Norman Bates.  What does this name evoke for you?  Perhaps a shower scene, blood, or a motel?  Maybe Mother?

Norman lives in the house on the hill above his motel off the old highway.  Travelers take the new highway that is a far distance away from the motel, so Norman rarely gets a guest to stop by and stay.

Except for Mary.  Mary's escaping from her job, the boredom of her life, and with forty thousand in cash that she stole from her sexist boss.  She's taking this money to see Sam, her fiance, and she's trading in one used car after another to throw the police and others off her tracks.  It's not like her to do something like this -- after all, she's given up her own future to make sure that her sister, Lila, gets to go to college, and succeeds with more opportunities than Mary ever had.

Less than twenty miles from her fiance's town, Mary decides she'll stop to rest at a small motel.  She'll get much needed sleep and freshen up. Tomorrow, she'll surprise her fiance with a made-up inheritance story and help to get him out of debt so they can marry.  Unfortunately, she's picked Norman's motel to stay the night.

You may know the rest.  There is the famous shower scene and screams of the beautiful young woman as she is literally hacked to pieces.  The story then continues with Lila visiting Sam to see if he's heard from Mary as it's been over a week since her disappearance, and together they try to track her down.

It's a short story at around 175 pages, and in this short telling, it is without a doubt, utterly terrifying. Particularly when the story is told from Norman's perspective.  He's quite an innocent, and his blackouts are written so genuinely that you truly do believe that Mother is really the problem.  But the problem is that people think Mother's been dead for twenty years.  An astute study in the question of when -- when does a person like this become who they are?  Who shapes them to be this way?  In several ways, it's a dated book, but overall, it feels strangely fitting even reading it today. Robert Bloch's tale of terror is frightening in its simplicity, and incredibly disturbing in several sections.  Had I read this story (inspired by the true life of Ed Gein) during the creepy month of October, I daresay I would have slept much.

No wonder Hitchcock brought this story to a visual medium.

Other fabulous blog reviews:
Book, Line, and Sinker
The Literary Lollipop

Happy Reading,
Coffee and a Book Chick

I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but I will now.  I have never actually read an Agatha Christie novel until this week.  There.  I've said it.  And now I don't know which one I should read next.

I decided to pick one up because of Tales from the Reading Room's review of the non-fiction book Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, by Jared Cade.  I was so caught up in her review of this true story of Agatha Christie actually disappearing without a trace for that period of time -- her car found the next morning after an argument with her husband, abandoned with the lights still on.  Once found after eleven days, Christie's family claimed she had memory loss.  I found this story so interesting and am curious to read what the author uncovered during those eleven days, but I felt it just wouldn't be right to read the non-fiction insight into Christie's life without first reading her stories.

So I picked And Then There Were None.  Ten unsuspecting individuals are lured to a beautiful home on Soldier Island, a place only accessible by boat.  They come from a variety of backgrounds, ages, genders, and social class.  There's nothing consistent at all about the group that is invited to the island, it seems.

One young woman is hired as a temporary secretary, an older couple is hired to prepare the beds, cook and serve the food, another is a former military man expecting to see old buddies from the war, there is a judge, a doctor, and more...such an indistinct cast rounds out the party.  But they soon find there actually is one common trait between them all.  Murder.  No one's ever been charged or served time, but somewhere along the way, their very dirty secrets have been found out.  And then one by one, they are killed.  One need only read the children's rhyme framed and posted in their rooms facing the sea in order to know what will next happen to one of their group.

It's such a quick read, one sitting only.  One unsettling page of murder after another -- but who could the murderer be?  Could it be someone hiding on the island or in the house?  Or could it be one of them?

"Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine..."

This is what I find unsettling.  Being in the company of strangers and knowing that murder is upon you, but knowing from whom and how it will come is a mystery.  You are only guided by a sing-songy children's rhyme posted in your room.  Who you think you can trust, you can't.  Creepy, right?  It's really a very interesting exposé into how a breakdown happens.  Breakdowns in trust with each other and in yourself.  The confidence one has in being logical is then lost and watching it splinter away can be a bit frightening.

Agatha Christie writes easily and effortlessly, and while it's a fairly simply told story, I had no idea who the killer could be.  And the ending was beyond disturbing, I felt.  And I can't wait to read more Agatha Christie soon -- is there one you recommend I should pick next?

Happy Reading,
Coffee and a Book Chick

Have you ever read anything so deliciously unsettling that you wish you could go back in time so you could read it when it was first published?  So that you could experience it at the height of its newness?

Quite disturbing and uncomfortable feelings occurred while reading this week.  I attribute it to Daphne du Maurier's Classics of the Macabre that I received from the library, which features quite a creepy collection of short stories that were released with illustrations by Michael Foreman in 1987 to celebrate Du Maurier's 80th birthday.  I didn't read the short stories in order, but instead trounced around and first started with "The Apple Tree," which was so fiendishly enjoyable that I wrote a separate review for it.

I also kept thinking of how Tim Burton should really select a Daphne du Maurier short story for his next film, particularly one of my favorites below...

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A quick overview of all stories in this collection along with a sample of the wonderful illustrations:

Don't Look Now.  A husband and wife vacationing in Venice and trying to move on from the death of Christine, their young daughter, are told by a psychic that she is actually sitting with them at the table.  Although the husband thinks it's all a ruse, the wife believes.  When the psychic delivers a warning message from the dead daughter that to stay in Venice will not bode well for them...

Frightening and unsettling.

The Apple Tree.  A tree in the backyard begins to prey on the guilty conscience of a widower's mind and reminds him of his dead wife.
I think my absolute favorite, and the first one I read.

The Blue Lenses.  A woman undergoes eye surgery to correct her vision, and her eyes remain covered for six weeks.  When she finally has the bandages removed, she encounters all the people she's been speaking with during her recovery in the hospital have the body of a human, but the head of an animal, one that truly represents them.
A very, very twisted ending.  Maybe this instead is my favorite?  While reading this, I kept thinking that Tim Burton should pick this as next film project.

The Birds.  Alfred Hitchcock selected this short story to make his famous 1963 film of the same name starring Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, and Rod Taylor.  Rumor has it that Du Maurier wasn't pleased with this film, and after reading the short story, I can see why.  Nothing quite captures the complete horror and eeriness of the freakish assault of thousands of birds on humans like setting it in the cold and dreary landscape of an English village by a beach, the crashing waves in the background.  Hitchcock's movie was set in California.
Although I enjoyed it, it wouldn't rank in my favorites of the other selections, surprisingly.

The Alibi.  An older married man finds that he's not pleased with his life and he decides that he shall select someone for murder.  A stranger, someone undetectable back to him, and selected in a most unusual way.  Pick this random street, then the 8th house down, perhaps this door...doing so, he comes across a wife and her small son.  He decides to rent a room from her apartment to use as his place to paint during the day, as he's fashioned himself to be an artist. While seeking to draw out his excitement of building trust with his future victim, could they have imagined how this would truly play out?
A very disturbing story, and one that gave me quite a shudder.

Not After Midnight.  A British teacher is vacationing in Greece at a chalet facing the sea.  The chalet apparently once housed a guest who unfortunately drowned and the hotel employees are a bit superstitiously hesitant around this room.  The teacher is a bit more curious than he should be, and slowly begins to investigate the circumstances of the previous guest's death, and the curious association that the victim had with another couple vacationing in the same resort.
Although frighteningly good, it wasn't my favorite, and I wish there had been one more story after this one, or if it instead ended with either Don't Look Now or The Blue Lenses.

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I haven't read Daphne du Maurier before, so this collection of short stories was a brilliant introduction, and one that I read to participate in the Daphne du Maurier Challenge hosted by Chrisbookarama.  I found Du Maurier to be a bit like a twisted O. Henry -- the endings were never quite you imagined them to be, only much darker and haunting.  The writing was beautiful and truly set the atmosphere.  Now, I'm looking forward to picking up Rebecca, yet another creepy story, and the one that etched the author's name in literary history.

Happy Reading!
Coffee and a Book Chick

This is my first time participating in the Literary Blog Hop, graciously hosted by The Blue Bookcase, and I am looking forward to the blogs that I'll come across and the visitors who will travel to my site. Welcome!

This week's question is:

Is there such a thing as literary non-fiction?  If so, how do you define it?  Any examples?

I absolutely agree that there is literary non-fiction.  There are so many a fine example that I find to be truly absorbing narratives that are based on fact.  It need not be a dreary and deathly boring overview of something true that's happened -- it can be wildly fun, engaging, and capturing the spirit of education and adventure.


Below are my my favorites that are more current and what I would place in my literary non-fiction category.
What do you think?


A Moveable Feast...Read my review of my favorite Hemingway by clicking here.

The City of Falling Angels...Berent's quirky characters amidst the Venetian waterways and alleys.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil...My favorite Berendt work, and made my visit to Savannah, GA that much more alluring.

The Devil in the White City...Chicago's World Fair of 1893 and H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who preyed on the innocent women who traveled to Chicago.  I hear there is to be a movie soon, with Leonardo DiCaprio set to play H.H. Holmes

Happy Reading!
Coffee and a Book Chick