Gustible - under the rubric of [$_SELF]

Nick Cave…”And the Ass saw the Angel”. I cannot believe that I have never read this book before. It is breathtakingly lyrical. This book made me feel.

It may be strange to describe anything connected with something as dark and twisted as the tale told in this book as lyrical – but master Cave’s language is beyond compare. He uses fine and flowery words to weave a dark spell…the jumble of Euchrid Eucrow’s disintegrating mind is shaped from beautifully twisted black metallic shards – shards and splinters that are pricking and cutting and gutting as you read.

Have you ever read a book in which the word “remugient” is used ? Never mind a book in which the word is used to great effect ? As Euchrid bloodily murders a vagrant, the convulsions of the dying person’s body reminds him of a “remugient pupa”.

I stand in awe at Cave’s vocabulary – words which I thought were made up, are as a matter of fact English words. The madly convoluted world of Euchrid is painted with decayed-lavender words from a past time.

Our hero Euchrid lies on the bed in his filthy shack, surrounded by tortured animals in cages – half-cured skins and rotting meat torn from his pets are hooked from the ceiling. But Euchrid Eucrow sees none of this – Euchrid Eucrow let’s the stolen nightdress descend on his face in “skirts of virgin light and sacral lavender”. Over his shamed, his tearful face.

This book drags you into a baroque and gothic world – a place where religious mania and genetic deviance combines with small town spite and despair to paint a psychological landscape that reeks of decay, and of irrepressibly dark growth. This is a place where festering sores feed stinking thorny rose bushes – where the flowers bloom decay.

I have always liked Nick Cave’s music. The bleak comfort that is dispensed in “Into my arms”. The Euchridian insanity of “Red Right Hand”. The cynical middle aged despair in Grinderman. This book predates the music I list here – but in my experience it adds more shades and colour to the reputation of an artist I admire already. I have not had the opportunity to listen to the album that is the companion to the book – but I look forward to doing so.

Why should you read this book ? Certainly not for the light-hearted subject matter. But read it for the language. Read it for the imagery. Read it for the rambling madness, the opportunity to step into lunacy, and emerge relatively unscathed. Read it to feel the “stridor of a mad heart”.

Yes, it is very disturbing, but the shadows may help you see where the light is the brightest.

I rate this book must-read, top class, excellent effort, highly recommended for mentally mature persons.

Note: The excellent Luciferous Logolepsy defines remugient: adj. – rebellowing; roaring or shouting anew