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Cabal [Paperback]

Clive Barker
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 16.30
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Book Description

Jan 1 2001
For more than two decades, Clive Barker has twisted the worlds of horrific and surrealistic fiction into a terrifying, transcendent genre all his own. With skillful prose, he enthralls even as he horrifies; with uncanny insight, he disturbs as profoundly as he reveals. Evoking revulsion and admiration, anticipation and dread, Barker's works explore the darkest contradictions of the human condition: our fear of life and our dreams of death.

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Comprised of a novel and four long stories, this volume is classic Barker, full of lurid, bloody imagery and action involving large-than-life characters. It's great fun and provides plenty of thrills or giggles, depending on how seriously you take it. In the novel, Cabal , Boone, a recovering psychotic, is cleverly manipulated by his psychiatrist, Decker, into believing that he has committed several savage murders. Decker, of course, is the villain, but Boone does not catch on. Considering himself unfit for human society, Boone flees, eventually to come upon Midian, a large crypt inhabited by the Nightbreed, dead souls in shape-changing bodies, neither good nor evil, who turn Boone into one of their own. Of the shorter works, the best written is "The Life of Death," about a woman who becomes enthralled by death and is transformed into a kind of Typhoid Mary. Another, "The Last Illusion," which concerns the fate of a magician's corpse, is full of intriguing moments. First serial to Penthouse; Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild featured alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The New York Times Book Review [Cabal] demonstrate[s] why the gleefully gory Mr. Barker is at the top of his genre. Endlessly inventive, he takes familiar themes a step or two farther...dazzling, captivating stuff...

The Washington Post In the hands of a lesser writer this could be just another tale of nightmarish evil...[what] lifts Barker from common craftsman to the rarefied and chancy domain of artist is his profound awareness of the alienation and aloneness of man. And he brings these insights into dramatic focus through the innocence of his monsters...

Elle Simultaneously repels and spellbinds the reader...Literature in the tradition of Poe, Shelley and Hawthorne.

Washingtion Times [Clive Barker] is a mapmaker of the mind, charting the furthest reaches of the imagination....His ambition and audacity are unparalleled; we know that we are in the presence of a vision that is genuine, unique, and lasting.

Publishers Weekly The most ambitious dark fantasist of our time.

The Boston Herald Barker's work reads like a cross between Stephen King and...Gabriel García Márquez. He creates a world where our biggest fears appear to be our own dreams.

People Barker's dark, powerful imagination -- and his skill in pacing to keep his stories surprising -- make the horror grisly and effective.

Armistead Maupin [Barker writes] with the easy confidence of a tribal storyteller, and elder who has seen everything and committed most of it to scripture.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Clive Barker is back from yet another excursion into his dark and fertile imagination, bearing sinister fruits of fine horror fantasy.

Locus The premier metaphysicist of contemporary fiction.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone now knew, was more certain to be broken than "I'll never leave you." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars a dissapointment April 24 2002
By orange
Format:Paperback
and here's why:I've been a huge fan of his movies,starting with the hellraiser and finishing with lord of illusions,however the only book I've ever read of his was a thief of always and it left me with an unformed opinion of the author,so I've decided to check out some more of his books.Cabal was the one I was interested in the most,because two of the stories have been turned into movies it seemed like an easier introduction to the author as an writer and not a film maker.Was I wrong,first of,it seems that the movies,especially "lord of illusions" were not based but merely suggested by the story "the last illusion",which would be fine,except that the story was so tragically inferior to the movie,that it's hard to believe it was written by the same man.And that one was the best short story in the book,so hopefully it says something about the rest.Cabal is overall the most interesting and well developed story,however it somehow appears as a middle of something bigger and better.That and strangely poor developed and not highly likable characters,in my opinion,were the strong minuses of Cabal.
As far as the writing itself goes,the author seems to have an uncanny ability to go from highly eloquent to plainly crude and vulgar within the same page.It's fairly transparent that the author is british and that his favorite words seem to be spittle and innards,his favorite subjects are monsters and creatures of darkness,whom he writes of so creatively and vividly,one can only wish he would pass on some of that passion to his human subjects.
In short,this was not an enjoable read and I can only hope that the author got better with time,because I managed to aquire quite a few of his books and I would hate to think them a waste.Stick to the movies.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not Great April 28 2009
By Jamieson Villeneuve TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Monsters have always played a large part in our collective subconscious. They lurk in shadows, under beds, at the ends of dark alleys. Monsters are always with us, in one form or another. Clive Barker realizes this. Barker also realizes that sometimes, the monster we don't know is far more preferable than the ones we do.

Cabal is Barker's ode to the monster -- not as a fearsome predator that only lives to destroy, but as a misunderstood creature that is alternatively loathed and envied. We despise the monster because we wish to be one ourselves.

Boone is a young man who is teetering on the brink of insanity. While he has been getting treatment under the watchful guise of Dr. Decker, he is still unsure if he is well. When Decker proclaims Boone a subconscious serial killer, with eleven confirmed victims under his belt, Boone decides that his only option is to find Midian, the place where the monsters play. What Boone discovers is an underworld of loneliness and despair, as the monsters of the world attempt to live their lives in peace, uninterrupted by the insanity of humankind.

Barker presents the readers with individuals who truly live their lives on the edge, daring life, limb, and soul to satisfy their primal yearnings. In Boone, Barker has created another dissatisfied loner who craves acceptance, believing he cannot function in normal society. Barker understands the human heart, and isn't afraid to admit that not all desires are the same. Just because one person's desires may differ from anther's does not necessarily make that person wrong. It's all a matter of perspective.

Monsters are monsters, first and foremost. Barker is one of the strongest purveyors of the human condition. Cabal contains some truly stomach-turning scenes, which is to Barker's credit. While he sympathizes with the monster, he knows that it must be true to itself in order to be complete. Like humankind, a monster must accept what it is in order to survive. Barker does not shy away from the blood and gore that invariably follow such a creature.

Yet this book strikes me as being more like one of Stephen King's weaker novellas or a movie treatment than a Barker novel (it was made into the movie Nightbreed). Even Barker's shorter works are more suspenseful and interesting; this lacks the pizzazz that his other works show.

Part of what has always made Barker such an interesting writer is his mixing of the profane with the sacred, his ability to juxtapose the horrible with the holy. In his stories, men find redemption as monsters. What is lacking in this novel is the religious aspect that has been present in everything else. There is also no personal dilemma for the main characters. Man discovers he's a killer, runs, becomes a "human monster." That's pretty much it. Regrettably, there isn't much more to the story than that, even though we are forced to confront the one theme running through the work: Anyone can be a monster if they try hard enough.

The evil are rarely punished, and the innocent cannot be allowed to survive within Cabal. Most particularly, sometimes, love can cross the boundary between life and death. Cabal is possibly the closest Barker could ever get to writing a flat-out romance novel. Boone and his girlfriend Lori go through the pits of Hell to be with each other. The love thing really doesn't work with the plot, however. It's nice to see that he's able to observe the intimate human relationship, but I felt that too much time was spent on them being "lovey dovey" instead of "hey honey, can you help me get normal again?" The love thing took over too much of the plot. They basically travel the battlefield of the final confrontation between man and his demons with over-the-top dialogue and some observations about the human heart and how that affects our decisions.

I also found parts of the novel rather preachy. How much dribble can we actually take about "the human condition" and "the human heart" and "human desires" and "human society," etc., etc. There's only so much of one person's opinions/observations that I'm willing to accept. This novel is chock full of Barker's thoughts on society, people and passion. For the most part, I would have rather he kept his opinions to himself.

Despite these complaints, I do recommend the book. It's a short read, and Barker makes the point that in the end, it doesn't matter who the monsters are, what dreams we have, what wishes we have, what lives we live: we are all monsters. How we come to accept it is what makes us human.
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4.0 out of 5 stars A Barker Classic April 26 2004
By Mary
Format:Paperback
This is a great fantasy novel from Barker (It is NOT one of his horror stories). The book draws you in with the great character protrayals. The ending was a little weak and I felt like he left it open for a sequel, which hasn't appeared yet. But all-in-all, if you liked Weaveworld or Imajica, you will like Cabal also.
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Most recent customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Bad
Clive Barker is a terrible writer. For some unknown reason, I've read several of his books over the years, most likely because they're sold at the airport bookstore, and I need... Read more
Published on April 10 2003
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Good, violent, creepy stuff. Barker has done better, but not much. I enjoyed it alot.
Published on Mar 19 2003 by S. L. Shrewsbury
4.0 out of 5 stars Another WOW from Clive Barker
Though it isn't as precise as say, The Inhuman Condition, nor as epic as say, Weaveworld, it is still a wonderful collection of stories to stir the imagination and haunt the... Read more
Published on Dec 6 2002 by Quentin Xavier
4.0 out of 5 stars Loving the Hateful
Barker is strong with making hateful characters romantically appealing, and turning them aside from evil. Read more
Published on Nov 22 2002 by Lloyd Ravlin III
3.0 out of 5 stars Far from his best, but Barker always satisfies...
Cabal is one of Clive Barker's earlier books, and while It does not have the depth or captivating imagery of his previous book "The Damanation Game", it is still a fine... Read more
Published on Nov 15 2002 by Wayne Yaskew
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
I picked up this book expecting much better from Barker who, even with his less serious work is still a very effective writer. Unfortunately, this book was pure fluff. Read more
Published on May 17 2001 by Blahblahblah
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Clive Barker is the greatest author in the Horror genre simply because of his technique. He weaves and creates a complete world for the reader to step into and experience the words... Read more
Published on May 1 2001 by Teri Clarke
5.0 out of 5 stars We are all monsters
Monsters have always played a large part in our collective subconscious. They lurk in shadows, under beds, at the ends of dark alleys. Read more
Published on Mar 19 2001 by Stone Junction
5.0 out of 5 stars Sometime monsters have a human form...
This is the first C.Barker book I've read and it still hold a dear place in my heart. The author creates a dark world, where good and evil is slightly different. Read more
Published on Feb 3 2001 by Christine
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars isn't enough - it is a 10!
I had seen the movie first and then read the book. Of course the book was infinately better. This was the first book of Clive Barker's that I had ever read and it prompted me to... Read more
Published on Jan 16 2001 by S. Bourget
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