Chantel's Reviews > The Fisherman

** spoiler alert ** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on terminal illness, grief, substance abuse, death of a child, animal cruelty, suicide, & others.

I have finished reading a book I cannot wrap my mind around. I could not picture the methuselah of Der Fischer nor could I begin to imagine a beast as colossal as the Leviathan. Yet, in all this what I couldn’t wrap my mind around, to the extent it drew me out of the story, was the point. Why would a man seek out a creature of biblical standing with the purpose of taking control of its powers? What powers does the Leviathan have? Granted, I read this book while sick in bed so, there is a chance that the obvious was clearly stated & I was too congested to breathe in its fumes. Regardless, I found myself reading this book & truly adoring the writing style but not being able to grasp the purpose behind any of the actions undertaken & therefore, I must ask myself why.

Abraham (“Abe”) Samuelson recounts the events that took place over a decade prior to his most recent encounter with the Vertebrata incarnation of a friend he saw eaten alive. Though this book is under 300 pages I was shocked to find myself reading it as though it were a bulking epic that transcended the median length. Truthfully, I do not even know where to begin. I suppose Part 1 is as good a place as any.

In the beginning, this book drew my interest & adoration immediately. Langan’s writing felt ideal for transmitting the personality of the narrator, Abe, as he sat on his lonesome to tell us a cautionary tale. There was no moment that I felt conflicted about my appreciation of the writing style nor did I question who our main character was as an individual entity and a thriving member of his society. Abe speaks to the reader in a written format that is similar to dialects adopted through speech. I acknowledge that this style is very often difficult to master without the writing appearing choppy & slanted, given the frequency at which people switch topics & tones whilst speaking. However, Abe’s writing was earnest & calming. He wrote to the reader as a friend & it was easy to trust him.

I suppose this can be the attributing factor for which I found myself immediately enthralled in this book. I trusted the words of the writer; Abe wasn’t obstructive or imposing, he wasn’t a daunting figure I needed to understand. He was simply a man who wanted to share his experiences in the only way he knew how. There is something to be said for the calm brought on by encountering a main character who is so settled in themselves; both honest & tender towards their own actions & feelings; it is charming. Throughout all of this, I felt an emotional pull toward his person as I wanted to see him vindicated however, this feeling did not last.

When Abe begins fishing with Dan, a co-worker at IBM, they exchange very few words. Both men have experienced tremendous loss & are working through the grieving stages differently. There is something to be said about the way that Langan wrote about grief. It was eminently present while I felt it to be simultaneously out of my reach. The experiences of the characters were close enough for me to comprehend as being their lived realities without being able to grasp them as my own feelings. Rather than feel that Langan held back on his descriptions & depth, I believe this to be a most powerful way of writing about such a behemoth of emotions.

For truly who can reach you when you are down. Grief is something many of us might have encountered in one form or another & yet it remains difficult to link together planks of wood to cross the bridge of sorrow that buoys us between monstrous white water waves. By writing about Dan & Abe’s experiences in such a way as to allow the reader to feel aware while not privy to their inner thoughts & emotions, Langan kept the divide just enough out of reach for their grief to be tangible & authentic. While working to keep the reader distanced from the characters, Langan also kept the characters from truly connecting to each other.

Out of all the moments Abe spent with Dan the final moments they shared together is the one that has the most impact on their friendship. While Part 1 delves into setting the scene & encouraging the reader to trust Abe & the setting that is being presented. Part 2 incorporates lesions of lore & dread into the story, both of which, I am sorry to say, left me feeling confused. I attribute these feelings to my ongoing sickness which is very much at the forefront of my mind as not a moment goes by without being reminded of the blockage in my sinus & the raw experience of unawareness in my throat; however, so much of what transpired in the second part of this book felt that it would have been more worthy of a reader who understood some of the historical significance the author was attempting to incorporate.

I have not studied the Bible nor much of the religions that circulate such texts. I cannot draw to mind the engineering blueprints that would be required to build a Reservoir, nor could I understand what it would be like to see a dead person walking around town in the same body they were trampled to death in. All of which severely disjointed my appreciation of the narrative. I continued to feel that had I held a further understanding of the significance of the Leviathan, I might have appreciated & understood why Der Fischer went out of his way to spend centuries trying to capture it.

Yet, for all the wonderful prose that Langan does include, my sick-ridden logical brain could not comprehend how a man could fish a biblical beast. Certainly, the realm of magic that circulated this character impacted his earthly abilities but, therein again I found myself at a loss to fully grasp the weight of what was being presented to me. Did everyone know that magic existed? How does one casually come upon a society of magicians? Would not anyone prior to Rainer think to want to stop Der Fischer? What was the purpose of being a guest within Cornelius Dort’s house? How did he come to know that he could count on Cornelius to use his house?

We come to know that the Dort residence is the connected area where the setting ‘behind the mask’ might be accessed from ‘reality’ however no information is given to the reader for us to discern how this knowledge came about. Cornelius was an angry, abusive, bully of a man. The little we come to know about him is not enough to garner reasonable deductions as to why he would have welcomed this stranger into his home & why he would have been so blatantly opposed to the Reservoir. What is the connection? Given that when the Reservoir is built, the link between the two worlds seems to flow freely—freer than it did prior—so if Cornelius is in cahoots with Der Fischer, why would he oppose something that would ease the transition that Der Fischer was trying to obtain?

You may garner that Part 2 left me with ample questions & you would be correct. I could not find it in myself to understand how an entire town of people would be fine with seeing a zombie walking in their midst, attacking people & causing them to commit violent acts against others & themselves. What part of their society had them so certain that this was a probability? Helen returns from the dead yet no one is shocked, they all wander around talking amongst themselves that there is a dead woman walking among them & that is the end of that. How does that make sense?

I felt that there was a significant part of this entry that I was missing. Why would Rainer be blamed for Wilhelm’s death when it was Wilhelm who chose to ignore protocol? Why would the society not see that Wilhelm was self-serving? Why would this event influence his career in any way given that the society was secret? How would the University have come to know that Rainer was being accused of an accessory murder, for someone who died of no apparent physical wounds—not counting the grey creases that formed on his skin. What did the white light on Rainer’s face signify?

Though the scenes wherein Reiner confronts Der Fischer is intended to cause fear & worry, they were lost on me due to the simplicity with which everything transpired. Of course, this book would go nowhere if Lottie had not survived to tell Reverend Maple the story of her Father & the men that trapped Der Fischer. However, these men confronted an alleged wizard of decades who had been fishing a literal Goliath of a beast, on his own, how did they think they stood any chance at succeeding in their quest? What did Rainer find in the books that gave him enough stamina to confront a person who was a senior in the field? How did the capturing of souls help Der Fischer in capturing the Leviathan? What happened to those who made deals with him to see their departed family members? What are the logistics of making a deal with such a man?

I found myself with little to no tangible understanding of what was going on & as someone who necessitates at least a bit of information to be able to participate in the make-believe world, I was disappointed about how little was given to the reader in this case. I will say that I appreciated how the author introduced recounting an old story through another & a friend of a friend, this style worked really well in this context. Langan did not dwell on anything for a particularly long period of time, which I appreciated, yet this also resulted in my finishing Part 2 wondering why any of what transpired wasn’t questioned, was happening & what impact it had on the world at large, who did not believe or know about these events.

In the final part of this book, I found myself glad that I was nearing the end. The writing was the sole aspect of this story to leave an impression on me & now, upon trying to find the energy to write a review, I struggle to highlight anything in particular that rendered this story incredible. I appreciated the vivid descriptions & haunting portrayals of grief. It was terribly sad to see Dan be consumed by the beasts that portrayed themselves as members of his family to entrap him in the magician’s world. I appreciated the connection that Langan drew between all the events. Yet, just as Abe asked himself what the point was of the story that Howard told him, so too do I ask myself this same question toward Langan’s book.

At first glance, it is obvious to say that the parallels between grief & extreme physical exertions performed by ghouls are the tangible purpose of this story. If one removed all the goblin-like figures one would still have a Horror, albeit one that plagues the reader with the emphasis on its subjects’ experience in reality. Unfortunately, the lore left much to be desired. I do not particularly mind an ambiguous ending or even being privy to events that leave me with questions. However, the extent to which I was left with little information & then thrust into a new set of action sequences left me with little desire to want to understand.

When all is said & done, I enjoyed this book. It was absurd & bizarre & in so many ways, transcribed as a perfectly sensible series of events. Could I understand why Abe would have sex with someone he knew died years ago? No. I was not surprised when Marie’s apparition was in fact an amphibian of some horrific sort. The logistics of procreating with this being leave me with further questions about the biological probabilities of this but, I will set those aside. Suffice it to say I was blown away that Abe would fornicate with his dead wife while she had fish eyes.

If you are looking to read a puzzling story about magicians & lore, this is as good a book as any. I feel inclined to believe that I might revisit this at a future date when I am in good health so that I might compare my analysis of the work with clear sinuses, a bushy tail, & bright eyes & clearness of thought to link the painting in the diner to the one that saw the artist commit suicide, so haunting was the subject matter.