Communion Town [Hardcover]

Wow this is a weird book, it has to be said, but it is written in such a way that you just become caught up in it, and the unbelievable becomes normal. An amazing read, it really takes you by surprise. You never quite know what is going on, whilst simultaneously feeling like you understand everything.

As other reviewers have remarked "Communion Town" seems more like a collection of short stories than a novel. In ten chapters, Thompson shows us disparate episodes in the lives of the inhabitants of an imaginary town. The world he creates is recognisable but, with just one remark, Thompson can send everything off-kilter and we realize that the city as seen through the eyes of his characters might actually be quite different from the one we are imagining. The individual chapters are great and I think all would work as standalone short stories. Throughout Thompson creates a creepy, sometimes Lovecraftian, atmosphere infused with horror and cosmic dread. There is also a Chandleresque episode full of noirish observations (a thug looks 'about as reassuring as a vending machine in a lift') and a great Sherlock Holmes pastiche starring Peregrine Fetch, 'the man who solved the Theft of the Paper Orchid, and who exposed the trickeries at work in the affair of the Nightmare Gallery'.

Although the chapters are very different they are linked both by the city and by a mysterious man-thing who becomes more prominent (and more terrifying) as the book progresses. The subtitle of "Communion Town" is 'a city in ten chapters' and I think Thompson does succeed in mapping the place whilst at the same time showing how the same environment can be very different depending on whose story is being told. Thompson does not make things easy for the reader, and one has to be prepared for ambiguity, fragmentation, and hints rather than explanation. By the end I found myself reading back over past chapters appreciating the at first indiscernible thread Thompson had woven through them.

I'm not entirely convinced that "Communion Town" works as a whole, but I greatly enjoyed and admired this strange and disturbing novel.

The first thing that struck me about Communion Town was the premise. It's an interesting idea, bringing together a collection of ten short stories that attempt to capture the heart and soul of an entire city. Each story focuses on different people at different times in the city's history, but all trying to offer some insight into the place that they inhabit.

The big question though, is does it actually work? Well, for the most part yes, it does. I'll come back to that later. First off, a quick look at some of my favourite stories.

Gallathea - A down at heel private eye searches the endless city streets for a missing person. This may be the standout tale for me. I suspect the book blurb writer may agree as it's directly mentioned on the back cover. Thompson gets the detective noir flavour of this spot on. Add to that a surreal layer of what may be mind-bending time travel and you'll find one of the some of the collection's most intriguing moments right here.

Good Slaughter - Reminiscent of Joseph D'Lacey and his rather wonderful horror novel Meat, this story follows an employee of a slaughter house as he comes to a shocking revelation about the work that he does and the city as a whole. Possibly the darkest episode in the novel, and all the better for it. There is a raw quality to this story that makes it suitably shocking.

The Significant City of Lazarus Glass - Meet detective Peregrine Fetch, Communion Town's very own Sherlock Holmes. He is endowed with the keenest of analytical minds and uses it to unravel the sinister crimes of the city's criminal fraternity. Fetch's latest case finds him tasked with uncovering the individual responsible for the deaths of the great detective's own contemporaries. This story made the collection for me. I think I could happily read an entire novel that focuses just on Fetch and his investigations.

The Rose Tree - Walking the streets of Communion Town after the sun his gone down is not the brightest of ideas. Ask Dilks, the owner of The Rose Tree Café, and his various clientele. Another story that veers towards the darker side of city living.

From my perspective, this collection improved the further I got into it. I wasn't really sure about the first few stories but Gallathea had me hooked. Good Slaughter is a horrific little gem and The Significant City of Lazarus Glass was pitch perfect. Those three stories are worth picking up the collection for alone.

It feels like some of the tales dance around the periphery of genre fiction while others are more fully committed. Perhaps I'm just not good at picking up on the subtler aspects of storytelling. The ones that worked for me were the stories that revelled in their genre roots. Others felt too ambiguous, like the author couldn't decide if they were genre fiction or not. My concern is that this ambiguity has the potential to be a little divisive when it comes to readers. If you're going to write a genre novel then embrace it in its entirety.

Overall the collection is a bit of a mixed bag. The stories that I enjoyed I really enjoyed while the others left me a little cold. That said, if Sam Thompson decides to right an entire novel featuring the characters in The Significant City of Lazarus Glass I'll be first in line to read it.