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More About This Book

Overview

In the little town of Palomo Grove, two great armies are amassing; forces shaped from the hearts and souls of America. In this New York Times bestseller, Barker unveils one of the most ambitious imaginative landscapes in modern fiction, creating a new vocabulary for the age-old battle between good and evil. Carrying its readers from the first stirring of consciousness to a vision of the end of the world, The Great and Secret Show is a breathtaking journey in the company of a master storyteller.

Editorial Reviews

J.G. Ballard
A powerful and fascinating write with a brilliant imagination.
Time
Rich and absorbing...vivid...incisive and elegant.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780060933166
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 11/28/1999
  • Edition description: 1 HARPER
  • Pages: 672
  • Sales rank: 186,801
  • Product dimensions: 5.31 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 1.51 (d)

Meet the Author

Clive Barker
Clive Barker

Clive Barker is the bestselling author of twenty-two books, including the New York Times bestsellers Abarat; Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War; and The Thief of Always. He is also an acclaimed painter, film producer, and director. For twelve years Mr. Barker has been working on a vast array of paintings to illuminate the text of The Books of Abarat, more than one hundred and twenty-five of which can be found within this volume.

Mr. Barker lives in California. He shares his house with seven dogs, three cockatiels, several undomesticated geckoes, an African gray parrot called Smokey, and a yellow-headed Amazon parrot called Malingo.

Biography

Nothing ever begins....Nothing is fixed. In and out the shuttle goes, fact and fiction, mind and matter woven into patterns that may have only this in common: that hidden among them is a filigree that will with time become a world.

It must be arbitrary, then, the place at which we choose to embark.

Somewhere between a past half forgotten and a future as yet only glimpsed."

And here is as good a place as any to begin with Clive Barker, the author of strange and scary stories such as the novel that begins above, Weaveworld. Barker is probably best known as the creator of the Hellraiser franchise -- which began with the novella The Hellbound Heart; later became the 1987 horror classic that Barker directed; and was then a comic from 1989-1994. He accomplished the print-to-film-to-comic trifecta again with Nightbreed, the film version of which was released in 1990.

Barker drew attention with his early '80s story volumes, Books of Blood. His first novel, The Damnation Game, not only put him on a par authors such as Stephen King but earned praise from those same authors. He is widely admired for weaving into his scary stories complex themes about human nature and desires.

In addition to crafting his signature novels, a chilling amalgam of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, Barker is an accomplished artist. (His comic Ectokids is in development as a movie project at Nickelodeon.) He has also written for children -- a fact that surprises readers familiar only with his disturbing adult oeuvre. But, in fact, his children's tales (The Thief of Always, Abarat, etc.) are among his most imaginative.

No matter what his audience or medium, Barker's stories are effective because it's clear that he takes his work, and his genre, very seriously -- and expects the same from his audience. In an interview with Barnes & Noble.com, he told us "[Fantasy and horror] liberate us into a world in which our frustrations and our repressions can take an exoticized form, rendering them more safely and also, if we dare, more approachable."

    1. Hometown:
      Los Angeles
    1. Date of Birth:
      October 5, 1952
    2. Place of Birth:
      Liverpool, England
    1. Education:
      Liverpool University
    2. Website:
      http://www.clivebarker.info

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Part One
The Messenger


Homer opened the door.

"Come on in, Randolph."

Jaffe hated the way he said Randolph, with the faintest trace of contempt in the word, as though he knew every damn crime Jaffe had ever committed, right from the first, the littlest.

"What are you waiting for?" Homer said, seeing Jaffe linger. "You've got work to do. The sooner it's started, the sooner I can find you more."

Randolph stepped into the room. It was large, painted the same bilious yellow and battleship gray as every other office and corridor in the Omaha Central Post Office. Not that much of the walls was visible. Piled higher than head-height on every side was mail. Sacks, satchels, boxes and carts of it, spilling out onto the cold concrete floor.

"Dead letters," Homer said. "Stuff even the good ol' U.S. Post Office can't deliver. Quite a sight, huh?"

Jaffe was agog, but he made sure not to show it. He made sure to show nothing, especially to wise guys like Homer.

"This is all yours, Randolph," his superior said. "Your little corner of heaven."

"What am I supposed to do with it?" Jaffe said.

"Sort it. Open it, look for any important stuff so we don't end up putting good money in the furnace."

"There's money in them?"

"Some of 'em," Homer said with a smirk. "Maybe. But most of it's just junk-mail. Stuff people don't want and just put back in the system. Some of it's had the wrong address put on and it's been flying backwards and forwards till it ends up in Nebraska. Don't ask me why, but whenever they don't know what to do with this shit they send it to Omaha."

"It's the middleof the country," Jaffe observed. "Gateway to the West. Or East. Depending on which way you're facing."

"Ain't the dead center," Homer countered. "But we still end up with all the crap. And it's all got to get sorted. By hand. By you."

"All of it?" Jaffe said. What was in front of him was two weeks', three weeks', four weeks' work.

"All of it," said Homer, and didn't make any attempt to conceal his satisfaction. "All yours. You'll soon get the hang of it. If the envelope's got some kind of government marking, put it in the burn pile. Don't even bother to open it. Fuck 'em, right? But the rest, open. You never know what we're going to find." He grinned conspiratorially. "And what we find, we share," he said.

Jaffe had been working for the U.S. Post Office only nine days, but that was long enough, easily long enough, to know that a lot of mail was intercepted by its hired deliverers. Packets were razored open and their contents filched, checks were cashed, love-letters were laughed over.

"I'm going to be coming back in here on a regular basis," Homer warned. "So don't you try hiding anything from me. I got a nose for stuff. I know when there's bills in an envelope, and I know when there's a thief on the team. Hear me? I got a sixth sense. So don't you try anything clever, bud, 'cause me and the boys don't take kindly to that. And you want to be one of the team, don't you?" He put a wide, heavy hand on Jaffe's shoulder. "Share and share alike, right?"

"I hear," Jaffe said.

"Good," Homer replied. "So--" He opened his arms to the spectacle of piled sacks. "It's all yours." He sniffed, grinned and took his leave.

One of the team, Jaffe thought as the door clicked closed, was what he'd never be. Not that he was about to tell Homer that. He'd let the man patronize him; play the willing slave. But in his heart? In his heart, he had other plans, other ambitions. Problem was, he wasn't any closer to realizing those ambitions than he'd been at twenty. Now he was thirty-seven, going on thirty-eight. Not the kind of man women looked at more than once. Not the kind of character folks found exactly charismatic. Losing his hair the way his father had. Bald at forty, most likely. Bald, and wifeless, and not more than beer-change in his pocket because he'd never been able to hold down a job for more than a year, eighteen months at the outside, so he'd never risen higher than private in the ranks.

He tried not to think about it too hard, because when he did he began to get really itchy to do some harm, and a lot of the time it was harm done to himself. It would be so easy. A gun in the mouth, tickling the back of his throat. Over and done with. No note. No explanation. What would he write anyway? I'm killing myself because I didn't get to be King of the World? Ridiculous.

But . . . that was what he wanted to be. He'd never known how, he'd never even had a sniff of the way, but that was the ambition that had nagged him from the first. Other men rose from nothing, didn't they? Messiahs, presidents, movie stars. They pulled themselves up out of the mud the way the fishes had when they'd decided to go for a walk. Grown legs, breathed air, become more than what they'd been. If fucking fishes could do it, why couldn't he? But it had to be soon. Before he was forty. Before he was bald. Before he was dead, and gone, and no one to even remember him, except maybe as a nameless asshole who'd spent three weeks in the winter of 1969 in a room full of dead letters, opening orphaned mail looking for dollar bills. Some epitaph. He sat down and looked at the task heaped before him.

"Fuck you," he said. Meaning Homer. Meaning the sheer volume of crap in front of him. But most of all, meaning himself.

The Great and Secret Show. Copyright © by Clive Barker. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 62 )

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 62 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 6, 2005

    The Great and Secret Jewel of novels

    This was the first Clive Barker book I read, and after this one book he instantly became my favorite author. The Great and Secret Show is easily my favorite macabre novel of all time.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 1, 2000

    Behind the world, there lies a truely great and secret show...

    Curiosity draws insignifigant Randolf Jaffe into the heart of the world, but is it a mirror of his own? In my opinion, this journey into the hidden lives of men is truely fascinating. And, if this novel only wets your appetite for secrets, I strongly suggest the sequel:Everville.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 6, 2001

    Great Book.

    This is one of the great works that Clive Barker has written. I recomend it, cery good book.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 21, 1999

    An imagination? Most decidedly ....but by god what disparity!

    Don't get me wrong, I'm an avid admirer of Clive Barker's work: with Weaveworld and The Damnation Game being amongst my favorites; but irrespective of my earnst respect for the imaginational and intellectual energies that he articulates too these books ...JUST DON'T WORK. There are just too many disparate stories happening simultaneously and in ways so contrived as to prove incredibly frustrating. And the characters, besides being far and away too many, aren't well developed. Who would have imagined Tesla developing into so crucial a character? And where did D'amour and that whole aspect of the story come from? And in the beginning who would have excepted Fletcher and Randolph Jaffe (The Jaff), in the midst of engaging in combat, to find their way to Palomo Grove ....with all the ensuing consequence. Here there engaged in a cataclysmic battle (and where did the whole Enuncio thing come from?) of good versus' evil only to stop for a twenty year time period while being embedded within underground tunnels; while, up above, their 'progeny' develope into another aspect of the storyline. So many twist and turns that all and all just don't work ...FOR ME.

    1 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 28, 2012

    Phenomenal...

    My favorite book of all time. Amazingly intricate and well written.

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  • Posted June 27, 2011

    thumbs up

    The first two thirds of this book are fascinating and kept me glued to my NOOK. Very imaginative stuff - full of wonderful and flawed characters. The last third of the book was a bit drawn out for my taste thus making the entire read feel as if it limped across the finish line when it was actually a spectacular read. I intend to read more of this works. Good Job!

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  • Posted May 4, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    my darn high hopes...

    This isn't a bad story, but it seemed like TheStand lite. I'm glad people enyoyed it so much, but I've had my eye on this book for a long time and now that I read it, I'm a little disappointed. Still, if you see a copy laying around, go ahead and pick it up. It's probably just me (and anonymous, who's likely to be a freak too).

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  • Posted August 25, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    9780451169532 9780345409676 9780521888585 9780061147944

    Not his greatest but also, not his worst.

    I really enjoyed most of this book. I liked the references to God and the Devil, and really appreciated the Greek mythology feel of the beginning. In the middle, I got kinda bored and had to make myself read, but I was really glad I finished it. I would recommend this to people who enjoy the offbeat, good vs. evil themes.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 20, 2000

    WOW

    I first started this book when I was about 14 or 15. A boyfriend of my sister's lent it to me only to take it back when they broke up. At the time I was about two thirds of the way through it. This book left a great impression in my mind, but I never eally pursued it. Before my 20th birthday I ran into this book again, and with a favorable memory of it I bought it. I will never regret buying this book. It truely is one of the best books I have ever read. It will forever be a part of my 'library' right next to my other favorite novels.

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    Posted May 4, 2010

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