The Fisherman

If you’ve ever read a novel whose imagery stuck with you, seared hot into your brain, draining your sleep away, its vividness painted across your mind’s eye in a way that seems like a film streaming silently across the blacks of your eyelids every time you close them, then you have read a novel like John Langan’s The Fisherman. There are scenes in this novel, that are not only horrific in nature, but also linger in your thoughts wherever you go, like a wad of gum stuck to the sole of your shoe. Langan’s unorthodox narrative structure, his attention to detail, the weird surrealism of the events which take place, and the mysteries that the Dutchman’s Creek hold, are some of the most effective components of storytelling that we have read all year. The Fisherman is a machine, each component equally important, working together to grind the axles, gears, and cogs to breathe life into a mechanism of haunting language and execution. Deep within the heart of Langan’s novel, is the nature of grief and its effects on those who are the most emotionally vulnerable. What people are capable of when their reality is questioned, their fantasies realized. How grief can seep into one’s conscience, how it can transform someone, and perhaps most importantly (as we see with our protagonist Abe), how grief can be so powerful, we have to find a way to cope. A hobby, a sport, a distraction. Whatever is needed to keep sanity intact. Langan’s choice of words and his artistic rhythm keep our relationships with the main characters intimate, while also illustrating scenes of terror with a sharp and hallucinatory tongue. The Fisherman combines Weird Fiction and Literary Horror, brewing a cocktail of unsettling imagery and a premise that invokes curiosity and intrigue. Imagine the horrors of Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth” bred with the mysterious surrealism of Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and you have The Fisherman, an epic piece that treads the border between literary fiction and downright hair-raising horror. The novel reads like that of a classic, while maintaining the atmosphere of weird fiction that is, by all means, unforgettable. Langan pays homage to classics of literature, whether it be Herman Melville’s Moby Dick or the cosmic horrors of Lovecraft and the weird tales of authors like Machen and Algernon Blackwood. Where many authors fail to individualize their inspirations from their own writing, Langan succeeds triumphantly in setting his own work apart. It wouldn’t be right to compare The Fisherman to any other work. Its amalgamation of themes and motifs stretch far beyond the genre in which it is beheld, transcendent in its own storytelling while maintaining a course for originality all the way through. The history and depth in which Langan describes the tale that unfolds, spanning over many decades, is of an intricate and astute precision that modern authors should take notice to. A page turner if there ever was one, the reader is hooked from the opening chapter and it becomes rather impossible to put the book down. Each chapter ends alluding to a larger horror awaiting on the horizon, each section ending with newfound mystery that chains the rest of the novel together. In a climax that is both cinematic and hauntingly poetic, Langan ends The Fisherman with a paragraph that has become etched into the recesses of our minds, clinging to our thoughts, replaying again and again, each time sending new chills down our spines. Langan is a titan. That much is certain. This novel is his champion. The stakes and expectations for House of Windows are at an all-time high, and with the beauty that is The Fisherman, we know that it won’t disappoint. The Fisherman is one of the greatest horror novels to come out in the past decade, and it will continue to hold its precedence and importance for many years to come.

Minor Spoilers Ahead Cosmic Horror is hit or miss for me. I adore Lovecraft, but I acknowledge that much of his writing suffers from a generic narrator (Male academic) and a vagueness of description ("A creature too terrible to describe"), deficiencies (In my opinion) that are still being emulated today. Of course, Cosmic Horror can be great despite the narrator, and when used well the vagueness of description can be effective and unsettling. Too often, however, I find that a lot of the Cosmic Horror I read falls into these trappings. Not so with The Fisherman. The main character (Abe) is well fleshed-out and relatable. I appreciated the frankness and honesty of the character as he walks us through the difficult period following the death of his young wife very shortly after their marriage. He is very honest with the reader about how the death affected him and how he behaved in the throes of grief. Mr. Langan does a wonderful job of creating a character the reader cares about. However, Abe's story merely bookends the real meat of the book. Abe begins to bond with a coworker, a recent widower (although under very different circumstances) through fishing. One rainy day they are in a near-deserted diner on their way to a new fishing hole when the chef/ owner decides to let them in on the dark history of their destination, Dutchman's Creek. From this point, the bulk of the book is told by the the diner's proprietor. It's a story he heard from a minister who heard it from an elderly woman in a nursing home who lived part of it decades ago and was told the rest by her husband. The story was compelling and I certainly enjoyed it, but it was jarring to drop Abe so abruptly and just as jarring to pick him back up a few hundred pages later. Furthermore, although Abe makes mention that the new narrator had mentioned having literary aspirations at some point in his life, it is a little hard to believe that he is able to narrate a 200+ page 3rd and 4th hand story from memory and with the flow and literary flourishes he does (Although I seem to remember Abe alluding to the fact that he hadn't told them everything in the story, they had just somehow intuited it). Despite this clunky narrative, the story itself is rich and interesting. The tale follows a German immigrant family in the pre-WW1 years who move to a town in Upstate New York to assist in the building of a reservoir. Things are going well until a woman the whole town saw trampled to death shows up, broken and damp but "alive", in her home. From here we are given fascinating and deep backstory on the cosmic forces at play, each chapter adding to the foreboding of what awaits the town and possibly the world. One of my favorite aspects in Cosmic Horror is when the author alludes to the historical anecdotes, myths and origins behind the great horror at the center of the book, such as when Lovecraft talks about the Mad Arab or the ancient pagan tribes that worship his dark gods. Mr. Langan does not disappoint in this respect, and I enjoyed the mentions, brief as they were, of the Ottoman and biblical angles on the story. Furthermore, I greatly enjoyed the voyage taken by the German protagonist and a colleague to a bizarre and otherworldly city. As I've said before, I find many in this genre to be frustratingly vague, but this brief portion of the book was done brilliantly and the possibilities it suggested really helped add to the story. This was a great book and Mr. Langan is clearly a gifted author. If not for the clunky narration, I would give this book 5 stars. Mr. Langan doesn't spell everything out, but is never unnecessarily vague or glib as I've found many in the genre to be. I really enjoyed the ending as well. Perfectly chilling. On a more practical note, I was impressed by the physical book itself. The front and back cover art are beautiful. The paper is thick and the ink is striking. I never comment or even notice these things but this is one well made book.

Jesus Christ... this book! I never realised I was in love with it until I finished it and couldn't stop thinking about it, dreaming about it. So I read it again. It is dark and beautiful and horrific and wonderful. I think I know a book's good when I struggle to find words for it, and I really struggle for words when it comes to The Fisherman. It's one of my favourite books I've read in a while, it's one of my favourite Weird Fic books I've read in a while, and it was just a wonderful and capivating read. Okay, I'm gushing. This is a book which has a lot to say and a lot of moods. It's horror, and it's horrific. It's weird fiction, and it's very damn weird. It's Lovecraftian, and boy does it love Lovecraft. It's dark fantasy, and it really is dark and it really is fantastical. And there are veins of human stories and human compassion, veins of straight-foreward adventure and pure fantasy, historical elements and personal elements... it's a mish-mash river of things which flow through the reader in a torrent. I felt this was a story Langan had been ruminating on for a long time, and urgently wanted, or had, to tell. I liked but never loved Langan's short stories, they were interesting but never spoke to me, and I ordered this book on a whim after seeing good reviews. I didn't expect to like it. The amount of dark enjoyment and sheer joy got from this floored me. I think in his short stories, Langan tries to be too clever, too weird and too subversive, because if he can write like he wrote in this book, he can *write*. This book really dragged me into it's world, and I loved it. So, I've gushed - a few things I didn't like. Firstly - Well, I'd have liked to know more about Rainer. I love Rainer, I'm invested in Rainer, I want the continued occult adventures of Rainer. He put all the other characters in the shade, more or less. Secondly, I hate to sound like a prude, but I work in a school library, and when I was 90% through the book I was thinking 'This would be a fantastic introduction to Weird Lit for young adults/older teens. I'd like to put this on our shelves, I have so many ideas about an initiative to get kids reading horror/sci-fi/weird-lit' and then...bam...detailed sex scene. Maybe we can still put it on our shelves, but...hmm... don't get me wrong, I'm in no way anti-sex scenes, it's just that it changed the book from being the perfect intro to sinister and scary Weird Lit for teens and young adults to something that I'd feel cautious about recommending to younger folks. Not a true complaint, just that I wish I could recommend it to my young library patrons. Third, I desperately want more. I know this is best as a stand-alone book. But I want so much more. Total score: 5/5 stars, or maybe 4.99/5 stars. Stunningly wonderful, but with tiny little complaints that are mostly just my personal comments. A lot of fun, and a hell of ride for a cosmic horror book.

Wow! What a book. I did not expect this to be so full of dark fantasy when I picked it up: I honestly thought it was going to be about fishing. Scary fishing. But still: fishing. I loved the folklore-esque story lodged at the core of The Fisherman, which created a narrative structure reminiscent of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Fitting, perhaps, seeing as this is a tale about voyaging into the dark unknown — and what such a journey can do to us. Thematically, this novel is intriguing. Stylistically, the Fisherman’s structure and prose are eloquent, intelligent, and captivating. Like a river, this novel is, at times, fast-paced and action-packed; at others, it meanders into deeper, darker, and slower waters. I highly recommend if you’re a fan of weird fiction like Drew Magary’s The Hike, creeping slow-burn horrors like Alma Katzu’s The Hunger, and anything from the vault of Lovecraft’s eldritch creations. What a journey.

I love Langan's short stories. He's a rare voice in horror, emotionally intelligent and evocative. I picked this up thinking it would be a quiet little horror story about a couple of friends who go fishing. Boy, was I wrong. It's a huge, cosmic horror epic that sends you spiraling down wormholes across time and space. There are stories here that take place in the 1800s and early 20th century. And there is a dark glimpse into the underlying machinery of the universe. It's far more than one horror story - it's many. And all wrapped up in Langan's mesmerizing writing. A fabulous and immensely satisfying read.

"The Fisherman" handelt von zwei Männern, die ihre Familien verloren haben. Der Erzähler Abe, der seine Frau verloren hat und sein Freund Dan, der auch noch die Kinder in einem tragischen Unglück verloren hat. Es geht darum, wie sie Trost und Verbindung im Angeln finden und um die Berufung zum Angeln; wie Abe im Angeln eine Verbindung zu seiner toten Frau spürt. Und dann nimmt es eine unheimliche Wendung, als sie auf der Suche nach einem abgelegenen Angelplatz weit mehr finden, als sie sich jemals vorgestellt hätten, dass diese Welt bereithalten könnte. Dies ist die Rahmengeschichte. Eingebettet darin ist nochmal eine weitaus ältere Geschichte, die den beiden in einem Diner erzählt wird und einen sehr großen Platz in dem Buch einnimmt. Eine Mischung aus Lovecraft und Friedhof der Kuscheltiere, allerdings wird diese Beschreibung dem Buch nicht ganz gerecht. Langan hat zwar etwas lovecraftianisches geschaffen, sich aber nicht direkt an dessen Mythos angelehnt. Er erschafft einen eigenen Zugang zum kosmischen Grauen und das funktioniert sehr gut. Manch einem Leser mag das mit der eingebetteten Geschichte etwas formal erscheinen, ich fand diese Form sehr gut. In der Geschichte gibt es einiges an subtilem Horror und auch ein bisschen Body Horror. Das Buch ist sehr gut geschrieben, flüssig zu lesen, enthält perfekt integrierte surreale Visionen (die haben mir sehr sehr gut gefallen) und schafft ganz nebenbei eine wunderbar beklemmende Atmosphäre. Das Buch wurde als Meisterwerk gefeiert und das ganz zurecht, es war sehr schnell durchgelesen und wird wärmstens weiter empfohlen. Die Stimmung baut sich langsam auf, es wird aber nie langweilig. Etwas schade, dass ich das Buch nicht (als Ebook) auf Deutsch gefunden habe. Aber so war es günstiger und ich habe nebenbei noch etwas Englisch mit dem Kindle gelernt.

I don't get the high ratings. I couldn't connect with the characters and I'm finding it a boring book.