Customer Reviews

Watchers at the Strait Gate

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Russell Kirk's Watchers at the Strait Gate is a rather unsung piece of weird fiction. It is also a bit of an anomaly. Apart from his strange stories, Kirk was a well-known proponent of traditional conservatism. He made a living primarily in the non-fiction realm, and his opinions on a variety of issues are unquestionably controversial. And make no mistake about it, Watchers is rife with biblical allusions, skepticism on modern living, and many a quotation from the good book.

But to reduce Watchers to a work of preaching would be totally disingenuous. Kirk had a gift for the incongruity of circumstances, for horror as it is pieced together by the subconscious. You won't find blood and guts in these tales, at least not at the forefront. His sensibility is much like Robert Aickman's, and though it may seem sacrilegious to that author's fans, at times Kirk is nearly his equal in terms of dissociative unease. In particular, stories such as The Peculiar Demesne of Archvicar Gerontion and Uncle Isaiah achieve a weirdness that few authors have managed. Other tales, most notably The Reflex-Man in Whinnymuir Close and Lex Talionis, harken back to the spectral terrors of Sheridan Le Fanu.

Kirk is very recondite at times, and the prose of Whinnymuir is often so arcane that for many paragraphs the modern reader may lose understanding of the narrative. I find myself having to read and re-read his sentences. And his historical and geographical knowledge in Archvicar Gerontion is intimidating. But this density adds to the cumulative experience of the book, and I think that regardless of such struggles, a unique vision of the phantasmagoric supersedes.

This book is a masterpiece of supernatural literature. Apart from any social or political implications, Kirk was a fantasist within the parameters of fiction, and a highly successful one. Hopefully, the work continues to be easily attainable.