Short story collections are the hardest things for me to review, but I love McGrath so much and this particular edition is so beautiful and satisfying that I have to try.

Let’s start with the book itself - published by Centipede Press in a run of only 300 it is signed by McGrath, Joyce Carol Oates who wrote the introduction, Harry Brockway who drew the illustrations and Danel Olson the editor. McGrath's signature here let me verify that another on my edition of Trauma is in fact, a genuine signature. Since I picked it up that way and didn’t see him do it, it was a nice little bonus. As is the whole book. I only heard about it in a roundabout way and have no experience with Centipede press, but when I saw it I knew I had to have it. Not just because I am a big fan, but because I only had his novels, none of his short fiction and now I have all of that, plus essays, criticism and book introductions. I only have one of those in my treasured edition of Frankenstein which is illustrated by Lynd Ward. Originally I think it was published by Centipede, but mine is from Fall River Press.

The book is printed and bound in Italy and weighs a metric ton. I love books with nice heft. There are several monochromatic illustrations throughout as well as a full-color dustjacket which is dramatic and very appropriate to the work. I also love the small production touches - the graphic themes adorning the title pages, the bookmark and the endpapers. Also it doesn’t have deckled edges!!! I hate deckled edges.

Writing Madness is an especially apt title given a common theme of McGrath’s writing - insanity and the unraveling of a mind. I don’t know how I overlooked this, but the fact that he was raised on the grounds and buildings of Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum, as they say; this explains a lot. Since his dad was a psychiatrist and administrator of the hospital, Patrick got an eyeful of madness in all its forms. In writing his approach is not without sympathy, but it doesn’t coddle or romanticize mental illness either. Many of the stories collected here feature various forms of it, but also touches of the arcane and the bizarre.

While reading this dense and diverse book, it occurred to me to compare McGrath’s writing to Bradbury in the sense of their mastery of English and how to nuance their sentences and word choices to transcend mere information. With sure control, both writers make you feel; they give you more than just a story, they give you emotion and a fully-realized idea that must encompass the language itself. I am in awe of both men’s ability and how differently they executed it.

“An hour later he was still there, walled up in a dungeon of self…” Lush Triumphant p 63

A village called Gryme and Ravensgloom its boarding school - “Originally the country house of an eccentric Liverpool merchant with a fortune made in the slave trade, it had been appropriated by the Order in 1867 and converted into a tortuous complex of cubicles and classrooms, wherein the priests had begun instructing the sons of the Catholic gentry in two dead languages and a Spartan regimen designed to tone their physical and spiritual gristle.” Ambrose Syme p 73

“That first meeting, then, was on in which we quietly corrected each other’s preconceptions.” The Arnold Crombeck Story p 85

Why be dormant or in a torpor when you can estivate?
Why say belch or merely burp when you can say eructate?
Why use many words to describe a circular function when you know the word epicycloid?

His work is full of wonderful, dictionary-grabbing words that convey so much more than their more quotidian counterparts. The fact that you might not know many of them contributes to your sense of unease and gives you more discomfort than just creepy descriptions and situations.

Then there’s pacing and tension. Sometimes it’s teasing and almost playful. In Down the Rift we’re introduced to a crumbling mansion and its crumbling aristocratic inhabitants; it’s a bit forlorn and nostalgic and then he gives us a scene, unheralded by anything, of a man preparing to hang himself with some unusual sartorial choices. So wonderful, bewildering and in a twisted way, funny.

Sometimes he drops a bomb on the reader. You’ll be going along, absorbing the story, quelling your goosebumps and trying to fathom the unnamed narrator who is telling you things he can’t possibly know, when, boom! - he explains the narrator’s connection and a bit of what is to come. It’s surprising in its perfect timing; giving me a jolt of joy and reassuring me as a reader that I am in very good hands. I won’t tell you which story so as not to spoil that little morsel for you.

There is a lot more in the book and a lot more I could say here, but I’ll wrap up. If you have never read McGrath and have an abiding appreciation for all that is Gothic; get thee to a bookstore. If you are already a fan, this book is a must even if you have some of his short fiction already; it’s a lovely object and has additional content not included in previous books. I wish McGrath had commented or editorialized a bit on the stories themselves, the way Stephen King sometimes does, but that’s the only thing I would want except for more stories and essays. Thank you Centipede Press and all whose love of McGrath brought this little gem to life. ( )