Customer Reviews

Argyll

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Anyone who has ever read a Sturgeon story is affected in some way. His stories have a way of staying in 'there', and you find yourself turning them over in your mind, trying to see see them at every angle. Your not sure what it is that you are holding in your mind, or even how it was made, but it rings somehow very true and real. If you have never read anything by Sturgeon, just pick out anything from the Amazon inventory by him, you will not feel cheated. With Argyll, the initiated will get an interesting insight into what molds a person as an artist. This is just a simple chap book, and will hopefully be included in the Collected Works project edited by Paul Williams. For those who can't wait for that or just want to help the project (proceeds from the sales of this chapbook fund the project to collect all of Sturgeon's short works), this is a must read. Sturgeon in a very self revealing profile of his early years with his step-father Argyll, makes you see everything. Yet, nothing is nailed down, does he hate Argyll or love him? This was never meant for publication. The person asking the questions and striving for the answers is Theodore Sturgeon. You are looking over his shoulder as he examines himself. A rare gift from a gifted writer. The intro by Paul Williams and afterword by Samuel R. Delany are short but very helpful. Enjoy!

I've been reading stories by Theodore Sturgeon since I was ten years old. I have yet to read one I don't like, but reading Argyll was emotionally brutal.

In this autobiographical essay the author tells his own story in a clear, matter of fact way, making the details of childhood incidents of psychological torture and power abuse all the more heart rending.

Once I'd recovered from the shock of living Sturgeon's early life through the compellingly real and immediate narrative, I began to understand his work in a new way. I had long wondered at the undercurrent of weariness and sadness I had felt welling up beneath the messages of love, hope, understanding and tolerance that seem present throughout his work. It appears to me, after reading Argyll, that he held, within his soul, intense emotions of such conflicting nature that could not possibly allow one much peace of mind except perhaps by crafting stories where love and hate are woven together into difficult but beautiful patterns.

Theodore Sturgeon has made some of the finest lemonade from some of the rottenest of lemons. I believe I have learned from him things that will forever change the way I view the world. I can't be the only one ...