The Green Man, by Kingsley Amis
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1997 (3rd Printing)
I've never been much of a gothic horror fan, but The Green Man is a good old-fashioned gothic, without the wussy cliche heroine having to get rescued by the hero.
Maurice Allington has been chosen by the ghost of Dr. Underhill -- a sinister gentleman who practiced black magic and discovered how to beat death -- to become the enabler who brings Underhill back from beyond the grave.
Allington -- a boozer whose ghost-sightings are written off as hallucinations by just about everyone he knows -- is the proprietor of The Green Man, a small English inn. A pitiable character, Allington is going through somewhat of a mid-life crisis that results in the eventual dissolution of his second marriage. He is mentally unstable, and much of the story convincingly shows us a man who is living on the borderline between a disappointing world that he can't handle sober, and a frighteningly confusing one in which he must remain in control lest he truly lose his mind.
Through snatches of conversations with the ghost of the Doctor and with a dashing young man who just so happens to be the embodiment of a bemused and slightly cynical God, Allington is brought to discover the power that both good and evil can wield from beyond the physical world that he knows.
Ultimately, when Allington discovers Underhill's ghost's true desires, he also discovers in himself an inner strength and a bond with his daughter that he had let lapse for too long.
I must warn you that I had some crazy dreams on nights that I stayed up late reading this book before bedtime. Much of the novel's suspense is psychological, and since Amis' formal style of writing can be cumbersome at times, you may find yourself reading passages two or three times to undertand fully the nuances and foreshadows within. It all makes for a wonderful ghost story to read aloud among friends the next time you spend a long winter's night in a cabin in the woods.
