"Clive Barker's The Damnation Game"

Clive Barker is an author that I hold in the highest of esteem. His work is primarily noted as being horror, but that is something of a misnomer, as each of his novels and short stories manages to incorporate horror, drama, thrills and chills, romance, social and moral parables, and irony into something that manages to be more than just horror.

Before Barker became a horror sensation with his cult classic "Hellraiser", he published this, his first novel, the enthralling "The Damnation Game". When you read this you immediately understand that this is pure Barker, as it is ripe with horrific and gruesome imagery, some twisted sexuality, lots of gore and graphic violence, and twists your didn't see coming. You can also tell that this is early Clive Barker, as the violence is extreme and the mood of the piece is quite grim. That's not a bad thing, as most of his later work tended to be more fantastical and much less gory than his early fiction.

"The Damnation Game" begins in post-war Warsaw. Whitehead, a thief, plays a game of cards with the odd, seemingly all powerful, ageless, and perhaps demonic Mamoulian. We flash forward to the present and Marty Strauss is released from prison to become pharmaceutical magnate Joseph Whitehead's personal bodyguard. Much of the rest of the novel takes place at Whitehead's compound, a sprawling mansion which is surrounded by electrified fences and guard dogs. Marty and Whitehead develop a slight bond, and all seems to be going well, as Marty strikes up a friendship with Whitehead's young daughter Carys, a hopeless heroin addict.

Things take a turn for the worst when Mamoulian rears his ugly head and slowly begins insinuating himself into Whitehead's life, terrifying the man. Assisted by a man known as the Razor-Eater, Mamoulian intends to play a final game of cards with Joseph, and the stakes appear to be higher than ever.

This novel reads like quintessential Barker. It is filled with everything you would expect from a Barker novel, and it never fails to raise the hair on your neck, of twist the plot around so that you are never ahead of the characters as in most other horror novels. The pace, a first very much languid and serene, quickly changes to moody and very oppressive, and the outright nihilistic and sick. These changes occur frequently, but are never jarring, with each section flowing into the next with fluidity and grace.

The characters hold appeal as well. Marty works a hero we can root for, an everyman, just out of prison, with a fresh start, and we begin to care for him and understandably become afraid for him as the story progresses. Whitehead is the driving point of the book, and it's his grudge with Mamoulian that propels the plot forward, but we can feel his fear and revulsion as we roar and careen toward the climax. Carys is an interesting character, as we are never really sure what purpose she serves until fairly late in the book; in the early parts she serves as a romantic interest for Marty, but motivations become clear later on in the story. Mamoulian is a wicked villain, a man so very repulsed by flesh, and the thought of touching it, that he has his evil lackeys do his dirty work. His character is not really developed much, as he is basically evil, but near the end of the book, when we discover how and what he truly is, we manage to feel some small measure of sympathy for him. And my favorite character is the book would have to be Anthony "The Razor-Eater" Breer. A murderer of young girls in life, his commits suicide and is reanimated by Mamoulian to serve as his puppet. He is horrific and sad all at the same time.

In all of Barker's work there are scenes which will spring to mind as the most powerful of that particular fiction. And "Damnation Game" doesn't disappoint. One very violent and disturbing section has the "Razor-Eater" stalking the compound grounds and slaughter each and every one of the guard dogs, even the newborn pups which are suckling at their mother. But my favorite would have to be when Marty rescues Carys from the house Carys is trapped in and they must escape past the "Razor-Eater" not once, but twice.

Consistently, as in all of his fiction, there is a lot of violence. "Damnation Game" contains a lot of extremely graphic violence and gore, with a fetishistic level of detail on physical trauma to the flesh. Skin is pierced and bloodied, there are stabbings and slashing, and the passages which describe the decomposition of "Razor-Eater" are very disgusting. Those looking for gore will certainly find their fill with this one.

I highly recommend Clive Barker's "The Damnation Game" to anyone looking for a fantastic horror novel, or a good book in general. Those shy about extreme violence should steer clear but all those would do well to pick up a copy of this book, especially if you are a Clive Barker fan.