Come Closer

“We could devote our lives to making sense of the odd, the coincidental. But most of us don’t, and I didn’t either.”

Faber and Faber, London must be applauded for reissuing this taut novella, out of print in the UK for some time. Be wary of this cautionary tale, for its brevity belays a deeper narrative, one that will sit in your memory like jagged shards of glass. Each time you recall exposure to Come Closer, you’ll touch your scalp with your fingertips tracing the scars it has left imprinted onto your psyche.

Amanda is a successful architect. She has a troubled past, one only alluded to by vignettes, told as first-person narratives that like our own memories may - or may not be reliable. Her saviour, her rock is her husband, the reliable Ed. As Amanda’s world starts to turn weird, the reader is torn between whether supernatural forces are at play, or if the thoughts and occurrences are constructs of insanity trapped within Amanda’s head – but now released physically into the real-world.   

Written in a style that makes the reader fall into a trance-like state, strange situations are alluded to; the world appears diffracted through a prism. The novella has an odd feel. Gran’s writing is dispassionate and non-judgemental in retelling Amanda’s story. A tale of madness and/or detailing the presence of demonic forces.

The first-person narrative device works admirably in making the reader traverse unsteady ground, as if the amorality of Patricia Highsmith were fused to the off-kilter world-view of Thomas Ligotti.  Gran’s novella is strangely reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s 1965 film, Repulsion where the reader can almost picture Catherine Deneuve as Amanda – a woman battling a world that has turned menacing, and one that is as inexplicable, as it is weird.

This is a powerful little book, one that troubles the reader as it entertains, because it is also amusing, but not in a pleasant way.

Highly recommended.