The Land of Nod: A Novel [Hardcover]

Mark A. Clements (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1995

A tale of psychological horror by the author of Lorelei and Children of the End focuses on a successful lawyer suddenly haunted by nightmares that lure him back to a terrifying past he thought he had buried.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Supernatural horror novels featuring adults confronting fears and mysteries from their childhood have been made common by King and others, so elements of Clements's latest seem too familiar. Yet in exploring-via a peculiar haunting-the powers of belief and imagination, the author of Lorelei and Children of the End turns in an involving yarn, pitching some new twists into an old formula. Nightmares about his youth drive 40-something attorney Jeff Dittimore to return to his childhood town, where further apparitions and uncanny conversations with friends from his past lead him to understand what happened many years earlier, when his two school chums disappeared. Finally, Dittimore joins the apparitions and childhood friends in "the land of Nod," a realm that is both real and not-real, to fight for himself and others against monstrous forces. Through strong characters and atmospheric settings, and by varying Dittimore's present-day, first-person narrative with a few third-person excursions into his protagonist's childhood, Clements delivers yet another soundly told and entertaining, if rather traditional, horror tale.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Clements, who made sex terrifying in Lorelei , turns the wistful nostalgia of Peter Pan on its head in his latest horror story. Jeff Dittimore is a yuppie attorney in Los Angeles whose professional success--he's in line to be named his firm's managing partner--was achieved at the expense of his personal life: he has just gone through a nasty divorce from his neglected, adulterous wife and has too little time to spend with the teenage daughter he loves. Now Dittimore seems to be cracking up: he's beset by vivid nightmares and keeps seeing (or hallucinating?) long-dead childhood buddies in his bedroom, his office, even classy, expense-account restaurants. To find out what's really happening, Dittimore heads for his home town--Middlefield, Indiana--where he learns that although you can go home again, it's probably not a terrific idea. The Land of Nod demands a huge suspension of disbelief, but by moving back and forth between Dittimore's adult anxieties and the preteen relationships and experiences those anxieties recapitulate, Clements prepares readers to leap with him into unknown dimensions of paranoia and fear. Mary Carroll

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556114427
• ISBN-13: 978-1556114427
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,396,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sleep with the light on!, June 25, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Land of Nod: A Novel (Hardcover)

Mark Clements is one of the few writers who gets better with each book he turns out. One thing stays the same about his work he's always gives you a great and unpredictable read. THe Land of Nod, his last book is also my favorite. A lawyer goes back to Indiana to face his childhood demons and one thing is for sure- Thanks to Clements, I'm never going to vacation in Indiana (or any place that has trees!) In order to make sense of my review you'll have to read the book

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner from Mark Clements!, May 18, 2011

By 

Keith E. Hammer (Ravensdale, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Land of Nod (Kindle Edition)

As I stated in my Children of the End review - do not pass up Mark Clements. His hardcover novels from the early 1990s were terrific horror novels. Don't pass on his other two books; Children of the End and Land of Nod.

5.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic Horror, October 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Land of Nod: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is the type of book that holds my interest and won't let go. I thought it was pretty neat how Clements fused past and present into the story line. The characters are fun, especially the demented boy ruler of Nod. By far the best part was when the characters play `guns' with toy weapons that actually shoot bullets and kill people. This is the kind of dark fantasy that I enjoy, a great one!