Blind Voices [Paperback]

Tom Reamy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1979

"It was a time of pause, a time between planting and harvest when the air was heavy, humming with its own slow warm music." So begins an extraordinary fantasy of the rural Midwest by a winner of the John W. Campbell, Jr., Award for best young science fiction writer. One summer day in the 1920s, Haverstock's Traveling Curiosus and Wondershow rides into a small Midwestern town. Haverstock's show is a presentation of mysterious wonders: feats of magic, strange creatures, and frightening powers. Three teenage girls attend the opening performance that evening which, for each, promises love and threatens death. The three girls are drawn to the show and its performers-a lusty centaur, Angel the magical albino boy, the rowdy stage hands-but frightened by the enigmatic owner, Haverstock. The girls at first try to dismiss these marvels as trickery, but it becomes all too real, too vivid to be other than nightmare reality. Each feels the force of the show and its power to alter everyday lives: Francine is drawn embarrassingly to the centaur, Rose makes an assignation with one of the hands and gets in trouble, and Evelyn is fascinated by the pathetic, mysterious Angel, The Boy Who Can Fly, and together they plan escape. No stranger or more disturbing vision of the dark side of carnival life has been handled with such grace or conviction since Bradbury's vintage period. With a poet's mastery of language Reamy brings his circus of characters to a startling, fantastic conclusion. ABOUT THE AUTHOR TOM REAMY, at the time of his sudden death, was one of the most popular young writers in the Science Fiction field in recent years. His style is in the fantastic tradition of Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury, and BLIND VOICES, his only novel, demands comparison to such masterpieces as Bradbury's Dandelion Wine or Something Wicked This Way Comes.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley (August 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425041654
• ISBN-13: 978-0425041659
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,403,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! A lost coming-of-age masterpiece, May 3, 2007

By 

Wanderer (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Voices (Paperback)

Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.

So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great novel. I've just noted the general theme. Thanks

I loved this novel about a strange carnival that comes to a small mid-western town. The hero is a boy who gets caught up in a mystery.

Buy the old paperback with the cover showing a circus tent and wagon in the Kansas countryside. Not to be missed--the book cover and the novel.

It's too bad Tom Reamy didn't live long enough to write another novel. One reviewer said, "Not since Bradbury has a fantasy author so captured the dark heart of midwestern America." Harlan Ellison, another critic, asked, "How good is this book? It is breathtakingly good."

Two other great coming-of-age novels are "Summer of Night," by Dan Simmons, and "Boy's Life," by Robert McCammon. If you have missed these novels, you are in for a treat. I envy you. I bet you'll be glad you clicked on the following links.

Summer of Night (Aspect Fantasy)

Boy's Life

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blind Voices: Excellent Novel about the Fantastic, March 21, 2005

By 

C. Baker "cbaker" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blind Voices (Hardcover)

When Haverstock's Traveling Curious and Wonder Show rolls into the small town of Hawley, Kansas the townspeople begin to stir. The magic and allure of seeing Tiny Tim, a mermaid, medusa, a Cyclops, a snake woman, and most of all, the Angel Boy, brings them all out to see the show. Are these unnatural creatures real or is it sleight of hand? Exactly how do they do that?

When Evelyn Bradley, a small town girl, runs into the show's strange but alluring Angel Boy, things begin to seem out of kilter and not quite real. There is both more and less than meets the eye with the odd collection of creatures surrounding the show. And strange things begin happening around town during the show's stay. As Evelyn delves into the mystery of the Angel Boy, things begin to get stranger and more dangerous, not just for Evelyn, but the whole town.

In Blind Voices, Reamy has written a novel that reminds me a lot of some of Ray Bradbury's best works like The Illustrated Man. The attraction of the traveling circus and freak show and the magic, wonder, and latent fear that surrounds them comes to life in this novel. Reamy does and excellent job of setting the novel in rural Kansas in 1920's, which you learn from the language and plot without it being mentioned. The story unfolds at a pace that leaves you wondering where he's going next until you find out the secrets behind the secrets. And once the story takes off, its becomes both a seat of your pants thriller and a tender love story at the same time. This is an excellent work of fiction.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magic, love, evil in Kansas, June 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blind Voices (Paperback)

Reamy's only published novel, we encounter characters of clear definition and some true magic. Our protagonist is capable of self flight, and the use of flying in this story is amazing. Throw in a love story that is charming and innocent, add some good old fashioned revenge and violence and you have a hell of little book. Makes you wonder what Reamy could have accomplished had he lived a little longer. Also, try San Diego Lightfoot Sue and Other Stories, his only other book. More magic.