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9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City's Terrorism Novels by Danel Olson
octavia_cade's review
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.5
First, I have to admit, of the five novels analysed here I have read precisely none, so my reaction is likely coloured by that. On the one hand I wonder if I might have found it a little more compelling if I were familiar with the source material, but on the other... I'm not honestly sure that I want to read the source material. Most of it sounds unpleasant. Which is absolutely the point, as novels about 9/11 are hardly likely to be easy reads, but the only one I think I'd consider picking up is Lynne Sharon Schwartz's The Writing on the Wall. Olson has articulated well why he thinks critical reaction to these novels has been less than satisfactory, and he is convincing in his arguments, but still...
Even with my ignorance, though, parts of this were fascinating. I kind of changed my mind on it partway through, as I'm used to my ghost stories being a little more overt in their ghostliness, whereas a lot of what Olson is talking about here is Gothic trauma and how it nudges up against the supernatural, and not always in expected ways. Once I stopped thinking about this as a critical exploration of very-little-ghosts and started thinking of it as an exploration of the destabilising effects of trauma (which is probably what the author intended) I started to get a lot more interested. The actual phenomenon of survivors taking on attributes of the dead, in their mannerisms and behaviour, for instance, is an example of this, producing an amalgamation that's arguably part doppelganger and part possession, which is a genuinely fascinating take. The whole is clearly well-researched and for the most part clearly written, not over-burdened with academic prose, which is also a bonus.
It should be said that I received a free e-copy of this book for voting purposes in the Bram Stoker awards. I was glad to get it, and it seems churlish to complain, but I think it's fair to say that the version I received had yet to be copy-edited. It loses half a point for that. I suspect this will be fixed in the final version.
Even with my ignorance, though, parts of this were fascinating. I kind of changed my mind on it partway through, as I'm used to my ghost stories being a little more overt in their ghostliness, whereas a lot of what Olson is talking about here is Gothic trauma and how it nudges up against the supernatural, and not always in expected ways. Once I stopped thinking about this as a critical exploration of very-little-ghosts and started thinking of it as an exploration of the destabilising effects of trauma (which is probably what the author intended) I started to get a lot more interested. The actual phenomenon of survivors taking on attributes of the dead, in their mannerisms and behaviour, for instance, is an example of this, producing an amalgamation that's arguably part doppelganger and part possession, which is a genuinely fascinating take. The whole is clearly well-researched and for the most part clearly written, not over-burdened with academic prose, which is also a bonus.
It should be said that I received a free e-copy of this book for voting purposes in the Bram Stoker awards. I was glad to get it, and it seems churlish to complain, but I think it's fair to say that the version I received had yet to be copy-edited. It loses half a point for that. I suspect this will be fixed in the final version.
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