Nocturnes on Radio 4

NOCTURNES, John Connolly’s new short story collection, began life way back in 2000 when Radio 4 producer Lawrence Jackson requested the Irish writer pen some ghost stories that could be broadcast. Those early stories, plus some new ones and two novellas, comprise the collection, which to my mind includes some of the best writing Connolly’s ever done. This past week, Radio 4’s featured a story a day from NOCTURNES, and they’ve chosen very wisely.

On Monday, Freddie Jones read “The Inkpot Monkey,” a rather disturbing tale about a blocked writer who buys the titular object at a charity shop and finds that he’s no longer blocked–but the price he has to pay is awfully great. I first read this a few months ago as it was included in the short story anthology LIKE A CHARM, and was definitely one of that collection’s standouts.

Tuesday’s “The Shifting of the Sands” is, IMO, the weakest story of the five here, though it has a strong sense of menace that’s pretty much characteristic of all of NOCTURNES. Wednesday’s “Some Children Wander My Mistake” is definitely one of my favorites, and one of the saddest stories. Clowns are a scary concept to begin with, and Connolly tweaks this fear even more as he describes what happens when a little boy attending the circus with his parents gets separated, and meets up with a tribe of clowns who aren’t just playacting at their craft.

Today’s installment, “Miss Froom, Vampire” was one of the lighter efforts. Or at least, the conversation between the protagonist and the young man who visits her about what she can and cannot do as a vampire cracked me up. Tomorrow, the final story will be “The New Daughter” which plays on a parent’s common fear: that the change from childhood to adolescence will alter a person irrevocably and turn them into something they simply weren’t before.

I think the reason I dig this collection as much as I do is because in short story format, Connolly has much freer rein to explore some of his more supernatural/gothic-tinged ideas in a distilled fashion. His writing style, while not exactly flowery, isn’t exactly clipped and spare, and in a novel, it can sometimes be an exhausting experience. But a short story allows for the development of one idea or maybe two, and thus keeps a certain focus that a novel doesn’t need to have. Other standouts in the collection include the opening novella,” The Cancer Cowboy Rides,” “The Ritual of the Bones,” which is a fairly searing indictment of class structure and school antics, and the closing novella starring Charlie Parker, “The Reflecting Eye,” which I think I like better than the novels (though I haven’t fully decided yet.)

What’s also of interest is how religiously themed a lot of these stories are. Many are set around churches, involve clerics and other clergy types battling demons and unspeakable evil. Although I’m not Catholic, I do identify with a lot of the underpinnings, and I expect Connolly will be grappling with religious subjects for a long while yet.

From aesthetic standpoint, the UK edition of NOCTURNES is one of the best-looking books I own. A smallish hardcover with an old-fashioned feel, each story is accompanied by a different graphic corresponding to the theme contained therein. I’m not a collector but I sure like owning this book. But since there is a limited edition, the US trade paperback’s out in March.