Customer Reviews

Nightmares in the Sky

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I'm surprised to read that this is a hard-to-find book; I still occasionally find copies of it in the bargain bins of large booksellers. That will probably change now that the paperback version is being released.

I really like this book. The photos are simple, but they capture the beauty and mystique of gargoyle images throughout New York and other American cities. I must admit, I bought this bargain book because Stephen King's name was on the cover and because I thought it was a quirky addition to my book collection. However, once I brought it home and started flipping through the pages, I was captivated by the grainy, sometimes eerie images. King's words add some interesting views and anecdotes, but the book stands alone just on Fitzgerald's photos. Some of the gargoyles are menacing, some are macabre, some are playful and some are downright comical. All of them attest to the creativity and imagination of their creators.

This hardcover, 128-page (or so) volume would be right at home on your coffee table (it's an awkward size to try to squeeze into most standard bookshelves). King's writing shares page space for about 35 pages; the book is focused on the pics (as it should be). It's not for everyone; if you don't like "picture books" then stay away. But if you like interesting photos capturing a unique subject, and/or if you are at all a Stephen King fan, this is one to bring home.

Well, I'm a HUGE King-fan, the kind of fan who likes all he writes, his novels, stories, movies, poetry, non-fiction, you name it-this coffee-table book is a special item concerning King-books, but it's such a wonderful book. Most of his fans may not be interrested in this book, and that's a shame. King's introductory essay is good as always, interesting, especially when he explains his first encounters with HIS gargoyles. If the book was published without King's essay, maybe I would'nt have bought it. I admit that. But the photographs are all wonderful, some of them pretty scary and few of them pretty funny, too. To me it's a Stephen King-book, no matter the interior, and I like it. Off course what his fans and I wants from him is fiction, but that doesn't kept me from buying and reading and enjoying Danse Macabre and Nightmares in the Sky. King is just as great of writing non-fiction as horror-make-believe fiction.

Gargoyles in their manifold glory, from the small, twisted and misshapen, to the majestic and terrible, this coffee table collection of the rooftop monsters of New York is highlighted by text composed by none other than Stephen King. A lovely and atmospheric gathering of these sculpted nightmares, captured at varying angles and conditions of shadow, light, and sometimes in the rain, deftly calculated to heighten the effect of staring these treasures almost in the eye. I find a lot of meaning in this book, too, because, knowing how much I love old stone sculptures and gargoyles and the like, my grandfather gave it to me as a gift while I was home on spring break from college in the year 2000, and it was the last time I ever got to visit him.

This book has great photos and Stephen King's text is just the right touch. Nice additioni to my King collection.

Well, I only bought the book because Stephen King's name was on it. I believe that the only reason why it was published was because Stephen King wrote the Introduction. The pictures of the gargoyles are as interesting as the gargoyles themselves. Even though it presently doesn't fit right on my shelf because of its dimensions it does round off my SK collection quite nice. It is kind of cool to have something that is listed as "hard to find!"

This is a coffee table book. But it does not have to be bad. The pictures, by f-stop Fitzgerald, of those gargoyles are interesting, some of them very original, but the introductory text, by Stephen King, is definitely too long for what it has to tell. The only idea of some value is that these gargoyles, and yet some of them are not gargoyles, are alive. Fine. And then what ? Why are they ugly, though some of them are not ? What is their symbolical value on twentieth century houses or buildings in New York or Chicago ? This is not answered.

Originally those gargoyles, a long time ago indeed, were there to protect the buildings they were sitting on, many churches among others, by fending off the real devils and monsters they were supposed to represent, and people believed these monsters and devils did exist in those days. That was the first function. The second function was to teach people (essentially on church porches or inside churches, and they were not gargoyles any more) the dangers of sinning, the devils that were waiting for us or the suffering we may be condemned to. That was a pedagogical function. They were thus alive because they represented some faith, some belief that gave them life.

With the passing away of religion as the center of our life, these values have disappeared, and yet they survive in a less religious value. These gargoyles, these monsters, who are not always monsters, protect our homes against the outside world that is dangerous or against our fears they are supposed to keep out. Pedagogically, they do not teach us religion anymore but they have taken over an artistic value. They have become a decoration, and they are intended to be monstrous or frightening. They are supposed to be a way the people in the house tell us to stay away, they are like shouts from those people directed at us to frighten us away, most of them. But they also have another value. They are references to classical gods, to natural elements, to cultural characters that only exist in our literatures or mythologies. Then they become some kind of showing off ordered by the owner to decorate his or her house to show everyone he or she has some culture : here Jove or Zeus, here Neptune or some Sun-God (p. 121), etc.

What would have been interesting, would have been the following questions. Why are some not frightening at all (p. 116, 86, 78), and why are some not looking at us at all (p. 117) ? Why are some not Christian at all, not western at all ? A Chinese one for instance page 110, if it is Chinese. And finally why are so many just plain nice and friendly, like page 90, or some kind of clown like page 115 ? They probably represent the fantasms, fears, likes and desires of the owners, builders, artists, but they cannot be reduced to nightmares in the sky. They are interesting declarations someone we dont even know is throwing at us with the hope we may understand, appreciate or like them. In other words they are not cathartic. They are a discourse directed at us and we are supposed to understand it.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

I bought this book because it said Stephen King, but I was surprised to find the text to be much less interesting than the photos. The images in this book are great, and worth a look, if you can find a copy.

I disagree that this is a Stephen King book. King's words are there just to fill in the white space around f-Stop Fitzgereld's fantastic photography. And he isn't even mentioned here!

personally, i don't even like steven king. actually, i hate his writing. he's a feminist with no talent.

however, despite adding his drivel to these pages, the book is excellent. i enjoy just sitting down and flipping through the wonderful photographs.

a must for any gargoyle lover.