The Pallbearers Club

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Here is an example of a note I took: This book is Tremblay's take on coming of age, small town horror first made popular by Stephen King, but like he did for the "Exorcism" novel in A Head Full of Ghosts, he has taken on a tried and true trope as his foundation and transformed it into something so new and original, that it elevates the entire genre as a result. The horror of the self, I think. All of my books have been interested in that, I think. I’m fascinated by the ambiguity of our inner spaces: memory and identity and even reality itself. I think all of those are wrapped up in The Pallbearers Club, because even though Art spends so much time—basically the entire book—writing about himself, he remains a mystery to himself. I think there is both horror and humor in that realization. That’s the thin line that I was trying to walk. A new novel from Paul Tremblay is always cause for celebration. The Pallbearers Club has it all--growth and decay, metatextual playfulness and earnest terror, dark hilarity and deep melancholy. For a book that looks death squarely in its sightless eye this one is just brimming over with life and inventiveness.I loved floating and falling through time with Art Barbara and Mercy." — Karen Russell, New York Times bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Orange World

Paul Tremblay delivers another mind-bending horror novel . . . The Pallbearers Club is a welcome casket of chills to shoulder.” – Washington Post And what about music? Punk is very present in this book. Particularly the work of Hüsker Dü, a band I’d never previously heard of.Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she's making cuts. If there was a problem, and yes for me there was, it's the ever-explaining wordiness of Art Barbara who writes the memoir here. It doesn't continuously occur though, which makes me wonder if there's a message behind it. The time in between the best plot elements (beginning, middle and a spot-on ending) are not interesting enough to carry the story forward in any way except in passing the years. I can see this being one of those 'Marmite' books, you either love it or hate it but to me, it seems to be a hugely underrated novel.

But in true Tremblay form, it will upset you at your core. It may not break you as badly as Cabin at the End of The World, but it is close. What an enjoyable read this was. I've fallen in love with Tremblay's writing already, that's after reading just one book. One written in a very original style too. TREMBLAY: So first, like, '80s nostalgia's been sort of peddled for so long, you know, with - obviously, with "Stranger Things" probably being the most obvious. TREMBLAY: Yeah. You know, I was a - math was always my best subject, so I didn't really - in a - as a high school student - or even in undergraduate, I was a math major, I didn't stray too far from that. But when I discovered King, I was like, oh, these aren't, like, dusty stories and gothic halls and things like that - you know, the stuff I had - I was forced to read when I was taking English classes. He's writing about, like, my dad, who worked in a factory for 25 years. And he's writing about my mom, who was a bank teller. So to me, that was, like, instant credibility, for me, as a reader, was seeing, oh, here are people, at least at that point in time, I hadn't actually really seen represented in the fiction that I was certainly taught. Will something terrible happen? When will something terrible happen? Is the worst always to come? The worst is always to come.’So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things—terrifying things—that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right? So not everything is autobiographical then? After The Pallbearers Club , something occurred to me. Could you still write a biography? Is anything left? I am losing you and the loss is aching and delicious and bottomless and as addictive as the gain, as the replacing. And walk it you do. Because even though there is much darkness, this may be your first genuinely funny book. It is clear from the start that this is not your average psychological thriller. Truly, it is difficult to pigeonhole this novel as one specific genre, as it encapsulates qualities from many distinctly different areas of writing. Blurring the lines between fiction and memory, supernatural and ordinary, Paul Tremblay's latest work is nothing short of enthralling.”— Erie Reader

Bleak is something you’ve done before, but that inward turn feels like a departure, especially compared to your last two novels.but her reactions to what art's written about her are just as often desperately sincere—wounded by his misperceptions of her and her intentions. mercy accuses him, multiple times, of romanticizing, lying, confabulating, she is incensed at his “libelous portrayal of my dialogue,” but as the book progresses, detailing an aimless life derailed by health issues, paranoia, and substance abuse, her commentary becomes longer and increasingly revealing, and buried beneath mercy's humor and her playful jabs are some heartbreaking realities that eventually—maybe—lead to the truth.

Another note: as the book goes on, the playfulness decreases and the terror increases. It's like a sound mixing board. The playful slide moves down and the terror one up and up.

Paul Tremblay

This book was confusing at times but in the best possible way. It’s uniquely written as the main character Art’s memoir with annotations by other characters in the margins. It took a good chunk of the book to get into because it was like nothing was happening. However, once it did I was hooked! It was creepy and atmospheric and I loved the friendship between the characters Art and Mercy. The horror elements were unique and were interwoven perfectly with real life. Being set in the 80’s I really enjoyed the references as well. And then Mercy appears and so begins her side of the story for as you read, she annotates, interferes and comments on Art’s narration and soon you find your perceptions jostling alongside hers. This book is coffin shaped and glorious, it has been reviewed by quite a few readers as not having much going on, and in terms of action/gore well yes there is an argument to be made about this. But that is the point-it takes such balls to write such a huge novel over such a long period of time and to remain that restrained, that focussed on the life lived after Mercy appears to Art. His transformation, both physical and psychological is this great unravelling and is monstrous in its design and the pay off is so very worth it.