Mister B. Gone: A Review of the Clive Barker Novel

Mister B. Gone was the first novel that I read by reputed Master of Horror, Clive Barker. This book intrigued me from the synopsis on the jacket cover saying it was a "never-before-published memoir allegedly penned in the year 1438" ¹ by one demon Jakabok Botch. This book grabs you from the first sentence where Botch begs you to burn the book without offering any explanation as to why you should give into his request.

When you as the reader do not fulfill his request, Botch decides to indulge the curiosity and tells a story. The story follows Botch from his life in one of the lower levels of Hell to his journey to our domain. From there he meets Quitoon a demon who becomes his companion for many years and has a hand in the Secret that Botch tries so desperately to keep from his readers all the whilst continuing in his pleas to burn the book. While I won't give away any spoilers in this article, there are some things I want to touch on that Barker does well in the craft of writing.

First is how he brings back the idea of the unreliable narrator. Botch is exactly that; while you want to believe his tales because they are fantastically interesting there is the little niggle of doubt in the back of your mind. He never tells you why he wants you to burn the book just asks you too. He keeps on asking you too wavering between pleading and threatening you with certain harm and doom should you make it to the final page in the book. Even the big Secret as it were leaves you puzzled and wondering if you can trust him not just because he's a demon but because in the course of the novel there are many times he's made a statement only to have to retract it in some form or another a little later on. While it is the true that with most novels you have to suspend your belief for the duration of time it takes you to read it, you have to do more so with this novel because you never fully trust anything Botch tells you.

Another good thing that Barker does well is keep up the themes of words in his novel. Botch tells us that as a young demon he was able to keep a leash on rage and sanity by being able to write what he would do to those who are wronging; a catharsis journaling essentially which lands him into trouble which ultimately start his adventures. At some point in his travel his companion and he are on their way to Mainz to see what it is a Gutenberg is making and I'm sure we all remember what Gutenberg is famous for. And even with the final sentence of the novel, Botch makes the correct statement that "Words know how to wait".² It is amazing how much Barker (through Botch) compounds the correct idea of the powers words have be they written or spoken.

This book embodies all the qualities mentioned and more not to mention that fear in the back of your mind as you're reading the Botch is going to make good on some of his threats. Based on this one novel, Barker seems very adept at getting into his reader's minds and making them believe that anything could happen. I would definitely recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys a good scare and wants a interesting spin the Heaven/Hell theologies.

¹ Mister B. Gone jacket cover

² Baker, Clive. Mister B. Gone, pg. 248. New York City, 2007.