About book San Diego Lightfoot Sue And Other Stories (1983)
Way back in the 70's, I found a paperback titled Blind Voices which had a very intriguing cover illustration, and the synopsis on the back sounded equally intriguing... a story about a carnival in a small mid-western town that brings some ominous and horrifying consequences for the townsfolk... shades of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Tom Reamy has in fact been frequently compared to Bradbury, as well as other SF giants such as Harlan Ellison. Turns out, he and Ellison were friends, and Ellison wrote the foreword to this collection (a piece as entertaining in some ways as the stories themselves!) The foreword and the final piece, a reminiscence by Howard Waldrop, give us some nice insights into Reamy and his life and career (or careers to be more precise.) He was apparently one of the best-known (within the SF authors core) unknown figures (to the rest of the world) of his time. After breaking into the field as a brilliant illustrator for fanzines of the sixties and early seventies, he progressed to editing one of the best-known and highly praised publications, Trumpet. He also worked in Hollywood for a while, writing screenplays (most of which ended up never being produced) and working on the production of a few major films, including the notorious Flesh Gordon. Eventually, he began producing short stories, and finally produced his single novel a couple years before succumbing to a heart attack at the age of 42. Sadly, he was found slumped over his typewriter, seven pages into a new novel.This single collection of his short stories was, for me at least, a real treat. No hard SF here, more like what is sometimes called "speculative fiction" with a solid mix of horror and... well, just serious freak-out moments. The opening story, Twilla, is a startling piece that Ellison sees as perhaps a first shot at the story that eventually worked its way into Blind Voices, and I can see his point. While there's no evil carnival here, there certainly is evil, and some occurrences that are similar to those in the later novel. The rest of the stories are chock-full of wondrous and horrifying creatures, from angels to ghosts to evil twins, and I personally never saw the twists coming. Particularly startling and unsettling for me was The Detweiler Boy, but honestly all of them are quite well crafted and surprising. I will point out my other favorites, though... Beyond the Cleft, Under the Hollywood Sign, the title story, and Insects in Amber.Like the authors of both the foreword and the afterword, I can't help wondering what other remarkable fiction we might have enjoyed from this guy had he lived longer.
This is a collection of some of the weirdest fiction I've read. The weird lives naturally and believably in the next duplex over and it's ok. Or not. The entire collection is worth reading. Although if this is your first read, per usual, skip the Ellison intro until after you've read the stories. I'm just going to hit a few highlights and encourage you to head in yourself."San Diego Lightfoot Sue"This story seems like a deliberate subversion of the disney princes theme. Except here the princess is a young man from rural Kansas headed into the wilds of San Francisco. He acquires a couple fairy godmothers who are allowed to be people first and gay second, which is an accomplishment now, let alone in the 70's when this was written. Our prince is an ex-hooker turned artist, and she also gets to subvert how Disney deals with happy endings. "Beyond the Cleft"This is almost a zombie apocalypse story, yet (a delight to modern readers, I'm sure) free of zombies. It manages to find its own direction and shine a light into the crevices of our societal shadows to have a nice visceral impact."Dinosaurs"What a weird, fully-invested, post-apocalyptic future."The Detweiler Boy"This is not a vampire story. It is so much weirder.
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Tom Reamy is one of those authors who died too soon and left only a handful of writings; a separately published novel and these short stories which are collected in this handsomely bound book. The standout is the wonderfully bittersweet "San Diego Lightfoot Sue". It is a quiet classic of dark fantasy. Unfortunately the rest of the stories pale in comparison. "Insects in Amber" is downright painful, featuring a small unbelievable child to whom foreword writer Harlan Ellison described as "the kind of kid I'd like to dropkick." The real mystery here is whether Ton Reamy could ever have reached the heights of "San Diego Lightfoot Sue" again. Due to his untimely death, we will never know. Instead. we get a five star short masterpiece dropped into a bunch of 2 and 3 star stories. So I'll give it three stars, with a recommendation to seek out SDLS and read it.
—Marvin
Even as weird, genre-defying books go, this is a strange collection. For as many recurring themes as there are in a lot of these stories (gay men, underage sex, Oedipal issues, loss of innocence, Kansas vs. California, etc.) these dark fantasy tales just feel irregular. I have to admit that even though the quality of them varied, even the weakest of the stories were very endearing; Reamy had a style that was familiar, yet all his own. Harlan Ellison's introduction, though curmudgeonly, is pretty accurate & well-intentioned. It is strange that some stories that are seem nearly incomplete or missing crucial details, which may lead you to think that these were hastily gathered in the wake of his untimely death. However, you can instead consider that it adds an extra dimension that shows he was getting the reader to fill in the blanks, and was able to experiment with his writing style without losing much of his effectiveness. My personal favorite was "Dinosaurs", which is beautiful in the simplicity of its craft work. But every story in here has a bizarre staying power, whether you like it or not; they will stick with you and nibble at you at odd times in your life, when you least expect it. I guess that's as good a legacy to leave as anything else.
—Matt Lewis
