The arresting cover art of this book kept drawing me to it. Finally, when I gave the back cover a look, and found it dealt with H.P. Lovecraft, one of the horror masters of the last century, I knew this book was for me.
And it is for those who know the genre. Because, throughout, Paul La Farge--could he be related to Madame Da Farge????-- references genre writers and fans of the last century, and if you don't know your literary history therein, darlings, it could get confusing.
The plot is simple. Marina, a psychiatrist, has lost her husband, Charles, when he disappeared, suspiciously, at the foot of a lake. Labeled a suicide, she disagrees, and sets out on a quest of her own, while telling Charlie's peculiar story. The man was obsessed with all things Lovecraft.
Now, I have read my share of the man's works. I suspected he was gay, but one of those who did not act on it. If this novel is to be believed, he had a full blown relationship with a Florida boy named Robert H. Barlow, who was all of 16 to Lovecraft's 43.
But did the relationship take place? And is Barlow actually Barlow? And if not, who, and where, is he? These are some of the layers the novel peels back, until it gets to its romantically ambiguous ending, with Marina, back at the lake where her husband supposedly disappeared.
I am telling you, this is almost as good as Donna Tartt's "The Secret History." It lacks the something extra that makes Tartt's book the classic it has become, but, I am telling you, darlings, if you asked me for a good follow up to it, this would be the book I would recommend.
"The Night Ocean" is a journey into madness and the macabre. It drove me wild, and will do the same for you, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But don't go calling Cthulu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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