- Hardcover: 201 pages
- Publisher: Donald M Grant; illustrated edition edition (December 1991)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0937986976
- ISBN-13: 978-0937986974
- Product Dimensions: 25.4 x 18.3 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 907 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aickmanesque,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mrs God (Hardcover)
MRS GOD was Peter Straub's attmept at the kind of story Robert Aickman is known for: one where everything happens belows the surface of the story. That said, neither Aickman nor this story are for everybody. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that most people shouldn't bother with reading this. It really is a complex story. The audiotape no doubt contains the version included in Straub's "Houses With Doors" anthology, which is actually an easier, more reader-friendly, version of the story. For the true masochist, track down a copy of the Donald M. Grant (publisher) hardcover of the story. That nut's hard to crack! As to what the story is actually "about"...well, I won't give it away, but it has a lot to do with the troubles between the hero and his wife.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Awful,
By paisleymonsoon (Tulsa, Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mrs. God (Audio Cassette)
I'm glad to see that everyone else gave this book a low rating, too. I don't think I've ever given a book one star. I would have given it negative stars if possible. I listened to the book on tape and the selling point was that Kevin Spacey (the actor) was the one reading the the book. Since I always enjoy the movies Kevin Spacey acts in, I thought that I'd enjoy a book he narrated. Not so. The book is about a professor that gets the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to the United Kingdom to do research on his favorite author who, I believe, is a relative of his. He is chosen as the privileged professor for that year who gets to stay in this enormous mansion and use their one-of-a-kind library. Things get a little weird. He rents a car from the airport and encounters strange people along the way. And when he finally gets to the mansion, the people living there are even stranger. You've got mysterious figures in windows, cobwebbed passageways, and a room full of dozens of miniature replicas of the mansion. The description of the book sounds interesting and eerie enough, but the author is confusing. He adds elements to the story that make no sense. You go over a passage in the book and go over it again without being able to figure out what in the world the author is trying to say. Is it fact or fantasy? What actually happened? Did anything happen? Where did the concentration camp people come from and what do they have to do with anything? What's the story about the mysteriously dying children mean? I suppose it's supposed to be a ghost/horror story. And I suppose that the author knew what he was talking about in his own mind, but he is unable to put pen to paper and make the story make sense to the reader. It seems as if the author got tired of writing and decided to resolve everything all at once so that he could leave this mess of a book behind him. Maybe he should have just stopped completely.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aickmanesque,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mrs God (Hardcover)
MRS GOD was Peter Straub's attmept at the kind of story Robert Aickman is known for: one where everything happens belows the surface of the story. That said, neither Aickman nor this story are for everybody. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that most people shouldn't bother with reading this. It really is a complex story. The audiotape no doubt contains the version included in Straub's "Houses With Doors" anthology, which is actually an easier, more reader-friendly, version of the story. For the true masochist, track down a copy of the Donald M. Grant (publisher) hardcover of the story. That nut's hard to crack! As to what the story is actually "about"...well, I won't give it away, but it has a lot to do with the troubles between the hero and his wife.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Underestimate Mrs. God,
By Raina Hellmuth - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mrs God (Hardcover)
I typically don't review books, because I tend to agree with what other people think - the good ones are good and the bad ones are bad, but this time, seems I'm outside the majority. I have to five star this, as it's easily one of the most engaging reads I've ever come across.Mrs. God is the story of a man who abandons his greatly pregnant wife, teaching position, and Country to spend three weeks at an isolated English country house to study the poems of his grandfather's one time wife. From the moment he arrives at Gatwick Airport, things transpire in an increasingly odd manner, little incidents that, in the exhaustion of travel, can be written off as 'jet-lag', but they persist, and then, start to become sinister. Esswood House is staffed by unseen servants. The family that owns the house, the Schneschals, are scorned by the locals and their dead are barred from the local cemetery. The ghost of his great aunt wanders about - or does she? None of it is substantiated, but the end, and the way the end ties back into the beginning, is skillful, exciting, mesmerizing. In the past, I have forced the story on others and made them report back, what did they think this meant, what did they think that meant, is it a horror story about a haunted place, ala Stephen King's the Shining, or a story about an already mad man letting an environment hasten him along to a violent end, ala Stanley Kubrick's the Shining? I have one friend who thinks the book, at it's center, is about Vampires, and I am tempted to agree, although the author never comes close to mentioning such a thing. Another thinks that it's a warning against the marital condition and how mistrust and hatred can worm their way under an otherwise perfect reasonable man's skin and destroy him. A third thinks it's veiled sermon against abortion. I have come to the decision that it's literary David Lynch. You come into the story when, like life, so much of what is pertinent has already transpired and you have to trust this somewhat shady and rather unreliable narrator who's guiding you through his own perceived experiences. I call it my plane book (I used to have the anthology, Houses Without Doors, but alas, left it on a plane. Ah, life!) because the sub-200 page story is the perfect length to devour on a flight. I've read it no fewer than a dozen times and have had countless wonderful conversations about it - I'm a voracious and avid reader, and this is, without parallel, the best story I've ever read. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great ghost mystery,
By Raphaël Rousseau fictionman - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mrs. God (Hardcover)
Peter Straub's Mrs. God was a try to write a ghost story in a pure Robert Aickman style. Originaly published in his collection "Houses Without Doors", this is a re-print. But still, if you like Robert Aickman it's worth the trip. Yes, it's a short novel but the action starts right away at the first paragraph. It is the story of William Standish, a shoolar who is given the chance to explore the poetry of his ancestor Isobel Standish in a writer's residence. But the place in haunted and not in a traditionnal way. This is a very original story, which one appreciete more if one has read a few Aickman stories before. If you want to fully enjoy Mrs. God, it may be a good idea to read The Wine-Dark Sea first. It's a collection of weired tales, by Robert Aickman. The introduction of that book was written by Peter Straub. Thank you Peter for pushing the bandaries of fantasy once again a little bit more.
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