The Essential Ellison: A 35-Year Retrospective [Hardcover]

* "Lonelyache" -- a dark, mysterious tale of a man at the end of his emotional rope, which wallops you like a chunk of slate;

* Punky and the Yale Men" -- wherein a man tries to relive the violent days of his youth; one of Harlan's most underrated stories;

* "A Prayer For No One's Enemy" -- one of Harlan's most controversial tales, which puts not just anti-Semitism but all racism in its proper perspective;

* "Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine" -- a harrowing story of the days of illegal abortions, absolutely riveting;

* "The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie" -- Harlan's best-ever parable about the cannibalistic world of Hollywood;

* "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" -- Harlan's delightful, delicious ode to nonconformity;

* "Jeffty Is Five" -- wistful, haunting, and scary all at once, this story (like Bradbury's "The Playground") shows that eternal youth is not all it's cracked up to be;

* "Mom" --Harlan could've talked Oedipus into leaving home;

* "Alive and Well On a Friendless Voyage" -- existential despair as only Harlan can render it;

* "A Boy and His Dog" -- I usually hate the post-apocalypse genre, but Harlan gets it right on this one;

* "The Deathbird" -- my all-time favorite Ellison story, bar none, a beautifully-constructed parable about God, the Devil, and Man's true place in the universe...

...and this list just barely scratches the surface! I haven't touched upon half of the great work in this retrospective -- such as Harlan's heartfelt, sometimes touching, oftimes scathing nonfiction and essays, or the samples of his wicked sense of humor, his brilliant screenwriting, and his absolute fearlessness and honesty in the face of every sort of mendacity and double-dealing one could imagine.

That said, there are some things missing from this book as well; my short list would include such gems as the brilliant "The Beast Who Shouted Love At the Heart of the World," the chilling "Croatoan," the hysterical "From A to Z, In the Chocolate Alphabet" and "How's the Night Life On Cissalda?" (my nominee for Harlan's funniest-ever story), the thought-provoking "Hitler Painted Roses" and "Lonely Women Are the Vessels of Time", and one of my favorites, the haunting "Demon With a Glass Hand". I understand an updated version of Essential Ellison s coming out soon (soon being relative when talking about Harlan and anthologies, natch), and that it will include some new things, like the stunning "Mefisto In Onyx". I can only hope some of the above stories are included as well -- and while they're at it, here's hoping Harlan and Terry Dowling decide to drop "The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge," which is my least-favorite of Harlan's works. It's full of the purple overwriting (some of it bordering on self-parody) which has marred so much of Ray Bradbury's latter-day stories. (Sorry, fellow Harlan fans, but I call 'em like I see 'em!) Harlan has said of Stephen King that King needs a good editor; reading "Revenge" makes me wonder if Unca Harlan shouldn't attend the mote in his own eye first.

That, however, is another subject for another time. (And it's a good thing Harlan eschews computers and the Internet, or I'd be getting one hell of an e-mail from him right about now!) The Essential Ellison is what I'm talking about here, and not only is it a great introduction to Harlan's immense body of classic work, it is also one of the finest collections of writing that any American author, living or dead, has ever produced. Only Mark Twain has written as well, as volubly, and on as many topics as Harlan, and only Twain was better...and I have a feeling that only Harlan will be missed as much, and celebrated as much, over the course of the next century as Twain was over the last. Enjoy him while you can, folks -- because writers like Harlan Ellison come along about once every hundred years, and their dangerous visions are not to be taken lightly.