Book Review: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

This awesome cover is by Jarrod Taylor.

Reviewing this here as well as on Goodreads and Amazon, 'cause this book may well be in the running for my (coveted!) 2016 Book of the Year pick (I do love it when I've got an early candidate and bonus points when it's a book published that year — last year a lot of my favorites were from the 60s and 70s).

Oh, Lovecraft! Who hasn't loved a good game of Call of Cthulhu, enjoyed going to Portland's The Lovecraft Bar, had fun at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival? The mythos, the silly fun.

And, why not? Lovecraft's novel At the Mountains of Madness is a worthy read despite (because of?) the myriad descriptions of grotesque penguins.

Although, those short stories come packed with verbiage. Admittedly, some of them read like word quicksand studded with gemstones. But then there's "The Cats of Ulthar" (Cats!).

But, can we get serious here, while we're having fun? Matt Ruff does, and it's brilliant.

Inspired, in part, by Pam Noles' essay "Shame," about being a marginalized black science fiction fan, Ruff decides to subvert Lovecraft's xenophobia and racism. The author brilliantly juxtaposes the supernatural horrors of Lovecraft Country with the very real and frighteningly pervasive horrors of Jim Crow country. In this time of the Black Lives Matter movement, and with the recent decision by the World Fantasy Convention to no longer use Lovecraft's image as a symbol of its award, it's the perfect time to read this novel. See also: “Avowed Racist” HP Lovecraft will No Longer Represent the World Fantasy Award, 4 Years After Nnedi Okorafor’s Initial Call."

This book reads as an antidote to some poisonous Lovecraftian themes.

Whoa, you may think. That's a great idea, spot-on, it needs to be done, but it's so ambitious. Can the author pull this off?

Now, if you've read Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls, (2003) Ruff's novel that takes place in the mind of a person with multiple personality disorder, you have confidence. The author has chops. Tiptree Award-winning chops.

Still, Lovecraft is a cult-figure, legendary. It's a lot of legacy to toy with — but, yes, Ruff does it well.

One of the keys (writers, take note) is smart structure. It's a series of tightly linked stories (which works perfectly to invoke Lovecraft's works) and keeps up the pace.

Ruff also employs all of the delightful and kitschy Lovecraftian tropes (cults, aliens, phantasms), but brings in interesting, stalwart characters and axes the florid language.

I loved the deftness of one scene in which Ruff's character must face a supernatural situation, "Ruby saw then she had a choice to make: She could give up and go completely mad, or she could just deal with the situation. Being Eloise Dandridge's daughter, she decided to deal."

In H.P. Lovecraft's hand, she would have given up and gone mad — in an overwrought tizzy.

Ruff's care results in a fun book, which tackles serious subjects (like a society that needs a movement like Black Lives Matter).

"That's the horror, the most awful thing: to have a child the world wants to destroy and know that you're helpless to help him. Nothing worse than that. Nothing worse."

Via her blog, author Cat Rambo recommended one of the best books I read in 2015, You Should Read This: Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle:

"This is the sort of book you should read through once in order to experience it for the first time; then go back and see how the writer accomplished that experience. Doctor Rat looks at difficult, political things in a way only the greats manage."

This description suits Lovecraft Country, too. It would pair well as a read with Octavia Butler's Kindred.  See also The Ballad of Tom Black by Victor LaValle. I'm adding it straightaway to my to-reread list. Recommended for lovers of literature, science fiction, and H.P. Lovecraft.

Also, of note: Writer, researcher and rare book expert Lisa Gold (Ruff's wife) has done this. How cool is that?! Literary power couple!