Mister B. Gone

One wonders after having read Clive Barker's latest and delightful return to his "bread and butter" horror genre, is this author a student of media prophet Marshall McLuhan's as well? It sure seems so. Without giving very much away, the crux of "Mr. B. Gone" has to do with Professor Herbert Marshall McLuhan of Toronto University's "second great technological tsunami" in the history of human kind. The first environmental "catastrophe" in technological terms for human beings, according to McLuhan, was the phonetic alphabet. Because it gave humans "an eye for an ear" and offset the balance of the five senses, making the all-detached eye sovereign, and launching all kinds of madness thereupon - destroying the tribal nature of human life, which by the time of the Renaissance, the SECOND cataclysmic invention EXTENDED, ushering in nationalism, the city state, schizophrenia, and ultimately world war. And what was this SECOND technological "scourge?" Well: This second technological "breakthrough," shall we call it ... if you don't already know, you will after having read Barker's inventive tale of demons versus angels, gore and grue, hellspawn and heaven's heathens. Barker takes McLuhan's thesis and paints it awful and hideous, where God plays dice and the Pope is DEFINITELY not what he seems. The implications and ramifications of Barker's allegory play out nothing short of dire and apocalyptic, wrapped in a surface tale of, literally, a very, VERY "minor demon," about whom one…

Book was better than described. And the first edition also. Unexpected pleasure. Great seller. I would definitely buy from them again. Thanks!

Doug Bradley (aka "Pinhead" from the Hellraiser films) should be chained to a microphone and forced to narrate ALL of Clive Barker's books! He does such a great job. His enthusiastic narration elevated this otherwise merely decent story to the level of truly enjoyable. Barker and Bradley manage to make Mr. B. (the character) at once likable and repellent, humorous and frightening. Just when I think Mr. B. is someone with whom I could share an interesting afternoon chat, he goes and does something that makes me think I'd be much better off if our paths never crossed. Although far from being my favorite of Barker's novels, Mister B. Gone is still a good "read," at least in audio book form. Its dark, playful tone reminded me a bit of The Thief of Always, as both books could sort of fall into that "horror novel for children" category. Mister B. Gone, however, is certainly the darker and less-playful of the two. It actually reminded me a bit, too, of Voltaire's Candide. Mr. B. seems to share Candide's naivete about the world, but unlike Candide, Mr. B. doesn't merely suffer the abuses heaped on him. Instead, he gives as bad as he gets, so much so that I began feeling as if Mr. B. deserved everything he got and more. As usual, Barker's writing is first-rate, and although the story ultimately didn't seem to lead anywhere, Bradley's narration made the journey enjoyable. 2.5 stars for Barker. 4 stars for Bradley.

This was my first Clive Barker book and I’m obsessed! I love how the book was written as Jakabok telling you, the reader, his story. I feel like the warnings and threats throughout brought *more* to the story. Jakabok was his own breed of character (he is a demon, after all) with his own unique tale.

I was so into this book for about 150 pages, and then it started to remind me of middle-school history class. I loved the main character for quite a while and assumed I was really going to miss him when he was gone. But then the book went in an unexpected direction, and I totally lost interest. It felt like two different books that were taped together at the mid-point. Clive's prose is fantastic, and his imagination is unrivaled. I hope he graces us with something genuinely scary in the future. At least we have that movie from the Books of Blood coming out soon!