Montana Gothic

by Dirck Van Sickle

Book Overview

A heartbroken medical student from the East buys a mortuary in Montana--which launches an unforgettable series of events. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380502119
• ISBN13: 9780380502110
• Release Date: June 1980
• Publisher: Avon
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The twisted love child of Edgar Allen Poe and...a sheep

What a cool book. I've never read anything like it. "Montana Gothic" consists of four sections, all set in Montana, from the early-1900s to the late-1970s. In the first, a man moves to Nowheresville, Montana, to become an undertaker and discovers that no one wants anything to do with him because the previous undertaker molested a large number of female corpses and the townsfolk assume he's the same way. In the second, an old cowboy (who was once a young minor character in the first part) spends a long winter alone in a cabin with a young complainer. The old cowboy's words are some of the best writing I've ever read on the subject of A Sense of Place. He talks about Montana, but he could be talking about New Mexico, or about anywhere where the land becomes the people and the people become the land. In the third, a minor character (the young complainer from the second part) takes advantage of a slightly retarded young girl, the girl murders him, and the family tries to cover up the crime. And in the fourth, an Old West style gunslinger (carrying the same gun the young girl killed the misguided rapist with) tries to exist in late-1970s big city Montana. All of the stories end in very dark, Shakespearian ways, but all of the book's characters are easy to empathize with and to root for. As a result of their likeability, the grim fates of many of the characters feels especially sad. The stories are intricate and fascinating in the way they connect with one another, and the overall structure of the book is unique and enticing. And the writing is very good--like Cormac McCarthy Lite, I'd say--and some of the author's natural descriptions are among the best I've ever read. "Winter sky in northeastern Montana is just another kind of mud; thinner and grayer, but so deep that if you ever fell into it, you'd never get out." Then there's the ending. The book's ending packs an emotional and symbolic wallop that I'm still reeling from, days after reading it. "Montana Gothic" is a forgotten treasure, and deserves all the word of mouth it can get. I can see it being an awesome movie someday, and I always plan on keeping a copy around. It's spooky, thoughtful, deep, and beautiful. It's often funny too, and it's ALWAYS original. I can't see why this author isn't more popular--I'd way rather read him than Norm McLean.

Overlooked Masterpiece

This twisted tale starts in the early 20th Century and its style is so appropriate that the ending comes as a real blow although expected and inevitable. The tale goes on from there, through the decades and inevitable is the keynote. This book should be taught in colleges as it is the perfect use of prose to wring our minds with truly profound horror. Not ghosts or goblins, but the real horror of mortality and fate. And yet we want to read it again, or talk about it -- like Poe, like Faulkner, it brings us into areas we hadn't considered, but which are surely there for all of us. I'll never forget this book, but it may not be for everyone. I read that the author died last year; what a tombstone to leave behind! Truly an overlooked masterpiece in our literature.

Incredible -- What a Punch!

The 4 parts of this story are like 4 bullets hitting you in each corner, but something about them makes for a 5th bullet that gets you in the middle. How does it work? Friends I've turned on to it can't say, but they agree it is psycologically perfect in terms of doing it to you! If you love Horror/Weird, see how this one does it subtley in "subtext" as well as overtly. Why didn't it win some kind of prize? Maybe there's a bias against such truly dark writing -- but not here! I looked for other works by this author and found only a prescient and out of print ECOLOGICAL CIIZEN (non-fiction) but nothing since M.Gothic. One can see why! It's all in this one strange novel.

Literary Horror Masterpiece

We think horror is the supernatural, as with so many cheap stories. But in all of us, our true horror starts in our mind, and Van Sickle knows this in this very horrifying book. In a way, it is healing, insofar as the mental terror here is a way out of our own. I assume the cowboy and western elements are such that men would enjoy, but the inner terror that permeates this substantial work is what I feed upon. A first class job of fusing the West with the Nightmare. Unlike the other reviewer, I don't want to meet the author--especially on one of my dark nights. But I have reread this book three times and it makes me stronger each time. The best, and strangest, book I own. Olivia Lemon RN, NYC

A Haunting Little Gem

Since I first ran across this book more than 20 years ago, I've had a consuming desire to meet the author. I want to ask him what motivated this strange, unclassifiable work. It may be of more interest to someone who was raised in Montana, who can appreciate the dark side that Van Sickle captured in a uniquely eerie way, but even without a personal connection to the landscape of the book, it is an unforgettable read. I'm thrilled to see it back in print, and hope it gets more attention this time around.