Off Season [Import] [Hardcover]

Jack Ketchum (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Overlook Connection Press,US
• ISBN-10: 189295009X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892950093
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,267,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for novelist Dallas Mayr. He was born in Livingston, New Jersey in 1946. A onetime actor, teacher, and lumber salesman, Ketchum credits his childhood love of Elvis Presley, dinosaurs, and horror for getting him through his formative years. As a teenager, was befriended by Robert Bloch, author of "Psycho" who became a mentor to him. He supported Ketchum's work just as his work was supported by his own mentor, H.P. Lovecraft. This relationship with Bloch lasted until his death in 1994.

A pivotal point in Jack Ketchum's career came while he was working for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. He met Henry Miller and assisted him as his agent until shortly before his death in 1980. His extraordinary encounter with Miller at his home in Pacific Palisades is one of the subjects of his memoir in "Book of Souls".

In 1980, Jack Ketchum published his first novel "Off Season". Stephen King said in his acceptance speech at the 2003 National Book Awards that "Off Season set off a furor in my supposed field, that of horror, that was unequaled until the advent of Clive Barker. It is not too much to say that these two gentlemen remade the face of American popular fiction." Ketchum has received continued praise by King throughout their friendship. King has said he is "is on a par with Clive Barker (Hellraiser), James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Thomas Harris (The Silence of The Lambs)," and that "the only novelist working today that is writing more important fiction is Cormack McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road).

Ketchum's work is largely based upon true events. The Girl Next Door , for example, was inspired by the 1965 murder of the young Sylvia Likens. In the special edition of the novel, King, who volunteered to write the preface, wrote one of the longest introductions of his career. He later went on to say that the movie adaptation of the book was "the first authentically shocking American film I've seen since Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer over 20 years ago. If you are easily disturbed, you should not watch this movie. If, on the other hand, you are prepared for a long look into hell, suburban style, The Girl Next Door will not disappoint. This is the dark-side-of-the-moon version of Stand By Me."

Ketchum has received numerous Bram Stoker Awards for works such as "The Box", "Closing Time", and "Peaceable Kingdom". As his books gained in worldwide popularity, they also began to be adapted into feature films, the first of which was "Jack Ketchum's The Lost" which went on to be a cult success, followed by the highly controversial second film "The Girl Next Door". However, the main launch for Jack Ketchum into international commercial and critical success was the long-awaited release by Magnolia Pictures of the film Red, based on his novel, starring Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan). After favorable reviews at The Sundance Film Festival, the movie made a critical showing in the United States and enjoyed relative success internationally with subsequent translations of the novel.

Jack Ketchum continues his rise with the present showing of "The Woman" at the Sundance Film Festival 2011 co-written by Ketchum with director Lucky McKee. The novel is to be released this year.

Kethcum lives in New York City where he continues to write, articles, reviews, short stories, novels and screenplays. For more information go to international website: www.thejackketchum.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extreme horror at its best, September 10, 2002

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Off Season (Paperback)

First and foremost, it must be said that Off Season is not for the feint of heart; this is a visceral, brutal, unrestrained, exceedingly realistic novel that may sicken and disgust those unprepared for such extreme horror. The cover of my copy proclaims this "The Ultimate Horror Novel." I would not go that far in my assessment, but the suggestion doesn't fall very far from the mark. Ketchum held nothing back and pulled no punches in this, his first published novel. The story is rather simple but is far from simplistic. A group of six adults (three male, three female) retreat to a remote cabin in the woods of Maine for a week of relaxation. Unbeknownst to them, a family-group of utterly primitive, sadistic quasi-humans watch, wait, and eventually attack. Among this group are a number of wild children, and it is the children that have the most significant impact on the characters as well as the reader. The battle rages for some time, and many very bad things happen as the innocent victims do everything they can think of in order to survive. I found the conclusion to be spectacular; rest assured it is not the formulaic ending we see so often in novels of this sort.

I won't attempt to describe the horrible things the depraved attackers do--imagine the worst things you can think of, then imagine how much worse the unthinkable is, then imagine children taking part in it. This really is one of the goriest, most extreme horror novels I have read, but it rises far above any charges of shock value or gore for gore's sake. It would have been a disservice to the reader had Ketchum not made the awful individuals he described behave in such a fashion; in fact, I would suggest that these characters of Ketchum's creation committed such atrocities on their own and that Ketchum the writer had no choice but to tell their story truthfully and realistically. It is this utter, unimaginable realism that really sinks its claws into you and immerses you in this nightmare landscape of Ketchum's genius. Extreme horror used gratuitously accords the author little respect in my book, but extreme horror written as honestly and dare I say respectfully as that of Off Season deserves the utmost respect that I, as an epicure in the horrible, can possibly give to an author.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Slasher Fiction ever, April 11, 2003

By 

Ryan Thomas "Magazine Editor" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Off Season (Mass Market Paperback)

Having never read Ketchumn before this, i expected the same lame "horror" type novel that King and Koontz pump out, the kind that are more often dry and boring than terrifying. But, I have never in all my life of reading (and I'm a magazine editor) experienced anything so feral and psychologically horrifying as Off Season. It was soo unrelentlessy grotesque in its depiction of human dismemberment and cannabalism I couldn't help but become the person staring at the dead bodies beside the car crash. I simply could not look away. There were a few passages that nearly made me nauseous...and that is unheard of in fiction. I can't remember ever caring about the main characters in another novel as much as i cared about Dan and Nick and Marjie. Off Season is written so well, and paced with such ferocity, i felt right there beside the characters. Every scrape they got, every bite from a rabid child they received, i received too. And every battle they won, I won too. When was the last time you actually cheered audibly for a hero in a book? What will set this novel apart form any other horror novel out there is the sheer honest approach it espouses in its evil. This book is not for the feint of heart. But, absolutley, for those who want to test their will in hell.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When the line between human and animal is severed, February 14, 2004

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Off Season (Paperback)

Carla has been given a cherry editing assignment, one month to finish editing a book on fifties rock `n' roll, which she knew she could easily finish in one week. She rents a cabin outside the tiny town of Dead River up the Maine coastline. Carla invited company up for the first week of her stay; her younger sister Marjie and her boyfriend Dan, Carla's own current boyfriend Jim, and her ex-boyfriend Nick who brings along his current girl Laura. All five ride up to meet Carla together.

Marjie loves reading the scandalous Evening Post, and eagerly reads the book on Dead River that Carla sent her, eating up the tales of Catbird island and the mysterious deaths and disappearances that surrounded the lighthouse and island there.

What none of the six vacationers know about is the family of wild people who live in the caves along the rocky shores. They are not zombies, they are real; but they are not civilized. As dead in the brain as a zombie would be, this hellish clan lives off the land and survives on whatever food happens their way. And their favorite food is people.

This wild clan of human monsters will discover the vacationers, and a fight for their lives ensues. Who will be the next target? Will the local sheriffs catch on in time?

Off Season is a gore streaked feast for those inclined to gruesome horror. Practically banned back in 1981 for its disgusting content and mainly for its use of children as villains instead of victims. A not to be missed early piece by the master, Jack Ketchum, pick up a copy of this if you can find it. Enjoy!