Hunger and Thirst [Hardcover]

This massive novel is the first that Matheson ever wrote, completed at the same time (1949-50) that the young writer was beiginning to make a name for himself in the world of fantasy fiction through such stories as "Born of Man and woman" and "Third From the Sun." Discouraged by his agent's reaction at the time (who deemed it unpublishable), Matheson put the book away, never to return to it--even though writer Henry Kuttner ("The Graveyard Rats") read it and told him, "Your agent's a damn fool."

Kuttner was right. "Hunger and Thirst" is a marvelous, wildly ambitious novel about a young man, Erick Lindstrom, who obsessively thinks back over the events of his life as he lay paralyzed and dying of a gunshot wound in his cheap apartment. The device of a man alone facing insurmountable odds will be familiar to readers of Matheson; what may be unfamiliar is the extraordinary emotional power the author brings to his story. From the vivid autobiographical war sections to the portrayal of Erick's obsessive relationships with two women, the young author's passion and feeling for his material shine through.

For this is, in every good sense, a young man's book. Matheson's protagonist is a Hamlet-like character caught in a Dostoyevskian world of shadows and suspicions, fatally indecisive about who he wants to be. Unable to fully give himself over to love, he ruins a relationship with a fine young woman, Sally. Later he shares a tormented period with an alcoholic, Leonora, whom he accidentally impregnates. This is not cheery stuff, but it is very much in line with many American first novels, from Thomas Wolfe's to J.D. Salinger's, and it is extremely well-done.

The novel is flawed, to be sure; the war material, powerful though it is, is never really successfully integrated into the main story, and the young Matheson is occasionally given to overheated language (including triple exclamation marks and words in ALL CAPS). But overall, "Hunger and Thirst" is a major achievement--and an astonishing revelation.

Matheson's literary career was forever altered by the failure of "Hunger and Thirst." Had the book been published, he declares in his Introduction, "I would have been encouraged to write more mainline novels instead of electing to concentrate entirely (with the exception of "The Beardless Warriors") on genre writing. Not that I regret it..." In this light, upon finishing "Hunger and Thirst" the reader may feel deeply conflicted emotions. On the one hand, a career which has included "I Am Legend" and "The Shrinking Man" and "Hell House" and "Somewhere in Time" certainly cannot in any way be regretted. But the publication of "Hunger and Thirst" compels us to wonder about a Richard Matheson who might have been.