The Businessman

There are few things more pleasurable in reading than when what you are reading is obviously written by a highly intelligent and skilled fictionist, composing in a style that is both clear and graceful (in spite of the bleak subject matter), builds up the characters and tension in the plot at an apposite pace, and is doubtlessly having great fun while doing it. That is the experience of reading Disch's The Businessman.

The narrative shifts seamlessly from the gory and the gruesome (surprisingly graphic at times) to the darkly funny, while Bob Glandier and the Demon Halfling are by far two of the most ridiculously unpleasant characters I have ever come across in written fiction, perhaps largely for the former because he could easily be the guy next door.

The fantasy world Disch cretaes superficially resembles the Christian view of the afterlife (albeit much more complex), but also alludes to other metaphysical systems, including Greek mythology, European folk beliefs, Hindu doctrine, and even philosophical idealism (one passage basically pits Berkeley's subjective idealism against Reid's common sense realism).

Maybe the ending could've been stronger, and more consistent with the rest of the plot, but this remains one of the best novels I've read this year, and one of the best horror/fantasy books I've ever read (which isn't saying that much given my relative lack of experience with the genre, but at least it makes me want to explore it much further).