John Urbancik’s novella Necropolis may not be the perfect read for someone who insists on a traditional more linear story, but for someone who is interesting in a diversion into mood and texture, it offers great possibilities.
Taking place in one night in a large cemetery in New Orleans, Necropolis chronicles the encounters of a three separate groups of visitors with a place where the veil separating the worlds of the dead and living is very thin. A great amount of influence from Edgar Allen Poe is shown, and the entire thing has a very surreal quality. I think it is probably best read without over thinking why something is happening, and instead the reader should just enjoy the ride.
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the marriage of “literary” tropes with genre fiction, but Urbancik has done a good job of melding the two. In its brevity, it is a quick read, and I think it will work best for the reader when started and finished in the same session.
The book, available from publisher Bad Moon Books, features cemetery photographs taken by the author. They are well chosen to fit with the story, and I thought they added a lot.
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2 comments:
I liked the story, but his insistence on putting so much of the text in brackets really threw me out of the rhythm of the story
This is Jim ( amanda really needs to log out when using my computer)
Amanda, you've got to be more discreet. We don't want Jim to find out about us.
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