

The stories are-

‘There’s A Long, long Trail A-winding’ by Russell Kirk. This is the story of a prison escapee who takes refuge in a town that turns out to be as haunted as her is. Bringing to mind the descriptions of the abandoned towns detailed at the start of ‘Salem’s Lot, Frank, the escaped convict, ends up in a house in Anthonyville, where he takes refuge from the winter weather in a small room at the top of the house. As his story is told through a letter he writes to his sister, a parallel story is revealed through his careful exploration of the house. The portraits in the hallways and noises heard in this abandoned mansion create a frisson of fear, especially when considering there are what looks like graves, or a memorial, oddly placed in the front garden of Tamarack House…

‘The Whisperer’ by Brian Lumley . A whisper becomes as urgent as a scream in this early tale by Brian Lumley, where a normal office worker becomes obsessed with the actions of a hunchback man who seems to follow him everywhere. Including into his home. Over the course of 2 weeks, this darkly funny tale has the reader witnessing the unravelling of a man’s sanity from start to gory finish.

‘Armaja Das’ by Joe Haldeman. The story title is a gypsy curse, laid at the feet of a man, John Zold, whose crime was to escape the slaughter of the gypsies in the Second World War, only to fall victim to his own superstitions in the land of the free. Adopting American ways of life and attempting to do good (and save taxes) by creating a foundation to benefit younger gypsies who were trying to settle in the USA, he meets fierce resistance from gypsy elders. You will never consider computer viruses in the same way again, and it has a last line that has left me haunted.

‘The Kitten’ by Poul and Karen Anderson. A House fire under mysterious circumstances begins this tale, following which we are introduced to the most odious,reprehensible figure I have read in a long time. Tronen is an executive bastard, burning his wife’s thesis because it is distracting her from being a wife, blaming her for their subpar sex life and a complete bellend to those who work under him. By the time the kitten lands on his doorstep you are genuinely hoping that he is burnt alive in this fire. After what he does to the kitten, you want him to survive the fire with 80% burns and to suffer for the rest of his natural life. Will there be justice in cleansing flames? Read it and see…

‘Oh Tell Me Will It Freeze Tonight’ by R.A Lafferty. The story of a weatherman predicting a storm will die down and leave his town alone as long as a bird that is 6 feet wide between the eyes is killed before it can break free from a horrible tree, rounds off this collection. I can’t truly pretend to understand it fully, but mustered through to the end, finding it neither thrilling, or horrifying. A bunch of men go out, looking for a tree, trying to make one accurate weather prediction. A bird comes from the tree and kills a bunch of people before flying off again. Eh. Maybe I just don’t get why it was included in here, but yes , yes it will freeze tonight.

I really enjoyed the afterword, funnily enough, as it bookends neatly with what Fritz Leiber talks about in the respect of what we fear, how it is expressed in stories, and how it develops. He is also damning of the way that the literature of suspense and horror is seen as less than, something I would maintain still happens today. Waterstones in Cardiff , for example, have slimmed down the horror section yet again to make room for a whole wall of manga books. What is left is a paltry collection of maybe 20 books with no effort to represent the healthy state of independently published horror. Smiths is the same, having lumped together fantasy/sci-fi and horror, doing a disservice to all three wedged in on a couple of shelves between romance novels, and biographies. To tease out a response from using horror fiction is incredibly difficult, and to do so, you need to tap the vein of what people find horrifying.

The biggest thing I did notice-apart from the casual mention of violence towards women, that has not changed in fiction or real life-was that there was a lack of swearing. Each tale stood on it’s own merits and worked a psychological/suspense rather than out and out horror angle and considering it was published late 70’s/early 80’s, depending on where in the world you lived, that required a lot of slow reading to appreciate the plot. Normally I would have ripped through a book this size very quickly, however, it has taken me 3 days in total to finish it. WIll I pick up Book 2? Probably, if I can find a cheap enough copy!

About the editor…
Kirby McCauley (1941-2014) was a New York City literary agent and editor.

He attended the University of Minnesota and became a literary agent in the 1970s, soon building a successful agency and representing authors such as Stephen King, Roger Zelazny, and George R.R. Martin, who credits him with helping to launch his writing career. In 1975, McCauley chaired the first World Fantasy Convention.

He died of of renal failure associated with diabetes in 2014.