Galilee: A Romance - Softcover

Barker, Clive

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061092002 ISBN 13: 9780061092008

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

The internationally popular writer of dark fantasy narrates the story of two affluent American families, a young woman, and the epic battle she ignites between them that raises the forces of evil. Reprint.

About this title

Review:

Over many years and through many books Clive Barker has earned a reputation as the thinking person's horror writer. His novels have mixed fantasy, psychology and sheer creepiness in almost equal quantities, and while the gore quotient remains relatively low the tension always runs high. However, in Galilee Barker tones down the ghoulish in favour of the gothic. His novel (or as the author would have it, "romance") tells the tale of two warring families caught up in a disastrous web of corruption, illicit sexuality and star-crossed love, with a soupçon of the supernatural thrown in as well. On one side are the wealthy Gearys--a fictional stand-in for the Kennedys--and on the other are the Barbarossas, a mysterious black clan that has been around--quite literally--since the time of Adam. Galilee chronicles the twisted course of this centuries- old family feud which centres around the magical Barbarossa matriarch Cesaria and her son Galilee. Indeed, it's the latter figure--one part Heathcliff to one part Christ--whose relationship with the Geary women sets a match to the entire powder keg of hostility and resentment. Mixing standard clichés of romance with his own peculiarly deep-fried version of the Southern gothic, Baker has come up with an intelligent and shamelessly amusing potboiler.

Review:

Praise for Clive Barker:

‘An invocation of both magic and the imagination... A majestic maze of mythmaking’
WASHINGTON TIMES

‘Passionate and ingenious... A ride with remarkable views’
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘Barker dislocates your mind’
MAIL ON SUNDAY

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0061092002
• ISBN 13: 9780061092008
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 656