Werewolves discussion

The Book of the Season is The Wolfen by Whitley Strieber. This novel has its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolfen From reading there I have the impression of a kind of neorealistic style of writing for the book, which should prove interesting considering the topic is werewolves.

I have a personal memory of attempting to read this book twice, once as a junior high school student, and again when I was a freshman in high school, so 1978 and 1979 or 1980 probably. Both times I put the book down and never got past the 1/3 point. The book made its way quietly out of my library not fully read. I wonder if I will enjoy it now so many years later and if I can figure out what would have tripped up 15-year-old me.

I'm ordering my copy now and plan to make this my Halloween (last half of October) read. I hope everyone will join me.

Yes, I will be reading it or trying too...after your description, Dan, I'm not so sure. I hope it's available on kindle or I surely will not read it.

It is available on Kindle for $3.99. Hard copies start at $4.26 including shipping and they were in less than good condition. I just bought a Kindle, so that's how I plan to go. This book, I found out tonight, is Strieber's first novel. I think he weirded out after writing this novel and wrote non-fiction alien abduction stuff, beginning with his own.

That's great. So we will be start discussing this one on the shortest day of the year?

Actually, as a group read, to participate we read any time from 9/22 - 12/21 and comment as we go. I have the last 80 pages of Lonely to finish and will read something else after that, but plan to read Wolfen in the last half of October.

My copy of The Wolfen just arrived today and I sure am excited to begin it. I am only on page 9 so far, but it is bringing back memories of the 1970s for me. When the book came out it in 1978 it was (either then, or in 1981 when the film came out) on the New York Times bestseller list for a number of weeks. I was in high school. One of my pastimes back then was to go to the book rack and pick out bestsellers to read. I probably read a third of all the top ten best sellers from 1976 to 1982. I recall picking up a copy of The Wolfen back then, but for some reason being unable to get far into it.

Starting it now, I'm not sure why that was. It may have been to frightening to me. The book is written very much in bestseller of the time style--heavy on plot, quick-moving, third person limited omniscient, past tense, nothing fancy in wording so that the narrative voice never intrudes on the story, and easy to understand as one reads along so that no reader ever needs read a page twice.

The writing is very 1978 in style too. Pontiacs were the car make of those wanting a solid, lower luxury car without the price tag. It's taking place in Brooklyn police precincts, which reminds me heavily of Barney Miller. It's also gruesome and scary in a way authors seldom try for these days. Our last book, Lonely Werewolf Girl certainly didn't, for example. (view spoiler)[We've had the first two characters we were introduced to get ripped up in the first couple of pages. (hide spoiler)] Classic werewolf horror, with an emphasis on horror. This is gonna be good!

Don't go "wolfen" it down now! Ha, ha, ha!

Reading has been slow, but that's not the book's fault. I've been busy with school.

Wolfen is oddly written. First, it's written so realistically that you expect the main characters to have immense real trouble accepting they're dealing with werewolves. I mean, wouldn't you or I? Just when you expect lots of boring pages to ensue regarding main characters bringing themselves to believe, they instead simply do. How refreshing! We get to quickly move on.

The other thing that's unusual about the book is how tightly plot-centered it is. You know how so many authors want to give you all this background, like where their characters got their academic degrees, how well they get along with their parents, why they're fighting with their least favorite sibling, what part of the city they live in and why, etc. None of that here. We barely know these characters are in New York, much less which borough. And I have no idea where these two graduated from or why they even chose to become policemen. Well, one's a woman. Police person? Anyway....

I have no work to do this Turkey day weekend, other than carving the turkey (who I named Donald, not after the Disney duck, but after the real turkey) and the honey-do list I try to ignore. Looks like plenty of good reading time ahead!

I finished The Wolfen. What a fun read. I'll re-post my review here:

This short book took a while to read because I had to read it twice. The book starts out wonderfully. It's super-fast paced. We're locked into the main characters, and looking forward to seeing how they survive their gruesome situation when all of a sudden at the halfway point we get hit with digression after digression. Starting at page 139 we get all this background and folklore we really don't need or care about. When that finally ends, in comes new characters (a reporter and a photographer) I care nothing about. We've all but left the protagonists' story. By page 209, I realized I was reading words between characters whom I had no idea why they were in the story or who they were. So, back I went to page one to read the whole thing again only this time faster, keeping a character chart as I went.

That worked better. Pages 139-233 are pretty much disposable. When Strieber picks up his main story again starting at page 235, the magic is back all the way through to an exciting conclusion 40 pages later. Okay, Strieber made some rookie mistakes on the pacing in this novel, his first. Thirty pages in to the book I couldn't believe how much of the story he had already told. I wondered then how in the world he was going to fill 240 more pages. It felt like we were already up to the middle.

Pacing problems aside, this is still one hell of a good werewolf story. There is much to like about the book. First, Strieber breaks new ground. Never before 1978, I believe, do we see werewolves portrayed as a hidden, intelligent society living by and preying on man. Second, the characters and situation are presented in a gritty, realistic vein. One has to remember that Frank Miller was at this time revolutionizing noir-style comics with his Daredevil work. Strieber is revolutionizing the werewolf story the same way. It's brutal and frightening stuff Strieber writes. It works well because the protagonists are so flawed: (view spoiler)[a dirty cop married to a police woman who wants to cheat on her marriage vows by getting with her misanthropic partner. (hide spoiler)] This makes them real people to us.

The deaths which take place aren't described gratuitously as say Stephen King can sometimes get, but rather in a subtle way that heightens the horror. Much of the book plays out in my mind like a horrifying movie. It really needs a faithful-to-the-book film remake in our time. I know it would sell.

Most of the other reviewers who give this book five stars give it that because they like Strieber already for his cooky because serious "I encountered aliens on their spaceship" books, or they are kids titillated by the gruesomeness of the horror presented. Okay, that's cool if either of those do it for you. What I appreciate most about the book is its gritty, Hill Street Blues reality and its very fast-paced and exciting beginning and finish.

Dan wrote: "Reading has been slow, but that's not the book's fault. I've been busy with school.

Wolfen is oddly written. First, it's written so realistically that you expect the main characters to have immen..."

Sounds like the author didn't do his research fully. But in the end, you were pleased with it? I may look into this one if I have some in the next couple of weeks.