Big Dark Hole kicks off with “The Thousand Eyes”. About a remote New Jersey bar, it draws a young painter for a famed Wednesday evening show. Crossing the line from ghost story into artistic reflection, the show turns out to be life changing for the painter. “Hibbler’s Minions” is a good ol' fashioned, traveling circus story. The narrator a man with two faces: one in front and one behind, the circus' freak show is healthy even as the show falters. That is, until the day the circus gets a present: a dust demon. And that’s how the flea circus is born. Classic horror.
Either the most unpredictable monster story you’ve ever heard, or one of the most amazing pieces of romance ever written, “Monster Eight” is short and sweet--especially if the latter is true, no intro needed. A lot of writers refer to dreams as inspirations. With “Inn of the Dreaming Dog” that must be taken literally. Capturing the semi-rational trips our nocturnal brains take, the story effectively puts you, the reader, in the story’s shoes, then gives you the destination: the inn. Would love to know what Freud thinks of this. Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life talks about the balance of order and chaos, and how too much of one side is bad. In “Monkey in the Woods”, the readers learns, in an irreverently charming way, how much fun chaos can sometimes be on this story of a cheeky monkey escaped from the fair.
One of Ford’s delightful “autobiographical” stories, in “The Match” Prof. Ford receives notification from his university that he needs to pass a test. Not a paper exam, he needs to wrestle an angel. All in all, a delicately delightful paean to teaching creative writing. In “From the Balcony of the Idawolf Arms” Ford tells a fine magic realist horror tale about two children left in an apartment alone while their mother goes out for a few hours. A neighbor (potentially?) more than he seems, so too might be the setting (?). In the least, highly unpredictable yet entertaining. As title hints, “Sisyphus in Elysium” is Ford’s take on Greek mythology. Ultimately about relationships and perception, the reader is reminded of the classic figure’s backstory, the famous rock, and more importantly, what came next. Next, you ask? Yes, there is a 'next' to Sisyphus' story.
In “The Jeweled Wren” an elderly couple speculate about an abandoned house located across the field beside their house. Getting up the nerve one day, they decide to investigate. The result is a ghost story, one both familiar and tweaked a hair to be unique. I’ve read a lot of alien stories, a lot, but “Not Without Mercy” is one of the most alien of all. It starts with a gas station attendant getting picked up after work by a friend in the middle of a massive snowstorm, and... ends somewhere entirely, entirely elsewhere—Home Depot in fact.
A phair fine story of faery, “The Bookcase Expedition” finds Ford at his writing desk, watching as the little guys emerge to climb his El Capitan of a bookshelf—complete with monsters. A lot from a little, this is subtle entertainment. “The Winter Wraith” is a simple but effective bit of bumps in the night with a Christmas tree. It's ultimately an empty story, but one which begs to be read given Ford’s development of the idea.
Highlighting one of the weaknesses of memory, the message of the title story “Big Dark Hole” is profound. Reminding the reader of Ford's novel The Shadow Year for how it recalls youth, it tells of a boy crawling and disappearing into a local sewer pipe. Simple but effective. Everybody has that distant uncle they only see at Thanksgiving. In Ford’s story with the holiday title, the uncle is not even an uncle, but he still comes. What would you do about it? Closing the collection is a classic bit of Ford-on-Ford dark fiction, “Five Pointed Spell”. Autobiography mixed with fiction, only Ford knows where the line falls between the two. Life in the countryside of Ohio is not without its mysteries and nightmares...
In close this review, I wanted to write something to the effect of Ford rediscovering his form. But pondering that, I actually think he's found a new form. Certainly many of the hallmarks of Ford are here: semi-autobiography, fairy worlds, dark fantasy, dream-like visions, return to youth, etc. But through all of this, it seems Ford, as he gets older, has found a new groove, a subtler, smoother, more delicate groove. The superficial views to each story above simply do not do them justice. Another way of saying this is, each have an identity. They are their specific own. In most cases you can say: this is definitively a Jeffrey Ford story. Looking at the market today, and how utterly, completely, totally saturated it is, that is saying something.
The following are the fifteen stories collected in Big Dark Hole: Stories:
The Thousand Eyes
Hibbler’s Minions
Monster Eight
Inn of the Dreaming Dog
Monkey in the Woods
The Match
From the Balcony of the Idawolf Arms
Sisyphus in Elysium
The Jeweled Wren
Not Without Mercy
The Bookcase Expedition
The Winter Wraith
Big Dark Hole
Thanksgiving
Five-Pointed Spell
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