Off Season : The Unexpurgated Signed Limited Edition [Hardcover]

Jack Ketchum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 1999

They had Hunted every animal but there was no flesh like man's . . . Welcome to Jack Ketchum's ferocious and unforgettable first novel, Off Season. Originally published in 1981, Off Season was a defining moment of contemporary horror fiction, an instant classic whose impact on the writing and reading of horror continues today... ...when I read Off Season, I knew that its writer was different; that he was working from that raw and risky perspective known as personal vision, and that he had written a novel that was his own, and not what a publisher wanted or expected. Stocked in the shadows of bestsellers and a blur of Stephen King wannabes, Off Season was issued as a paperback original by Ballantine -- a publisher who has never shown much enthusiasm for the fiction of fear. The cover was a minimalist triumph, its title embossed in black on black, stained with a red thread of blood. The author's name -- a pseudonym -- was reported in white block capital letters, and the top of the cover announced:"THE ULTIMATE HORROR NOVEL." The hyperbole was deserved. Off Season was the genuine article, its horror insistent, visceral, and disturbing.-- From the Introduction to Off Season: Unexpurgated by Douglas E. Winter

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eighteen years after its mass market release by Ballantine, Ketchum's debut horror novel gains hardcover publication. It's about time. Though this merciless tale of human evil in the Maine woods went out of print soon after publication, its bleak vision and extreme violence still influence horror today. Only a novel of expert articulation and emotional truth can cast such a long shadow, and Ketchum's is both. Horror critic Winter calls the book one of "remarkable elegance," and indeed it's drum tight. Equally impressively, Ketchum uses the devastation of a group of tourists by a band of cannibals not to pander, as so many horror writers after him have done, but to explore with intelligence (and ferocity) the nature of evil and of the human spirit that can resist it. The novel's structure isn't original, modeled largely on the film Night of the Living Dead, but its events unfold with shocking energy and directness. The imagery is cruelAbloody battles between the tourists and cannibals, torture and consumption by the cannibals of their victimsAas is the arbitrariness of who will live and who will die; but always Ketchum is in command. In an afterword, Ketchum details the rough history of the novel, explaining how he has reinserted cuts forced by Ballantine. This signed and limited edition not only revives a horror classic and offers some neat publishing lore, but also reminds us that, once upon a time, some of the most exciting genre writing came in paper covers. (Aug.) FYI: Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym of Dallas Mayr (Ladies' Night, etc.).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for a former actor, singer, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk. He is also a former flower child and baby boomer who figures that in 1956 Elvis, dinosaurs and horror probably saved his life. His first novel, Off Season, prompted the Village Voice to publicly scold its publisher in print for publishing violent pornography. He personally disagrees but is perfectly happy to let you decide for yourself. His short story The Box won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from the HWA and he has written ten novels, the latest of which are The Girl Next Door, Stranglehold, Red, and Ladies' Night. His stories are collected in The Exit At Toledo Blade Boulevard and Broken on the Wheel of Sex.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 211 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Connection Pr; Limited edition (December 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892950103
• ISBN-13: 978-1892950109
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,582,730 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

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic horror delight., December 16, 2001

By 

Eric B. Parker "utsugi6string" (Lakeland, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Off Season : The Unexpurgated Signed Limited Edition (Hardcover)

It is off-season in an old cabin in the small town of Dead River, Maine. In that old cabin, there are six out of towners from New York. One is there to finish the last edit on a book. The other five are there for a relaxing week of vacation. However, there's seventeen other "people" who have different plans for them. What those plans are, are revealed in one of the most gruesome experiences you'll ever read. For those six people, it very quickly turns into an evening of death, despair and hopelessness.

This is Jack Ketchum's first book, and one of, if not his best. Ketchum takes you on a wild ride that assaults you at every turn and then runs you straight into a brick wall. Outside of the opening chapters of the book, part I and part II can read a little slow. However, the reader will find these two parts are necessary and a well-planned lead into part III. Ketchum sets you up, pulls the rug out from underneath you, and then gives you the knock out punch.

Within a story that is well laid out, there are scenes of graphic events. Be forewarned that some of these are extremely descriptive and brutal in nature. There's enough blood, guts, gore, and death to fill several books. If tamer scenes from writers like Clive Barker and Stephen King bother you, then this book is NOT for you. If you like writers like Edward Lee and Lucy Taylor, and you like Ketchum's other works, then this book IS for you.

If you read the unexpurgated version, do not read the introduction or afterword until you've finished the book. There are passages in both of these that will give away parts of the book. What amazes me is that there once was more to this book. Ketchum explains that this was the version to be published after the first major editing session. He tossed his original manuscript after that edit, so the story in it's entirely is forever lost. The first mass mark publication was edited even more that what you will read in the Unexpurgated version.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ballatine's Mistake., October 27, 2003

By 

Ja'Maul Redmond (Charlotte, N.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Off Season : The Unexpurgated Signed Limited Edition (Hardcover)

As most Ketchum fans know, The publisher Ballantine originally ruined this book and may have ruined an otherwise very successful carreer. "Off Season", ketchum's first novel is truely horrific, but since even the unexpurgated version isn't the original version , I wonder if somewhere amongst the multiple edits it lost its power to be disturbing? Unlike "Girl Next Door", I wasn't disturbed by this book. It did have it's moments of horror like no other horror novel , but it still seemed to be holding back something. I still wonder if the original that was thrown away by Ketchum was the true "Disturbing" version.

Now for the good side.

Even though Ketchum doesn't spend many words developing characters, they are always realistic. The reader doesn't always like the characters, just like in real life, where you don't always like most people you meet. But the things that happen to them in this book makes you swallow your dislike and immediatedly feel dread and sorrow for them. The villians on the other hand,, are savages,"literally" But with that said, only about 3 of them are adult men. Some of the rest are made up of and 11 year pregnant girl and even younger children, once again blurring the lines between good and evil. Out of all the gore and horror through-out the book, the end of this version really solidifies it as a dark and depressing novel of which Ketchum is known.

I would reccommend this book to other horror fans ,but unlike Ketchum's "Girl Next Door", I don't think it's a must read for everyone.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A ruthless, gory read, February 18, 2000

By 

CD (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Off Season : The Unexpurgated Signed Limited Edition (Hardcover)

I had been so anxious to read this ever since I heard about it. Finally, I found a library that had it, and read it in only a few days. And I must say, it was gut-wrenching at times. Revolting, even. But, as sick as it was, I never read anything like this before.

Carla is a book editor from Manhattan. She heads up to Maine to a cabin for a vacation, and a week later, her boyfriend Jim, sister Marjie, Marjie's boyfriend Dan, her old friend Nick, and Nick's girlfriend Laura join her. That night, a tribe of cannibals attack, and it's an all-out war in one night of bloody terror.

I honestly didn't know what I was getting into when I started this, and was shocked. I noticed a mix of three very similar and also very horrifying movies, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Night of the Living Dead," and "The Hills Have Eyes," all of which, from what I read, are inspirations to Ketchum's work. But this still stands out amongst all three of those. Far bloodier. Maybe not scarier, but bloodier. There were some very scary scenes, and the climax is one of the bloodiest I ever read. This unexpurgated edition is great, but if you're like me and never read the book before, don't read the foreword and afterword until you're done with the story, because it reveals plot pieces. I paged through both, and found out some things before I got to those specific scenes I'd prefer not knowing until I got there.

In any event, a good book, DEFINITELY not for everyone! I was offended by many different scenes, including an account of a fisherman who saw the cannibals who watched them kicking a dog until it died, then floating it out to sea. I had trouble reading after that. If that little snippet bothered you, I suggest you revise if you really want to read this. Now, what is this sequel, "She Wakes"? I'll go hunting, but if anyone knows, Email me some info.