The Doors of His Face will suck you in
Written: Mar 27 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Masterfully written shorts of several styles.
Cons: It's a collection of short stories, which not all enjoy.
The Bottom Line: I laughed, I cried, I wanted to pretend to be a statue. I recommend Zelazny’s The Doors of his Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, and other stories to everyone.
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| KGZotU's Full Review: The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth Book... |
I love the work of Roger Zelazny. If you’re a frequenter of my reviews, which I doubt anybody is, but if you are, you’ve probably noticed that I almost exclusively read books that I like. I’ve wondered if this might be a weakness of mine, as some of the best reviews I’ve read are scathing, but, regardless, I’m almost certain that this is because I stick with authors that inspire me time and again with images and characters wrapped into stories of wonderful craft. Zelazny is one such author, and The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and other stories is one such book. Zelazny is a superb author, who has, in my opinion, sold out only once to write the Merlin series of Amber, as I epined in my review of his The Great Book of Amber. Enough plugging Zelazny and myself, though, you’re here to hear about the book.
This book is, as the title suggests, a collection of short stories. There are 15 in total, ranging in length from 3 to 40 pages. Each is superb, and yet so many different styles of writing are covered. “Devil Car”, a story about tracking down a rogue sentient car in a Mad Max meets the 50’s universe reminds one very much of an old private dick story, with its thoughtful lead and subservient female. The title story, “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of his Mouth” bears an uncanny resemblance to Hemmingway, with a strong female, extensive tagless dialogue, and little flowery language. The subject is fishing nonetheless. “The Doors of His Face” is written very much like a “great American novel”. Without any further ado, I present to you my reviews of three of this book’s finest stories:
“Lucifer”: Tragedies befall a man occasionally, tearing from him all that he held dear, all that he knew before to be true. In the face of such tragedies, a man must either choose to live, or by default die. “Lucifer” is the inspiring story of a man that chooses to live, one step at a time. The story begins with a man descended from the mountains, to stand in a necropolis once busy with life. Zelazny describes in great detail as the man repairs generators, transports a ‘power cube’ and prepares to breath life into the city. When the third night finally approaches, and all is prepared, he turns on the long dead lights. When the generators blow out, he returns to the mountains once again, having made the city live for 93 seconds, vowing one more time never to return.
“A Museum Piece”: This is the story of one who, failing to find acceptance in creating art, decides to become art, and in so doing joins a group of entirely eccentric characters on much the same quest. I truly enjoyed this story, with its light, witty style. The main character, who becomes a statue in a museum, and his ‘woman’, who has independently made a similar decision, are extremely well spoken, in a flowery sort of way. Just when the pair resolves to leave the museum and start a life together, the dreaded art critics show up to throw them into an entirely implausible, yet humorous, dilemma.
“Divine Madness”: Finally, there was my favorite story of all. Perhaps the greatest injustice reality visits upon us is that we can not undo our mistakes. A fit of anger, a moment of distraction, these wreck irrevocable consequences that, for the rest of our lives, we must live with, or not live with. I’d wager that all of us have, at one point or another wrenched our guts for hours over some offense or other. This is the topic of Zelazny’s “Divine Madness.” A man bereft with grief suffers an odd sort of delusion, carrying him forward, he assumes, on imaginary paths of action, then back. He cognizes words backwards as he reads, regurgitates sip after sip of alcohol. Zelazny masterfully tells a story in reverse, it’s almost like running a home movie backwards in your head. The man ponders how easily he separates out the various liquids of his drinks, simply holding the appropriate bottle above the glass, letting the correct fluid flow up to meet it. As he corks the bottles at night, he’s dimly aware that the coming afternoon, just before he settles to sleep in the morning, he will bring them back to the store in exchange for his money. As one such episode hurtles him back days, he realizes, attending his wife’s funeral, selecting the coffin, and then visiting the morgue, just what his mind is taking him back to see. And there I leave you.
I laughed, I cried, I wanted to pretend to be a statue. Zelazny’s The Doors of his Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, and other stories is a superb work of fiction that I would recommend to anybody. I truly did laugh and cry, truly was inspired to the dream of pretending to be a statue, and thus I give this book five stars. Read and enjoy.
Recommended:
Yes
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KGZotU
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Reviews written: 13
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About Me:
Marine stationed in 29 Palms California.
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