okenwillow's review
Décidemment, les nouvelles de Jean Ray ne m’interpellent pas le moins du monde. Il n’y a d’épouvantable que l’ennui que sa lecture m’a procuré. Si le style est toujours aussi attrayant, le fond me laisse perplexe, les histoires sont d’une banalité déconcertante, sans aucun suspens, (mais peut-être que leur brièveté y est pour quelque chose). Je ne retrouve rien de ce que j’ai aimé dans Malpertuis, mais j’ai l’impression de relire Les contes du whisky. Je me rabattrai donc un jour prochain sur son autre roman, La cité de l’indicible peur.
sunnybopeep's review
4.25
I am so glad Wakefield Press decided to translate and publish Jean Ray’s ouvre into English because I might never have known about him otherwise.
Going into this short story collection, I expected a lot more straightforward horror, since I saw that he was regarded as “the Belgian Poe,” but the stories definitely leaned more into unsettling gothic weirdness than horror. I really like it when literary fiction barely creeps into genre fiction territory.
Most of the stories were wonderful, but I was particularly charmed by the frame story that bound everything together. There’s something really tender and personal in the author’s writings about his daughter.
Going into this short story collection, I expected a lot more straightforward horror, since I saw that he was regarded as “the Belgian Poe,” but the stories definitely leaned more into unsettling gothic weirdness than horror. I really like it when literary fiction barely creeps into genre fiction territory.
Most of the stories were wonderful, but I was particularly charmed by the frame story that bound everything together. There’s something really tender and personal in the author’s writings about his daughter.
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