Hey, if they’ll publish it more than once, it’s gotta be good, right? This 1977 book was just re-released and I was sufficiently intrigued by the premise, Mr. King’s quote, and the wildly variant reviews on Goodreads to give it a try. First, I’d like to take a look at the re-designed cover. Not that this has any bearing on the content of the book itself, but I do think it’s interesting to see how changing audiences and reception of certain genres affects the way a book looks. Cuz I definitely judge books by their covers—ain’t nobody got time to read the synopses of EVERYTHING that’s coming out—and designers know their audience. If you like (or dislike) a certain kind of book, it can become easy to instantly form an opinion about a book based on its design elements. I don’t think I’d be wrong to say that the colors, typefaces, images, and design are definitely influential in your snap decision on whether to pick up this book or that book in the store. It’s definitely more modern, with a cool, dark green background and that mysterious girl facing away from us in some body of water. It’s got that large, elongated, sans-serif font that identifies it at once as a thriller. Most of the other older editions have all-type treatments, or something close to it, but those all feel a lot more masculine to me. Besides the first edition cover(s if you’re including the technically-more-first British edition) which are just too 70s for me to understand who they are trying to be marketed to, there is the mass market which ties to the Ghost Story mass (and a couple other Straub books too, I think), and then there is a reprint from 2000, which has a very manly cover that is dark and blunt and red. Especially when compared side by side, the 2015 cover really feels geared towards women who enjoy reading thriller/mystery books. And hey, in today’s market, that is definitely the audience that will be interested in this book.I actually enjoyed this more than the other Straub books I’ve read. Weirdly, although this is one of his older books and the bulk of the book is set in the mid-1950s, it felt very modern, as though it could be set in a small Midwestern town in 2015. The one detail that threw me was that main character Miles had to hire an older lady to come cook and clean for him every day—that is a very 50s detail.This book really sits deep in the wedge of the uncanny. I spent a lot of the book trying to decide whether or not something supernatural was occurring; Miles is certainly a case study for unreliable narrators. I couldn’t quite trust him throughout the book because his memories were so different from everyone else’s and he definitely goes a bit crazy about the past, but Straub navigates that uncertainty well. It was sort of like seeing the whole story through one of those funhouse mirrors. You are seeing everything that is there, it just might be distorted and unrecognizable depending on where it is in the mirror. You have to move around to remind yourself what your body is supposed to look like.The writing also feels more raw and untamed than Straub’s later works. It may not be as polished, but I think there is a truthfulness to the uneven quality of the writing and there are many truly beautiful passages and lines throughout. I enjoyed it, and it really feels like a book that could have a good sized audience this time around.
"If you forget, I'll come after you. If you forget, God help you." - Alison GreeningOn July 21, 1955 in the town of Arden, 13-year-old Miles Teagarden makes a pact with his over-sexed and mysterious 14-year-old cousin, Alison Greening,that they will return in 20 years time and meet again. 20 years later, a grown up, troubled Miles returns to the town of Arden to keep his promise, never able to get Alison Greening off his mind, his life is in shambles. The only thing he has left is that promise, that hope that Alison will re-emerge. When tragic events begin befalling the small hamlet, not long after his return, Miles realizes, Alison will keep her promise, she will return, but it won't be the Alison Greening he remembers from his dreams, but from his darkest nightmare.Not too long ago, I came upon Peter Straub's Ghost Story. I LOVED IT! Ever since I have been on the look out for more Straub novels. This, being my second Peter Straub experience, didn't disappoint. It's a chilling piece of work, shocked through with sexual tension, obsession and disturbing imagery. The story is very slow paced, if you're a fan of late 60's - late 70's horror, you know what I mean by that. My only gripe with this book, is that, save for one, all of the characters are deplorable human beings! The main character narrates the story, and he is completely unbalanced and utterly frustrating. The people of Arden are self-righteous hypocrites who pass judgement on everyone and everything that moves. The best character in the book is Alison Greening. Though she's technically only in it a brief few pages, her presence is constant throughout. She keeps you coming back, page after page, word after word. Just like Miles, you as the reader, find yourself obsessed with the enigma that is Alison Greening.
What do You think about If You Could See Me Now (2000)?
I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat like I wanted to be (or like Steve King, who wrote a rave on the back, wanted me to be). I could hardly see how the ending was grand guignol. Yes, a bit of gore, and I suppose in the moment it could be shocking, but this just wasn't Straub's strongest work. I'm still a big Ghost Story and Shadowlands fan, mainly because the protagonists in those works were likeable. Sure, Miles Teagarden didn't necessarily have all of the townsfolk's abuse coming his way, but he didn't help by being a jerk to everyone who crossed him, either. I also realize that perhaps we weren't supposed to fully empathize with him, but I can like a guy with flaws. I can't so much feel concern for a guy who doesn't think he has any.
—Adam K.
The BasicsMiles hasn’t been back to the family farm in Arden, Wisconsin in twenty years. He left behind a reputation as a troublemaker, but he feels Arden is the place to be no matter how the locals hate him. Because he has to keep a promise he made all those years ago.My ThoughtsLet’s start with Miles. He is the main focus and our narrator, and he shapes everything we see. To the point that I wonder if he is even remotely reliable. There’s a moment around the halfway point that will have you questioning him, and throughout the entire, wild ride, Miles will seem iffy after that, if he wasn’t already to begin with. To me, this is proof positive that Straub knew what he was doing. He knew the story he wanted to tell, one in which even the audience will start to wonder if the angry, hateful locals don’t have a point about Miles.It’s a wonderful ride to take for that reason. Everyone seems guilty, untrustworthy, and yet so is the very person telling the tale. It lends the story an air of the truly mysterious and suspicious. Straub, I’m learning as I read his work, is a master of tone. And not just with the mystery he puts forth in this novel, but with the way he sets up Miles as this haughty know-it-all faced with a town of plebeians that plague him. The point isn’t who we, the reader, should side with but rather wanting only to see how this butting of heads will go, knowing all the while that it will be explosive.My one nitpick would be that the book doesn’t really end. It just stops. Like Straub decided he was done writing. That was all he had, so that was it. While the line it ends on is fairly symbolic of Miles’s journey and has a touch of dark comedy to it, it felt kind of cheap after all we just went through.Straub brings class to horror unlike anyone I’ve ever read. He has literary tricks up his sleeve that will keep sophisticated readers happy throughout. I’m extra happy he’s chosen horror as his go-to genre.Final Rating4.5/5
—Quill
Peter Straub was one of those writers who wasn't necessarily a master at his genre when he first started out, but If You Could See Me Now, his second novel, shows signs of his development--an improvement from his first novel, Julia--and overall, it's a pretty good, but for me, it was little more than that.The title itself, I think, is promising enough, and in a way wished that this book lived up more to the title, and the tone that it implies. The story's premise is great: as a pre-teen, the main character, Miles, had a close and questionable relationship with his cousin Alison. One night in 1955 they go skinny-deeping in a quarry, and make a pact to reunite exactly twenty years from now. But only Miles left the quarry alive. Twenty years later, Miles returns to his hometown, convinced that his cousin Alison will honor the pact.It's a ghost story, and a horror story, but in retrospect, and what I often felt while in the midst of reading it, was that it maybe Straub shouldn't have gone for the horror approach to this story, and instead given it more heart, more meaning, than just being a horror ghost story. The concept seemed like it could use more heart, and the whole buildup seemed a little... well, unsatisfying, when it finally reached fruition. It had its creepy moments, the characters were all a bit strange and thus fun to read about, even when things got weird, but I was expecting something more from the climax of the story, something more than just ghostly terror, and sort of wish the book had gone to deeper places. That being said, minus expectations, this is a decent ghost story, and though not Straub's best, it certainly seems like a kind of foreshadowing to the greatness to come later in his career.
—Cody Lakin
