Erebus by Robert Hunter
New to this blog, I thought I'd post about something old. I recently discovered this bizarre book, which I am currently reading amongst my other reading. Not sure whether it's a "neglected classic" or a "justly neglected book" yet, but I encourage you to check out the strangeness that is Robert Hunter's Erebus.
Robert Hunter is best known to the world as the founder of Greenpeace. Before founding Greenpeace he was a reporter in Winnipeg and wrote a strange novel representing Winnipeg as "a place of darkness halfway between Hell and Heaven." Needless to say, it is intense and uncommonly comic. Here is the first paragraph of the novel for you:
The remains of the sun are shuddering. Fumes rise as it rots. It has a green skin, punctured, with stains running from the sores. It is nothing more than a decaying grape. Its light is putrification. At the moment, it is retreating into the anus of night. In the morning, it will be dumped like a turd on the horizon.
If you want to read this book, you will have to seek it out. To the best of my knowledge, it is out of print, and so you'll have to look it up in the library or on a site like www.abebooks.com. Enjoy!
posted by Jonathan Ball @ 5:21 PM
5 Comments:
hi! I just wanted to say welcome to the blog. oh the fun we will have.
Amazing! In all my life, I have only ever known one person who has read this book, and that was the person who gave me the tattered and thoroughly loved copy I own today! "Erebus" is one of my all time favorite books, needless to say. I was sad to find out today that Robert Hunter died May of 2005, but happy to find that somebody else enjoyed this rare treasure as much as I do. I would love to hear about other books you recommend, so please, contact me at stumble69@hotmail.com
Cheers!
I discovered this book when I was 15 years old at the library in 1969. I was looking for books by Aldous Huxley. This has been my all time favorite book ever since. I must have read it 6 or 7 times at least and actually own two copies. A true existential masterpiece.
I read the book in about 1975 or so I was maybe 18. The I met Bob in the Vancouver area a couple of times. He was my friends wife's brother in law. I got to spend two wonderful nights speaking with him about trippy things, activism, community, writing and writing while partaking. He was a fabulous guy, I was maybe 24 or 25 and I knew I was so lucky to have had free wheeling discussion with him. I've been a successful activist and defender of human rights on an international scale for a long time and Bob was part of that.
Like you and many others I have long thought I was the only person to read this book. I have the original at least in the US from Grove..i must have read it in 1968 or 9 just after it came out. i often think it is the best novel to come out of Canada...
Thomas McGonigle
abcofreading.blogspot.com
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