SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
published: 1962
In that strange, dark year of 1929, Halloween came a little bit early.
And it was two boys: Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, of Green Town, Illinois, who noticed it first. First, it was the traveling lightning-rod salesman who predicted a coming storm, before his mysterious disappearance. Then, it was the eerie calliope music wafting from the night train, announcing: a carnival!, a carnival unusually late in the year. A carnival bearing a harmless face by day, and an evil, twisted mask of deception by night. Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, the tall, black-dressed Mr. Dark announced, and it was also a promise: the Autumn carnival carrying Autumn people would swallow the town in it's own evil. Turning friend against friend, granting your wishes but taking something in return, manifesting your desires into a contorted, weird monster, and offering a marry-go-round that will allow Will's regretful father to dissolve his age away, while giving Jim a chance to grow up, and forever beyond the reaches of his best friend...
review:**** There are so many levels to this novel, so many important subplots that to dismiss this book as an "evil carnie" story would be totally irrelevant and unfair. The evil- and this book defines evil, it hits the nail on the head- takes so many forms and affects so many people; but here are the most important:
1) Jim and Will's friendship. They're best friends, but they're obviously spereated by their characters. Will has been brought up by both his parents; he's thoughtful, a little neurotic; shy, conservative and introverted. Jim is the opposite. He was brought up only by his mother, his father left when he was little; he's outgoing, impulsive, daring, eager to grow up, leave the past behind. Bradbury expresses their differences several ways: Wills' blond, Jim's dark-haired; Will was born one minute before Halloween, Jim's one minute after. And even though he's older, Will always feels he's behind Jim. Like Jim's always in a rush to grow up, leave Will behind... there's symbolism in a scene where Will's running after Jim, and Jim's constantly slowing down for Will. This is important when the carnival comes to town, because Jim, perhaps anxious for a father figure, is easily swayed in going with the carnival. In Star Wars, Jim would turn to the dark side, and Will the light.
2) Will's fathers age. Mr. Halloway feels like he's grown up too fast; and now, in his fifties, he believes that he's never done anything with his life. He feels particularly ashamed that he's never been there for Will: never young enough to play ball with him, run with him, climb with him. And now he's afraid that Will doesn't love him anymore, and is gradually turning into his father. Mr. Halloway bears a mental load on his back of age and regret. Bradbury does a wonderful job here, as in all his stories, of really communicating a man's personal fears and longings. You really side with Mr. Halloway, because his insecurities and insights are the same as ours. You feel his angst, and when the carnival comes beckoning, offering him the chance to be young again, you can truly understand his dilemma.
This is really a novel about the evil which resides in us all, merely manifested into something tangible. It's about humanity: their desires, fears, longings, insecurities, regrets, and how we can't let go of them. This is a horror book, not it the sense of ghouls and goblins (though there's plenty of that); it's a horror book about the stuff inside of us, and what we don't express to the ones we love. This is my favorite book, and might just be yours once you read it.
NOTE: This was originally a short story called "Dark Carnival", planned to go into the anthology "The October Country" but never made it. It then turned into a novel over a couple of years. This was also made into a 1983 Disney movie starring Jonathan Pryce. It wasn't quite up to expectations; after all, it's Disney. But it kept in the good plotlines explained above, retaining the spirit of the book.Clcik here to read my film review.