Jack Ketchum is very rarely off his game, and I’m delighted to say he is in top form in CLOSING TIME AND OTHER STORIES. This too-thin collection from Gauntlet Press brings together 17 hard-to-find gems, one previously unpublished piece and the brilliant title story, which won the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for long fiction. It’s so good I can almost picture the other finalists drowning their sorrows together in the hotel bar … before the ceremony even began.
It should come as no surprise to his fans that Ketchum pulls off feats of violence and poignancy with equal aplomb, as in “Olivia: A Monologue,” collected here, but those only familiar with novels like THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and especially OFF SEASON will find themselves pleasantly moved reading these stories.
Though almost everything here is subtle and relatable, when I turned the final page of the title story, I was reminded of the first time I read Stephen King’s “The Last Rung on the Ladder” – maybe one of the saddest stories ever penned, buried in a book with bloodthirsty children slashing through cornfields and tourists, rats run amok and industrial laundry machines brunching on their operators. Ketchum’s story of two blacklisted lovers in the days following 9/11 will likely have you scrambling for your dog-eared copy of ROMEO AND JULIET, even if they aren’t.
The OTHER STORIES are also well-crafted and powerful, beginning with “Returns,” a ghost story that will ring true to anyone who’s ever been close to a pet, and the sneaky “Damned if You Do,” which reminded me fondly of Joe R. Lansdale’s overlooked “Drive-In Date.”
“At Home with the VCR” is exclusively dialogue, which is one of the author’s strong points, and “Hotline,” about a retired policeman working the phones for a crisis center, is at once horrible and heartbreaking. The cigarette mafia discusses little-known facts in a New York bar in “Lighten Up,” another high point. Beyond having the most clever title of any story in recent memory, you’re likely to learn something reading it, providing its characters aren’t full of shit, which they might be.
As good as the title story is, “Station Two” might be the best thing in the collection. In a few pages, Ketchum manages to make us care for its characters as though we’ve lived with them through a full novel, and it should be required reading for anyone who’s ever tried to write a story from multiple points of view.
In lieu of a lengthy introduction or forward, Ketchum provides afterword snippets for each piece, some of which are nearly as fun as the stories themselves. Reading his brief commentary, it’s easy to tell he enjoyed writing these stories as much as you will reading them. –Jason Light
Buy it at Amazon or at Gauntlet Press.
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OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum
• LADIES’ NIGHT by Jack Ketchum
• OFF SEASON by Jack Ketchum
Related posts:
- The Girl Next Door
- Ladies’ Night
- Off Season
- The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time
- Ghost House Books + ghost stories = monster sales
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