Review: Mister B. Gone

Mister B. Gone, by Clive Barker










Arghhhhhh. I am the victim of those sly tricksters called the marketing department who ply their evil trade on unsuspecting bibliophiles such as myself. Why, oh why, do I not better guard against this?

Burn this book.
Go on. Quickly, while there's still time. Burn it. Don't look at another word. Did you hear me? Not. One. More. Word.
Mister B. Gone, by Clive Barker

The Short Synopsis
A nasty little demon by the name of Jakabok Botch is fished out of the ninth circle of hell and brought up to our world by those who would sell him for profit. He promptly escapes and spends the next few hundred years wreaking havoc on humankind in all sorts of grotesque ways. On the way, he makes friends with another hideous demon called Quitoon and together they seek out important human inventions throughout the Middle Ages. Eventually ending up at the home of Johannes Gutenberg (yes, of printing press fame), Jakabok is witness to the negotiations between Heaven and Hell's representatives as they hammer out an agreement as to who will profit most from Gutenberg's historical invention. Ultimately, he ends up within the pages of this novel, telling you his own story.


The Literary Criticism
This had the makings of a terrific tale. A demon caught in the pages of a book and revealing the secrets of Heaven and Hell? By any estimation, this is an inventive premise.

"Oh but, sir," Gutenberg said, a sudden passion in his voice and manner, "a new age is about to begin. Once which will rid this world of cruelty you've seen by giving men a cure for their ignorance, which is where all cruelty beings."
Mister B. Gone, by Clive Barker

But somewhere between the premise and the telling of the story, opportunity was lost. Instead of following the trail of mankind's role in good and evil, Barker reverts to graphic descriptions of torture machines and the myriad of ways there are to disembowel a person. In some cases, less is more.

Every so often, I detected the rumblings of what could have been a much better novel. A phrase here, a philosophical underlining there, but nothing ever came of it. Instead, the author would revert back to pages upon pages (upon pages) of entreaties to burn the book and the terrible things that would happen to me if I did not heed the warnings. Perhaps I ought to have listened?

As to Jakabok himself, I never quite felt his anger or his pain (though perhaps this is a good thing). Barker tells us that Jakabok developed quite a close friendship with Quitoon, but the relationship was never fully convincing nor explored. Instead of examining the human-like qualities of the two demons, Barker chose to focus on describing what I am assuming were meant to be unspeakable horrors. Sadly, in this day and age of desensitization, the graphic descriptions only caused me to involuntarily roll my eyes.

There were quite a few grammatical errors, such as switching tenses in mid-sentence, but I can't blame the author for that business. Rather, that would be the purveyance of the editor, who dropped the ball here.

Are there any good points? Well the marketing team clearly did their job well. The clippings, the aging of the pages to resemble an old manuscript ... all exceptional work. If I wrote a book, I would want this team working for me. After all, they managed to trick a skeptical reader like myself here.

(A refresher for those of you who have forgotten Dante's nine ten circles of hell.)

The Recommendation
I cannot, in good conscious, encourage you to spend your hard-earned money on this novel. Don't take my word for it: ask Brian Baker who aptly titled his review Mister B. Gone, and he took my money with him. Mr. Barker has written many fine novels in the past and if you're interested in his work, you'd do better to try The Hellhound Heart: A Novel or even Abarat. Creepy stuff right there. Perhaps this book is best reserved for die-hard Barker fans if for no other reason than to complete a collection. (I feel your OCD...really, I do.)

Two Stars

Title: Mister B. Gone
Author: Clive Barker
ISBN-13: 978-0061562495
256 long, long pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Date: Reprint edition (October 21, 2008)

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