Review: My Work Is Not Yet Done by Thomas Ligotti

Title: My Work Is Not Yet Done
Author: Thomas Ligotti

Publication Date: June 1st, 2002

Publisher: Mythos Books

Genre: Horror

Pages: 200
Award: Bram Stoker Award (2002)
International Horror Guild Award (2002)

Source: Rented from local library

Rating:

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

When junior manager Frank Dominio is suddenly demoted and then sacked it seems there was more than a grain of truth to his persecution fantasies. But as he prepares to even the score with those responsible for his demise, he unwittingly finds an ally in a dark and malevolent force that grants him supernatural powers. Frank takes his revenge in the most ghastly ways imaginable - but there will be a terrible price to pay once his work is done.

Destined to be a cult classic, this tale of corporate horror and demonic retribution will strike a chord with anyone who has ever been disgruntled at work.

A | B&N | Gr

Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is a contemporary American horror author and reclusive literary cult figure. His writings, while unique in style, have been noted as major continuations of several literary genres – most prominently Lovecraftian horror – and have overall been described as works of "philosophical horror", often written as philosophical novels with a "darker" undertone which is similar to gothic fiction. 

The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction"; another critic declared "It's a skilled writer indeed who can suggest a horror so shocking that one is grateful it was kept offstage.”

Website

By the time I first picked up a book by Thomas Ligotti, I had already heard his name a dozen times in horror circles and conversations with friends.  While searching for works by other authors, I must have run my finger across the spines of his books countless times without ever realizing what I was passing by.  After finally reading a few of his novels and short stories, I have found that he really does earn his place as one of Horror’s best kept (pseudo)secrets.  Any readers of Lovecraft will be able to pick out his threads of influence in Ligotti’s writing, but his style of dark, cosmic, philosophical horror is all his own. 

Obscurity in a writer you enjoy is always a two edged sword.  It is nice to have that feeling of intimate kinship, knowing you’re the only person in the room that has read something.  On the other hand, you will find yourself trekking to every used bookstore in town, searching fruitlessly for the next read (before you break down and buy the e-book).   My search led me to my local library, where I finally found what must be the only surviving copy of a book by Ligotti in town: “My Work Is Not Yet Done.”  There were plenty of other books of his that I found myself more drawn to from the cursory research I had already done, but after a day of impotent questing I was happy to have at least found something.

My Work Is Not Yet Done is a compilation of novellas following a common theme of demonic and otherworldly encounters in an office setting.  Think of Office Space meets American Psycho if Christian Bale’s character happened to have an encounter with a malevolent deity.  The title work, My Work Is Not Yet Done takes up the majority of the two-hundred or so pages, and as such claims much of the focus.  It is written in first person narrative form (for the most part) and reads with a voice like an edgy crime novel.  From the themes to the philosophies epitomized by the characters, all the way down to the language and setting, darkness is king.

Ligotti does a fine job at addressing the every-day horrors of corporate life by showing the decay and malignancy caused by spending one’s life toiling for a job that not only fails to satisfy but seems to suck away everything that makes you human.   The celebration of mediocrity and the bottom line that is today’s cube farm, takes on its own persona in these tales.  The real-life horrors of the work place conjured up by Ligotti are almost scary enough until the disgruntled and revenge-bound protagonist happens upon (or is set upon by) other-worldly and demonic powers.  These powers allow for some of the most interesting and inventive tableaus in horror.  The abilities gained by the main are endless in scope and are only limited by the twisted imagination of their wielder.  The protagonist’s thirst for revenge and the completion of his “work” is so great that he ignores clues as to the limitations of his power knowing that some sort of grim finality awaits him upon completion of his vengeance.  

In I Have a Special Plan for This World and The Nightmare Network, the vein of corporate nihilism continues in a much less conventional manner.  The first deals with a company whose supervisors meet their end in various and unsavory ways in a city with an inexplicable yellow fog that seems to grow thicker as the body count rises.  The Second is a collection of what appears to be correspondence from a company that makes dreams and implants thoughts, ultimately with dramatic consequences.  While the second two stories are much shorter and less character or plot-based, the dark themes and office-centered bloodbaths continue in just as unsettling a fashion as in the title story.

I would recommend this book to any fan of dark horror or even dark fiction.  Ligotti has a way of incorporating black comedy into his horror in a deliciously twisted way.  While the second two stories seemed almost like extras compared to the first, the innovation and inventiveness of his storytelling and prose more than make up for what I would consider stories that are just too short.  While I wouldn’t be happy with artificial lengthening, a few more chapters in each story would have been nice.  Overall, I enjoyed this book enough that after renting it from the library, I bought a copy for my collection to re-read at my leisure.  

Cinematic Saturdays - Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Those of you who watched last week’s collaborative video review of the Twilight Saga may have fallen under the impression that I hate vampires unconditionally. While I’m certainly averse to bad writing (sorry Stephenie Meyer), and feel that vampires have been grossly overrated and overdone in recent years, there are still a handful of interpretations that I feel are worthy of recommendation. Anne Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire, handled the mythical monsters beautifully; as did Swedish novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of today’s book, Let the Right One In.

Title: Let the Right One In

Author:  John Ajvide Lindqvist

Publisher: Quercus

Publication Date: January 2004

Pages: 513

Genre: Horror, Drama

Rating: 

Summary (from Goodreads): 

It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night....

Warning - contains spoilers: I’m just going to throw it out there right now that the synopsis provided by Goodreads makes the book sound really lame. It’s not. Though it’s dark and, at times, genuinely upsetting (are we noticing a theme with my posts?) it’s an impeccably crafted story that possesses true originality.

Lindqvist paints a heartbreaking portrait of protagonist Oskar, a broken twelve-year-old boy struggling to cope with his parents’ recent divorce and merciless bullying at school. While his mother is physically present, he has no allies, and so is immediately fascinated by the strange girl who moves in next door. Spoiler alert; she’s a vampire. And unlike some vampires I could mention, she’s a legitimate threat.

Though the story of her transformation is never fully clarified, Eli is an eternally adolescent girl forced to consume human blood to survive. Talk about being dealt a rough hand. Her diet isn’t just a preference, nor can it be avoided. If she abstains for too long she will die, and becomes violently ill if she attempts to eat anything else. Because she doesn’t age, everyone she grows to care for eventually dies, and because she’s prone to the clumsiness and moodiness of infinite puberty (yikes), she cannot hunt her own victims lest she leave a mess behind and get caught. Enter Håkan.

Håkan’s character is such a raging, disturbing bummer. Especially when we realize that he’s a reflection of what Oskar will inevitably become.

Drawn to Eli as a lonely adolescent, Håkan ran away to be with her. He developed a science for murder that guarantees both Eli's anonymity, and her dependence on him. Because she is, quite literally, the only “person” in his life, he has strong feelings for her; feelings that are wildly inappropriate when he enters middle age. He’s increasingly jealous of the little boy next door, and has no choice but to continue bringing Eli fresh blood in the hope of winning her affections. He becomes sloppy as tensions grow, and is eventually arrested for murder. He later (before any trial can begin) offers himself as a meal to Eli to ensure that he never sells her out. It’s soon after Håkan’s death, and a brush with death of his own, that Oskar runs away with Eli to begin the horribly depressing cycle all over again.

Contrary to the sparkly allure, hormonal infatuation, and convenient “vegetarianism” of other vampires (and those that they attract), the characters of Let the Right One In are drawn together through mutual, desperate loneliness. It’s one of those stories in which even the villains are so complex that they almost don’t exist. The wrongdoers, like Oskar’s incomprehensibly harmful bullies, only do wrong out of their own desperation. …Be prepared to cry.

The Pros: This book boasts a masterful story arc as well as immaculate character development, and the frequent, flawless execution of metaphor and foreshadowing. It’s also the most “realistic” vampire story I’ve ever read, as though Lindqvist catalogued all possible conflicts and dramas that could arise from the presence of vampires in our world before he ever started writing. Beautifully done.

The Cons: This book also contains several gratuitous scenes depicting pedophilic violence that I feel in no way enhanced or reinforced the story. The only purpose they serve is to disturb the reader, and so I found them offensive and gimmicky. 

Let the Right One In was first adapted to film by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson in 2008. I happened upon it on Netflix on a day when I had nothing going on, and decided on a whim to watch it. This was before I’d read the book or even knew it was adapted from a novel, but I immediately fell in love. As soon as the credits rolled I was on my computer researching the story, and checked the book out at the library the next day.

It’s rare to find a horror movie that can also move me to tears, but Let the Right One In did just that. I was simultaneously frightened by, and felt an insatiable need to rescue, every character.

Because John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of the book, also wrote the screenplay, the film was incredibly true to the novel, and didn’t go overboard with the stereotypical devices of horror film. There was no over-the-top makeup, manipulative music, or scream-inducing monsters jumping out from shadows. And despite 90% of the film falling on the shoulders of child actors, it was surprisingly genuine. Kåre Hedebrant (Oskar), and Lina Leandersson (Eli) were amazing in their roles, despite each only being twelve years old at the beginning of filming.

This movie is deliberate, quietly unsettling, and to be frank, perfect.

Rating: 

An American remake called Let Me In was released in 2010 by director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield). When I found out this was in production, I flipped my proverbial s*** and immediately began bugging my husband to take me on opening night.

While Let Me In was not as true to the book as the original film-adaptation (and didn’t exactly clean up at the box-office) I felt it was a great effort. Cinematically speaking, there was a particular, single-shot scene that just freaking blew my mind. Without giving too much away; “car accident.” Watch and wait.

I think it’s safe to say that Let Me In is more based on the original film than the book itself, and alters a handful of very basic things. The characters Oskar and Eli, now played by Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz, were changed to the more generic names “Owen” and “Abby.” I think this was to solidify the notion that these children could theoretically be anyone. And that’s really the genius of this story; the suggestion that there is danger where you absolutely least expect it. It’s a shockingly cerebral story that sticks with you long after it’s over.

This film is beautifully shot and acted – again by exceptionally talented young actors that we would do well to watch out for in the future. The only real qualm I have with Let Me In is that it is more of a stereotypical horror film. There are several points in the movie when Moretz (Abby) looks positively nightmarish. The use of freaky contacts, prosthetics, makeup, and buckets of fake blood do detract a bit from the story. I wouldn’t say that made me love it less, but it did make me love it in a completely different way.

Abby...you're not looking well.

Rating: 

If you’re interested in reading the book, or adding either movie to your collection, all three can be purchased via the links below.

Thanks for tuning in!