Carnies
Martin Livings
Lothian Books 2006
ISBN 0 7344 0969 9

Carnies combines classic horror archetypes: werewolf and carnival freak. There's double danger of falling into cliché; Livings handles different aspects of the archetypes with varying success. Although the word 'werewolf' never appears in the novel, Livings' werewolves are well realized through sensual description, rhythmic, unromantic with brutal self-assuredness ' a convincing werewolf point of view. His society of werewolves, conflicted by physical manifestation of different beliefs or multiculturalism ' this is a resonant theme, yet falling short of it's potential.

With The Dervish Carnival (located just outside sleepy south-west Australian town Tillbrook for over a hundred years) Livings didn't quite evoke the mesmerizing hurdy-gurdy atmosphere of a world behind a painted façade that makes a carnival work in a horror context. The inclusion of certain modern accruements ' a hurricane fence for instance ' didn't really gel with the carnivals age or the resigned fear of townsfolk. A delightful touch was engaging with the carnival through a characters laconic wit. 'Dervish Carnival. A time capsule wrapped in canvas and shrouded in secrecy. It is a throwback to an earlier era, when the carnival was more than just an excuse to eat fairy floss and throw up on a rollercoaster. It was a celebration, and a denouncement, an accusatory comment on the voyeuristic tendencies of the people who flocked to it. It was an excuse to eat and drink and enjoy the baser side of life. It was'¦' David trailed off for a moment, thinking, before continuing to speak into the recorder. 'It was a pile of horse manure, just like this story.'

The story rides on masculine characterization - brothers. David Hampden, a middle-aged journalist, his career slipping into mediocrity; Paul Hampden, a deadbeat on disability in terms of his self-esteem, in desperate need of an awakening. Their not-unloving conflict is what gives Carnies its Zing! The portrayal of the main female characters Rachel and Jasmine ' both werewolves - is unsatisfying. Jasmine demonstrates a lusty willfulness with obsessive passions, which gutter out inexplicably. Rachel, the alpha female, is never realized convincingly; her passivity is incongruous. The females exist as transformative device, rather than distinct character.

Does it all come across as an attempt to crossbreed Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes with Gary Brandner's The Howling? No, but then Livings doesn't approach Bradbury's poeticism (nor does he aspire to such artistry). Carnies is descended from Brandner's action-driven style of storytelling, as the Press Kit interview illustrates. 'My main inspiration for the book was a certain style of horror novel that seemed to be quite common in the seventies and eighties. These were books that usually ended up in delis and newsagents on revolving racks, and sold for fifty cents or so. They had titles like Snowman, Cannibal and The Fungus.' [Interview by Lee and Lyn Battersby.] Accordingly Carnies is bereft of astonishing originality, with clumsy devices that render plot structure transparent ' which is distracting ' yet overall, a fun horror rollick.


© Talie Helene 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Originally Published in the PostMortem E-Newsletter, February 2007.

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