The novel opens brilliantly and shuts off like the lights in a thunderstorm. The characters are built up richly and it is easy to identify with each owns perspective. Research, i can tell, was made extensively about Lovecraft and the sides of him; themes, syntax and sympathies with all things alien and peculiar in nature; were anything but derivative as a writer! All his warts and custom were laid bare in this novel and reading the story at times was heart-breaking. Great novel for lovers of Lovecraft and weird-fiction. Kudos to Lafarge for giving us a glimpse into a time and character so painted into American genre folklore and history!

The Night Ocean had a fascinating premise, but ultimately fell flat for me. The novel is actually several stories in one and I was often left feeling as though a story that had been started had been abruptly stopped without reason and without a clear ending. La Farge attempted something big here and fell short, unfortunately.

Beyond homage

The Night Ocean: A Novel by Paul La Farge (Penguin Press, $17).

The troubled genius of American horror, H. P. Lovecraft, towers over and lurks throughout The Night Ocean, Paul La Farge’s tribute and critique of the father of Cthulu and the other old and terrifying gods.

The novel opens with Charlie Willits, the biracial chronicler of Lovecraft’s (fictional) homosexuality, escaping from a mental hospital–a plot device horror fans will recognize from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. In a layered and multivocal narrative, La Farge’s novel centers Lovecraft’s racism and general weirdness while also covering a century’s worth of science fiction and horror fandom. This is a work of love, admiration and honesty that manages to avoid moralizing even as it embraces morality.

La Farge has accomplished what every fan dreams of: He’s written the problematic master into a story so strange that even he couldn’t have imagined it.

This was a strange one. I picked it up because I love the cover and title, and the first few chapters started out so well. My attention started to wander after that, and although I did finish the book, that initial interest never really came back. It did have a few interesting parts - the elements of Lovecraft’s homosexual relationships (though thoroughly disavowed in the narrative) were intriguing, but the rest left me cold. Paul la Farge can write a beautiful sentence, but the novel is meandering and a little unsatisfying. By the time I finished it, I didn’t know what the point was, though it wasn’t a bad journey getting there.

I couldn't get into this book at all. The writing just was too distant for me and I couldn't connect. I tried skimming but maybe it was just over my head or something.

The Night Ocean has more layers than a alien onion monster! As a wife searching for her missing, obsessed husband who was chasing down a man who wrote about loving the weird fiction author H. P. Lovecraft, and who may or may not have taken over the soul (transmigration/faked death & name change) of someone who may have actually loved this unlovable, weird, racist, brilliant, oddball writer. This is a very interesting, unreliable look at how deep you can dig in to attempting to actually know someone, and if someone can or should be known through their work. The trail of the trail of the trail leads to tall tales, celebrity cameos, and lots of action as people dream up lives that are far more interesting than their realities -- and you don't even need monsters or aliens to do it!

The Night Ocean

by Paul La Farge

This is the kind of story recommendation that could go either way. For me, this quirky, well-told tale was a thumbs-up, but I am guessing that the same reasons I liked the story might not compel another reader. I knew next to nothing about the real-life figures written about here — H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Barlow, and others — so I have no problem with the way they were represented, and I will take the author's lead regarding Lovecraft's own skills as a writer. I was a willing reader, with a little Wikipedia on the side to keep La Farge honest. I couldn't even begin to discuss the plot of this one, I think that even if you read the summary on amazon or goodreads you will be no closer to having an idea of what it's about than if you open it cold. So do that. Enjoy the often-beautiful language and even the meandering bunny trails of the plot. This is something new, and different, and I want you to like it as much as I did.


For Goodreads:

Why I picked it — I was going to lie and say something literary here, but really, I loved this cover. So there, I admit it.
Reminded me of… The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, for the quest-like theme.
For my full review — click here

The Night Ocean is a Russian nesting doll of a book: a story within a story within a story, all working in parallel or not at all. It's completely maddening and fascinating, frustrating and gigantic in scale. It is a book that should not work, one that could almost drown under the weight of details. But following through to the end is an adventure that is worth taking.

This book has a lot of BIG IDEAS which are expressed by weaving its story around historical figures that, for the most part, are inherently interesting, and yet it stumbles into an unsatisfying mish mash of realness and fiction. It may be that Marina Willett and her narrator's voice were just not for me; her humor (or "humor") didn't ring my bell and it reads like clunky nonsense in the middle of what could be a pretty propulsive, eerie tale. Maybe that's it? I wanted to be more freaked out and instead was merely irritated. I'm not saying H.P. Lovecraft deserves better, because nooooooo he doesn't, but perhaps Robert Barlow does. An "I guess" recommend.

This was one weird reading experience for me.
I loved the fact H. P Lovecraft could be seen throughout and a major influence on this story.
While I would mainly say this is a historical fiction novel, there are such strong elements of mystery that kept me wanting to read more. The ending I think was fitting for this novel- to leave it just as intriguing, and keep you guessing, as it did from the beginning of the book.

Thank you, Paul La Farge and PENGUIN GROUP The Penguin Press, for allowing me to read and review this copy of the book.

I received an electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Paul La Farge, and Penguin Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your work with me.

I had to make several starts with this novel. While the blurb makes it sound like an interesting look into the roots of Science Fiction writers in the early 1950's - and it is all of that - it was almost too complicated to be entertaining. Several of the characters will stay with me over time. I felt like Marina and Charlie deserved their own story. And the research into following those early SF writers, what they did and what happened to them, was also very interesting.

Part mystery, but more of a psychological horror, this tale involves the purported romance between Lovecraft and a fan by the name of Robert Barlow, as detailed in a supposed diary and alleged interview. 'The Night Ocean' is a journey, or better yet a set of stories within stories, that integrates multiple characters, fiction and history, fact and obsession. The narrative challenges the truth or hoax behind the ‘Erotonomicon’ (fictional book that may no longer exist) and raises questions about what we perceive as real versus how we allude ourselves with the what-if. Marginal recommendation.

It seems this book was too intelligent for me. Marina is a married psychotherapist living in N.Y. The story traces back the events that occurred to Marina's husband prior to him disappearing and supposedly committing suicide. Marina narrates what troubles befall Charlie after he writes a book about famous horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft. The good, Marina and Charlie are interesting and complex characters that I liked. The writing was rich. The bad, I could not keep up with all the characters from Barlow's or Spink's past. There was so much going on--Communists, WWII, Mexico City, Florida, Lovecraft and his fans, Science Fiction, heroin addiction, suicide, etc. and the stories were told from multiple viewpoints--for some time I felt my head spinning. I am not a big fan of Lovecraft so maybe that added to my not caring so much. This book reminds me of Night Film by Marisha Pessl but I liked that book much more.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book and give an honest review.

The tales we tell, whether true or imagined, contain an abundance of details that drive others (and ourselves) to either believe or discredit us. When there are multiple stories on the same subject coming from one source, such as in Paul La Farge's The Night Ocean, it's difficult to determine which is the truth.

Charlie Willett is obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and his life, so much so that he's been researching a particular time span further based on the smallest of clues that many would discredit simply as a stretch. Once Charlie goes missing, presumed dead after having supposedly swum into a lake, his wife Marina, a psychiatrist, picks up Charlie's investigation in order to figure out what might have happened to him as a means to gain understanding and closure. Through this, Marina learns more about her husband's obsession, and all things and people related to Lovecraft, no matter how tangental they might seem.

Narratively, this story is layered in a way to both build a case and trust while also breaking it down at the same time, which was entertaining and engaging to read. Marina takes the clues provided from her husband's research, follows up for more information on them where needed, and then provides her own analysis of potential rationale behind various actions or thoughts, which helps to provide a more clinical view of what might otherwise be taken at face value as a most fantastic truth. The various formats of telling the story through interviews, journal entries, conversations, and others was a good way to break up what otherwise might have been a tedium of recalled conversations in this lengthy tome.

Overall, I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

I gave up on this about 50 percent through, per my Kindle. There's a lot going on and frankly I wasn't as entranced by the very complicated story as I had hoped to me. I think this is best read by Lovecraft fans or those who are intrigued by the fictionalized lives of somewhat obscure novelists who were in his orbit. The writing is fine but the story left me cold.

I was interested in this book because all things Lovecraft seem to be hot lately. I've enjoyed several book that incorporate his ideas, Lovecraft Country and Wintertide being well-written examples of these. So when I saw that this book was about Lovecraft's life and a mystery as well, I was intrigued.

It started out well, with a disappeared husband who was on the hunt for a rumored unpublished work of Lovecraft's called the Erotonomicon. Then the book digresses on supposed excerpts from the Erotonomicon, which was a thinly disguised journal by Lovecraft, supposedly. The Erotonomicon is fairly obsessed (as is obvious from the title) with Lovecraft's hidden homosexuality. He banally catalogues all his sexual encounters, with every type of sex act referred to by an occult ritual name ( I suppose as a precaution). It's fairly easy to decipher, though, especially with the helpful footnotes.

I know that it's likely that Lovecraft was gay and closeted. I know that it's true that he had close friendships with several younger men, and it's probably likely that these relationships were physical as well as intellectual. Unfortunately, the Erotonomicon just seems silly. I felt like the author was mostly interested in helping me be a voyeur of Lovecraft's secret life- it didn't feel literary, it felt icky.

I believe that the book continues to peel away layers of lies and hoaxes, to get to the motivation for the Erotonomicon myth. However, I was put off by the fixation on titillation instead of the mystery of either the disappearance or of the loneliness of Lovecraft's life. The Night Ocean is the title of a Lovecraft short story- vague with an emotional undercurrent of longing and strangeness- possibly an expression of all he couldn't say.

And Lovecraft certainly had his issues with racism, misogyny, you name it. But I didn't feel what I read got me any closer to learning about or understanding what drove him so.

I know that a lot of people feel this is a tour de force. That just passed me by- maybe it's me? But I feel like this book went the wrong direction by focusing on sex acts so much instead of sexuality.

Books about research and mysterious manuscripts hit me right in the nerd button, and this book has all of those things. It's also a humanizing portrait of a writer with some terrible ideas about humanity, and I appreciate how La Farge was able to balance a celebration of Lovecraft's writing with a condemnation of his racism and antisemitism.

Here's my full review at the Chicago Review of Books:
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/03/08/the-night-ocean-brings-lovecraft-back-from-the-dead/

Marina's husband Charlie disappears and given that she is a psychiatrist herself she is determined to find him even though there are those who think he committed suicide. As she delves into his research revolving around his fascination (or obsession if you will) with H. P. Lovecraft-a horror writer and his relationship with Robert Barlow-a gay fan. Are they just friends? This novel spans not only decades in the life of Lovecraft but the length and breadth of the continent. There are lies, deceptions and conspiracies galore and many layers to the plot that need to be peeled away, much like an onion to get to the core of this complex novel.

This book was not at all what I expected. That's not to say it's bad, but I'm not particularly a sci-fi fan and this book definitely seemed more sci-fi than mystery to me. Some of the stories within the book (for there were definitely several different stories) were interesting and compelling while others seemed sluggish and slow to me. The writing is interesting and I hope the marketing will emphasize the sci-fi aspects rather than marketing it as a straight mystery - which is sure to disappoint many mystery readers.