Anyone here familiar with the short stories or (possibly) novels of Charles Birkin?
Midnight House, the Seattle small-press publisher, has just brought out a volume of his short stories, and it sounds kinda interesting. From what I’ve been able to learn of him, he published mostly in the 1960s-70s, died in 1985, and worked in the SF/Fantasy/Horror/Conte Cruel genres…
RealityChuck? Da Ace? Any of our other SF experts know this guy? Is he worth a fairly sizable investment of cash (Midnight House charges about forty bucks a book, as their print runs are in the three-figure range), or is he justly forgotten?
…are three of the story titles mentioned by the one reviewer at the Amazon.com page for the book. She’s a little vague about content, but describes how the stuff made her FEEL quite well.
Villiers de l’Isle Adam, Maurice Level, David Keller are major exponents.
Cute little plots like
“Girl sells her body to earn funds for the burial of her executed lover…next morning finds that she screwed the guy who pulled the lever on the guillotine!”
or
“Jealous lover throws acid in her boyfriend’s face when she thinks he’s cheated on her…realizes she had suspected him unfairly and comes to beg forgiveness…he treats her tenderly and forgivingly just long enough to throw acid in HER face, locking them together in a hellish mutual life of blindness.”
Nothing to add, but I have to say that if there was an “Ike and Eve” TV show consisting of nothing other than the two of them bantering back and forth, I’d watch it every day. Even if I’d almost never get the references.
You want to get anything done in this country, you’ve got to complain until you’re blue in the mouth.
from Barron; HORROR LITERATURE: A READER’S GUIDE, Garland, 1990:
Birkin, Charles (U.K.) 1907-1985.
THE KISS OF DEATH, 1964. Fifteen stories in which Birkin’s precise, detached style moves from a placid, often elegant setting with ordinary characters involved in mundane activities to intense, visceral finales. Although supernatural or science fiction elements sometimes enter the stories, the major thrust of Birkin’s fiction is psychological, with an emphasis on the bizarre, obsessional, insane, and often purely evil.
Sample story titles:
“Les Belles Dame Sans Merci”
“The New Ones”
“Hard to Get”
“My Name is Death”
“Hosanna”
“Ballet Negre”
“The Lesson”
“Is There Anybody There?”
“The Cornered Beast”
“Spawn of Satan”
“Wedding Presents”
“The Beautiful People”
Sounds like he’s someone I’d like…I think I’ll try the book. And DON’T expect me to lend it to any of yez.
I have nothing to add here, but I can’t stop giggling at the mental pic of Eve dressed up like Gore Vidal and going door to door on Halloween.
::knock, knock, knock, knock::
::door opens::
befuddled housewife in patronizing voice: “Awww, how…cute. It’s um…it’s uhhh…and just what are you supposed to be?”
[eve talking in adam sandler voice]
“Hi, I’m a crazy writer guy, and I’m on the editing board for Modern Library! How else would Burr make it into the list of otherwise respectable selections they normally publish? GIMME SOME CANDAAAYYYYYYY!!”
[/eve talking in adam sandler voice]
Sorry, please carry on.
Aren’t y’all sweet . . . Water, there actually WILL be an “Ike and Eve” show on UPN as a replacement this January. It will star Puff Daddy and Li’l Kim. I am expecting big things of this show . . .
Now, back to the OP: has anyone here read Junior Durkin, or whatever the hell the guy’s name was?
(confidentially, that’s going to be the opener on the IKE AND EVE program.* If you enjoy MY version, wait’ll you hear Puff the Magic Daddy do it!)
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