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A review by raven_revier
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
3.0
I wonder how much different the reception of a short story is whether one reads it in a magazine or in a collection. Perhaps some of the pieces – “In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land” and “Severini” come to mind – in Teatro Grottesco would’ve read much better without the other ones surrounding it, I don’t know. “Teatro Grottesco” is possibly the best one in the collection. Next are “The Shadow, the Darkness”, “The Clown Puppet”.
Thomas Ligotti isn’t interested in a great many themes. We know very well that he knows how to create an atmosphere, see “In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land” – too bad it’s mostly atmosphere. We know very well that he knows how to spin a sentence, craft a long-winded yet clear philosophical monologue. Ligotti’s great challenge was whether he would find novel ways to say the same things over and over—personal identity is a delusion, the body is nothing but a mass of rot, unfathomable forces like to mess with our lives (worthless lives anyway!) and so on and so forth. He seems to me that he failed.
Definitely not his strongest book, despite one or two gems hidden in it, but still a decent read overall.
Thomas Ligotti isn’t interested in a great many themes. We know very well that he knows how to create an atmosphere, see “In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land” – too bad it’s mostly atmosphere. We know very well that he knows how to spin a sentence, craft a long-winded yet clear philosophical monologue. Ligotti’s great challenge was whether he would find novel ways to say the same things over and over—personal identity is a delusion, the body is nothing but a mass of rot, unfathomable forces like to mess with our lives (worthless lives anyway!) and so on and so forth. He seems to me that he failed.
Definitely not his strongest book, despite one or two gems hidden in it, but still a decent read overall.