Clive Barker – Mister B. Gone – How Open Is Your Open Mind? Can You Read A Book Backward?

Whether or not you will find “Mister B. Gone” rewarding hinges on whether or not you “get it“.  Since I am a responsible netizen, I am going to self-censor this entry with a NC-16 rating due to my personal views on homosexuality and religion.  Besides, why would we wish to expose readers younger than 16 years old to a book full of grotesque and evilness?

But I got it so I find “Mister B. Gone” not entertaining, not pleasant, but a rewarding read.  I am going to tell you what it is in just a bit without giving out spoilers that may affect your reading pleasure – that is if you still decide to read this book after you are through with this review.

Many people think that Stephen King is a master of horror stories.  Stephen King’s stories are not scary, the earlier work of Clive Barker are.  I have read all his 9 fictions up to “Everville”, which is where all the good stuffs stop.  I have read some of his recent works and they are not as inspiring.

I often find Clive Barker’s ideas original.  “The Thief of Always”, for instance, is a rather short story on someone stealing the “always” from the kids.  Imagine, things that “always” happen do not happen anymore.  How cool the idea is that?  I also like “The Great and Secret Show” and its sequel “Everville”.  I have even endured the close to 900 pages “Imajica” and loved it.

So, how do I find “Mister B. Gone” (year 2007, 256 pages, hardcover), a story of a demon who finds himself fished out of Hell and now walks the Earth?

It is known to the world that the author lives with his partner David Armstrong.  And to that end, I didn’t know what to feel when I discovered that the main character is perhaps a gay demon.  OK, it was not explicitly mentioned that the demon is gay but he is emotionally in love with another guy.  Bottom line is, for sure I can’t relate.  But I suspect another group of readers may be able to.

“Mister B. Gone” also makes reference to the Christian Gospel, the Vatican, the Pope, and the Archbishops and cast them into less than positive light.  Again, it is a formula that has been tried and used millions of times and the idea of a battle between the Angels and Devils is also not new.  At times I wonder what would an alternative reality be if someone replaces these ingredients with the Quran, the Ulama, and the Imam and writes the same storybook?  I think of Salman Rushdie (the book “The Satanic Verses”) and Geert Wilders (the short film “Fitna”).  And why does the Christian world so tolerance towards such a blaspheme?

Freedom of speech, I got it (though not totally agree with it).

Nothing is pretty inside “Mister B. Gone”.  Nothing pretty survives inside “Mister B. Gone”.  It is not a horror fiction.  It is more like a fiction of grotesque.  And it is written in such a strange way that this (gay) demon supposes to keep talking to you (as a reader) and begs you to burn the book.  He even threatens you, insults you, and makes you feel very uncomfortable to continue reading the book.  And why would anyone wish to continue reading a book that even the main character is far from lovable – an ugly, mutilated, evil albeit intelligence demon committing grievous crimes that make the World War II atrocities look mild?  Granted that the human counterparts within the plot are not doing things that we are proud of either.  But I wouldn’t philosophically read too much into that.

Enough of suspense.  So, what is it?  If you are observant enough, it may occur to you that the book is created backward based on one random sentence one character says.  I suspected that after I have spotted that tiny sentence and all of a sudden, the title of the book makes so much sense when you tie it back to the ending (at first I thought it was due to “Mister B. Be Gone”, which also makes sense as that line is taken from somewhere in the book).  Usually the author’s note of acknowledgement is at the beginning of the book right?  Guess where this note is?  And I often wonder why the author keeps repeating the key events of the story that happen in the past.  Now, I think if I read the book backward, section by section, I may still be able to follow the flow of events.

Isn’t that brilliant?  A book version of the Eagle’s song “Hotel California” (rumor has it that when played backward, there is a hidden message). 

To be frank, the last 6 pages of the book is very rewarding.  It does change your perception of the story in a big way provided that you can withstand 250 pages worth of torture – a torture not because the book is badly written, but because it is full of agonies and grotesque in graphical details, insults and verbal abuse to say the least.