R. A. Lafferty Books

Having been treated unfairly, Brannagan had sworn that, as soon as he acquired a billion thalers, he would set up a fund whereby any one-legged Irishman anywhere in the universe could receive free transportation to Klepsis and also could receive any help he needed upon arriving at that blessed place.
"How will we define 'Irish'?" the first adminstrator of the fund asked Brannagan.
"If they have Irish names, they are Irsh altogether," Brannagan laid it down. "Few of the other breeds would be caught dead with an Irish name."
Of the three peg-legs on the flight from Apateon Planet to Klepsis, one was clearly Black, one was probably Gaea-Earth Eurasian, and one was plainly Latino; their names were Andrew "Gold Coast" O'Mally, Long John Tong Tyrone, and Conchita O'Brian. Gold Coast and Long John had their left legs missing, Conchita her right.
"When are you going to have your leg cut off, Terps?" Conchita sked Terpsichore Callagy. "There's several people getting amputated right now down by the ship's handball courts. You get a rebate on your passage after you get your leg cut off. you'd better go get it done now."
- page 3 of "The Annals of Klepsis".

That is classic Lafferty, as, indeed, is the entire book. The man is hilarious. Beyond hilarious, uproarious. Not just in little chunks, but constantly from start to finish, every page delivers the laughs. Indeed, almost every paragraph. However, R. A. Lafferty was never about being funny. The humor, despite being possibly the best ever written, is only a clever cover and distraction device to get you off balance. You're laughing so hard that it may be thirty pages or more before you realize that what you're laughing at is murder, torture, mutilation and so forth.

So now, what is "Annals of Klepsis" about? Buggered if I know, but it has something to with a lawless planet called Klepsis. Two identical twin princes, Franco and Henry, are vying for control. Meanwhile, we also have some ghosts, buried treasures, slave auctions, interplanetary jumping in canoes and all the other good stuff. Of course, no one can truly summarize a Lafferty book and only a fool would try. No one can even explain his tone or even categorize his books by genre. But as has been said before, he certainly was extremely good at what he did, whatever it was.

Annals of Klepsis is one of Lafferty's most satisfying books, but differs quite a bit from his better-known works. It's not a profound, brain-frying novel like Fourth Mansions, but it's not as airily light as The Reefs of Earth. It doesn't bog down like his most unreadable books--number one being Apocalypses, or stall in spots like The Devil is Dead. It doesn't crumble under the weight of some big idea, as do some of the short stories. It differs from obvious horror books in not relying on shock value,and from obvious sci-fi in not relying on neat plot tie-ups.

It's Lafferty's most visual book, which is to say it conjures up unforgettable pictures. I wish this had been the beginning of a trilogy, because the book drops off right when it gets going. Some of Lafferty's books end up in a very satisfying way, like Fourth Mansions, or Past Master. This book opens up at the climax more than it ends. Like the Star Wars films, you wait for the next one--only there aren't any more.

The idea of this book, of pirates who leap through space to plunder worlds, is strong and substantial, and the lightly comic tone seems made for movies or video games or some larger realm than just one book. Maybe some other writer can take up with Lafferty's characters and worlds, as with the novels based on Isaac Asimov's robots--with, of course, a suitable deal cut with Lafferty's estate. It's odd that Lafferty is such an untapped source, because he's simply a better writer than most of those behind films and TV today.

This is an easy going science fiction yarn that you don't have to be a Lafferterian to devour. But it's better than some of the Keith Laumer and even Phillip Dick I've read, even though those were all pretty good. Lafferty's strong suite is story; but he also evokes some very visual settings; I can't watch Disney's Treasure Planet--Treasure Island in space--without wishing it were Annals of Klepsis.

Amazing mind-bending story that will make you question your values. As all Lafferty, difficult to describe.

Annals of Klepsis is one of Lafferty's most satisfying books, but differs quite a bit from his better-known works. It's not a profound, brain-frying novel like Fourth Mansions, but it's not as airily light as The Reefs of Earth. It doesn't bog down like his most unreadable books--number one being Apocalypses, or stall in spots like The Devil is Dead. It doesn't crumble under the weight of some big idea, as do some of the short stories. It differs from obvious horror books in not relying on shock value, and from obvious sci-fi in not relying on neat plot tie-ups.

It's Lafferty's most visual book, which is to say it conjures up unforgettable pictures. I wish this had been the beginning of a trilogy, because the book drops off right when it gets going. Some of Lafferty's books end up in a very satisfying way, like Fourth Mansions, or Past Master. This book opens up at the climax more than it ends. Like the Star Wars films, you wait for the next one--only there aren't any more.

The idea of this book, of pirates who leap through space to plunder worlds, is strong and substantial, and the lightly comic tone seems made for movies or video games or some larger realm than just one book. Maybe some other writer can take up with Lafferty's characters and worlds, as with the novels based on Isaac Asimov's robots--with, of course, a suitable deal cut with Lafferty's estate. It's odd that Lafferty is such an untapped source, because he's simply a better writer than most of those behind films and TV today.

This is an easy going science fiction yarn that you don't have to be a Lafferterian to devour.

To fully appreciate this literally wonderful book, one must realize that it is only one part of a sprawling saga, the "Argo Mythos", revolving around that legendary ship and those who have sailed on it. Within that saga lies the "Devil Is Dead" trilogy, of which this book (confusingly, of the same name) is but the middle part, its predecessor being "Archipelago" and its successor being "More Than Melchisedech" (which, to further complicate score-keeping, was published in three volumes, named "Tales of Chicago", "Tales of Midnight", and "Argo"). Also part of the Argo Mythos is the novel "Dotty", and--arguably--the "Coscuin" tetralogy (of which the final two books are yet unpublished, though the manuscripts exist).

Finnegan, the chief protagonist, is adapted from the character Finn McCool of Irish legend, and parts of the saga derive from that legendarium; he also, however, partakes to some extent of the nature of Jason, the hero we normally associate with the Argo. Further--though one can read the saga without needing to know this--Lafferty has adopted the Argo itself as symbolic of the Roman Catholic Church, of which Lafferty was--to put it mildly--an ardent adherent.

This novel, the saga, the entirety of Lafferty's work: it is all literary genius of a high order, something the casual reader may miss owing to Lafferty's very down-to-earth writing style, which in many ways is almost conversational in tone. But then, the definition of a professional is someone who makes it all look easy.

In the beginning, after a two page introduction (to this day, the most innovative and striking introduction or prologue I've read), we find the main character, Finnegan, sitting on a sidewalk with a man, a millionaire. Neither character remembers how they came to be there, nor what their names are. The reader is being pulled in through fascinating, occasionally funny dialog, and an economy of description, no doubt inspired by the literary work of James Joyce himself, like the name of the main character, Finnegan. At the same time, Lafferty works succesfully and ever so subtly at creating a certain mood, a feeling of something being wrong. Soon, Finnegan ends up on a voyage around the seas of the earth.

Raphael Aloysius Lafferty, one of the few writers whose books have made Arthur C. Clarke laugh out loud (according to Clarke himself), invites the reader onto the voyage as Finnegan. The destination: reality, or a better dream? And yes, there's humor, too, the zany, Laffertian kind you never get tired of, and the kind that prevents the voyage from becoming too dark to enjoy.

Lafferty writes in the prologue: "Put the nightmare together. If you do not wake up screaming, you have not put it together well." The advice is useful enough for the reader stumbling along the whirlwinds of metaphor Lafferty conjures up to shake Finnegan, him, awake. In addition, it hints at Lafferty's view of reading and interpretation: you either get it, or you don't. To Lafferty, there's no "fruitful misunderstanding"; nor is there to Lafferty, as there is to no logical thinker, "purposive accident", which, as Lafferty writes in one of his short stories, is the logical continuation of the former.

The Devil Is Dead is R. A. Lafferty's sixth novel, as far as the order of publication goes. It was first published in 1971, and remains underappreciated, as well as unique in literature.

The Wildside Press edition (paperback or hardcover) is, as always, worth the price, and infinitely superior to decades old pocket book editions (unlike those old paperbacks, the Wildside Press paperbacks, although of varying sizes, are always pretty big, there's always lots of space around the image area, the pages are of superior quality and open well, the backs simply won't wrinkle, and so on).

PS. For some reason, in all editions of The Devil Is Dead there is a two-page Interglossia missing from between the chapters 10 and 11 ("--Absalom Stein, Notes on the Finnegan Cycle"... Absalom Stein was one of the main characters in Archipelago (as was Finnegan), a book which Lafferty wrote before The Devil Is Dead, but which was published years later), also missing is the final chapter. These were later published in "How Many Miles to Babylon?" and in "Episodes of the Argo", both books now unavailable even used. If you e-mail me, I will send you the Interglossia and the last chapter through e-mail.

I've read several of Lafferty's books - this is easily the best. Lafferty is an odd genius who went right up to the edge, took a look, a long look, and may have done his writing from the other side. The language is an unpredictable delight. The protagonist ( Finnegan ) wakes up from a mind-blanking drunk and soon finds himself a hand on a mysterious yacht. The people on board are not what they seem, some of them are perhaps not people, and evil erupts soon after they leave each port. And may you too not have the mark just below your left wrist? The mark just barely visible, but waiting to break through the skin? The mark of a older race who were usurped, but hid in a very clever way. Perhaps you should check your wrist again. His introduction alone is worth the price of most books. A good drunk.

For genres that pride themselves on "sense of wonder" and "weirdness," science fiction and fantasy have a depressing habit of presenting the same views of the future over and over or using a generic "fantasyland" that is a kind of idiot step-child of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

R. A. Lafferty, however, is breathtakingly different. I can guarantee that you haven't seen the world the way Lafferty does--and you'll enjoy the experience.

THE DEVIL IS DEAD is some of his best writing and most inventive strangeness. Sure, the plot doesn't really (I think) go anywhere, but recursive endings and silly loops are welcome any time they come packaged in this delightful and enlightening a read, with such a motely crew of Lafferty outlaws, drunks, monsters and sailors. The Promantia alone is worth the price of admission. If you want a book that's hilarious, deep, wise, frightening and beautiful, look no further. If you want a conventional plot or tidy resolution, look elsewhere.

One of the quirkiest science fiction novels ever written, Fourth Mansions reveals Lafferty's story-telling prowess in novel-length form. This is the timeless tale of reporter Freddy Foley, in a way a strange sort of Everyman, on the trail of things that ought not to be known. And they will not be known if a shadowy group called the Returnees have their way. Foley's misadventures lead him to a tangled web of bored suburbanites who concoct a mindweave to snare unsupecting souls. When the weave takes on a life of its own, demanding ever bloodier sacrifice, Foley is drawn toward a meeting with destiny that will take him into the secret world of the Returnees. Along with Past Master, Arrive at Easterwine, and Annals of Klepsis, I rate this book among Lafferty's best, and reread it often to remind myself that no matter how odd the world gets, it doesn't get odder than Lafferty.

An incidental remark about allegories reminded me of this little volume by R.A. Lafferty. In many ways, I think it is his finest, although all of his efforts are remarkable. Whatever your preference, 'Fourth Mansions' remains the most unusual of its genre, an allegory that refuses to take itself seriously.

When Freddy Foley, newspaperman and innocent, discovers that certain people seem to reappear at irregular intervals he insists on investigating and soon finds himself hip deep in a metaphysical odyssey. He discovers that there is not one, but four separate subcultures that share the world with humanity. The best of these are the badgers that guard the entrances of the human domain. The worst are the toads, the ones who sleep and are reborn. These are dedicated to keeping the world from evolving to the next level. Every time things get better they make sure they really get worse.

Then there are the snakes whose wild mental energy runs out of control. For them the rest of us are toys to play with, energy to use up. Finally, there are the unfledged falcons. Well intentioned, they are the premature warriors, champions of violent solutions. Best to worst they spell little good for Freddy, whose truth seeking will lead him to the tops of mountains and the cells of asylums. 'Goof gloriously,' the snakes order poor Freddy, and so he does.

Lafferty performs an unexpected deconstruction of the mythology of man's progress, and creates an entirely unique narrative for inner progress. Foley is Everyman (Foley = The Fool) on a journey towards a higher plane of being, impeded by creatures that symbolize his own weaknesses. The tale is told tongue-in-cheek, a burlesque parody of one pilgrim's progress. Filled with more mad characters than all of 'Canterbury Tales,' the reader is often left unsure whether to laugh or take notes.

Of course, this is the great flaw of allegory; it never loses the taint of lecture. Plot serves message unforgivingly. 'Fourth Mansions' is only partly fiction as we progress from lesson to lesson. The good news is that Lafferty refuses to fall into the trap of being tedious, and, instead, allows the allegory to parody itself. Still, this is unusual entertainment, and not meant for everyone. Full of mind games and obscure symbolism made garish, it is a child of the late 60's, although I think it's intent is more valid now then it was then. Nowadays I sometimes wonder if the toads have managed to win after all.

R. A. Lafferty writes like Schrodinger theorizes. FOURTH MANSIONS is perhaps the greatest novel-length work by Lafferty. Lafferty gives the impression of a sort of bumbling, provincial rube, but underneath the strategic humility is a steel-trap mind and a terrifying erudition. Lafferty seems to know everything there is to know, and he'll mention it all offhandedly. He also casually and constantly throws off words that have me scrambling for the dictionary-- but they aren't pretentious, five dollar words, they're usually gorgeous, old, almost forgotten slang terms. Lafferty was an electrical engineer who started writing at a rather advanced age. I am convinced that in his technical work he must have been involved in some pretty otherworldly stuff-- maybe he took a couple rides with Otis T. Carr or something. Unbelievably brilliant, but if you don't know what you're looking at, or if you don't have a capacious American-style sense of humor, you might not get it.

"R. A. Lafferty, who died at 87 on March 18, was undoubtedly the finest writer of whatever it was that he did that ever there was. He was a genius..."

So said Neil Gaiman, himself an accomplished writer. Well, Lafferty's work does have unique features, and the man certainly knew what it was that he did. Reading "Arrive at Easterwine", I often felt that it was strikingly original, even by Lafferty's standards. Now it is one of my favourite novels, along with The Devil is Dead, Fourth Mansions, and Past Master.

The novel is in the form of a journal written by Epikt, a conscious machine. Epikt alternates between the past and the present, as he tells about his own history and the history of the Institute for Impure Science, and about the present, and almost present, happenings. However, dialogue is often employed, and there is much varieted, often hilarious, action going on in the book.

But describing what happens in a Lafferty novel, wouldn't give an idea about what REALLY happens in a Lafferty novel, while analyzing a Lafferty novel is exhausting and perhaps besides the point. Suffice it to say that Lafferty twists and warps surface reality to reveal inner truths.

Just be open to symbols and a bit of surrealism, and read the book!

This is one of Lafferty's lesser-known book-length novels, and unlike Past Master, Fourth Mansions and a few others, has not been recently reprinted in a new edition. Some readers probably wouldn't give it five stars; I do so in relation to Lafferty's other output, which is so voluminous that I recently read an article about him in which I didn't recognize any of the books the author mentioned.

Lafferty is best known for short stories that appeared in various sci-fi mags, including Orbit, and in a number of paperback collections (and some in hardback book club editions) such as Ringing Changes, Nine Hundred Grandmothers and Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add? I first discovered him after reading a review that made his books sound so oddly intriguing that I had to have a go at them, and initially read numerous short stories and novellas.

However, I much prefer his longer novels, or rather some of them. Lafferty is an odd duck--read: original writer and unique visionary, but even within his own canon his books vary widely, arguably not in quality but in style (while remaining unmistakeably Laffertarian). At least as few are classics, but they are often the least available (and least read). My list of greats would include: Fourth Mansions, Past Master, Not to Mention Camels, Annals of Klepsis, and Arrive at Easterwine. Books I can't get into or through (although they may be favorites of other readers) include The Devil is Dead and Apocalypses. Somewhere in the middle I would place Space Chantey and The Thirteenth Voyage of Sinbad, but I have not begun to exhaust his catalog.

This book is told in the first person, and as with Asimov's I Robot (recently recast as an excellent film) and Kate Wilhelm's The Killer Thing, that first person is a machine. Not as light as Lafferty's Reefs of Earth but not as heavy as some of the above novels, it remains a flight of fancy where all deals are off and reality (whatever that is) is turned on its head in a typically? Laffertarian fashion that readers who've caught the Lafferty bug (and are therefore doomed to endlessly seek out and devour more R.A.L.) may enjoy.

This novel, Archipelago, is perhaps more an history of certain characters than anything like a traditional story with a direction, climax, and so on. Nevertheless, this is major Lafferty, and not just by page count. The first forty pages are full of some of the funniest and most cheerful action you can find in any book, like Finnegan's trying to get inside a bar in disguise, or like one particular beer drinking contest (only if you've already read lots of Lafferty, you may have some idea of how much inventive and unique fun that will all be when told by Lafferty; Neil Gaiman said "nobody could craft a sentence like Lafferty", and I concur). After that, Lafferty relates the histories, or perhaps some histories of the main characters of the novel. The action does wane considerably, but there's still something interesting on every page, something unique in every chapter (which is more than could be said of most books out there). Lafferty was no doubt in an inspired state when writing this particular novel. It's a shame it hasn't been in print in a while.

Dotty is a great American novel about a girl who strikes off on her own, leaves Oklahoma to move to Galveston where she becomes the greatest Galveston style stride piano player ever. There's also a great romance. Ultimately Dotty is a tragic figure, but she's larger than life and totally irrepressible.

Science fiction stories about the use and repercussions of power:

- "The Diary of the Rose" by Ursula K. Le Guin -- first publication
- "The Country of the Kind" by Damon Knight
- "Smoe and the Implicit Clay" by R. A. Lafferty -- first publication
- "She Waits for All Men Born" by James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon) -- first publication!
- "The Day of the Big Test" by Felix C. Gotschalk -- first publication
- "Contentment, Satisfaction, Cheer, Well-being, Gladness, Joy, Comfort, and Not Having to Get Up Early Any More" by George Alec Effinger -- first publication
- "Coming-of-age Day" by A. K. Jorensson (Robert W. A. Roach)
- "Thanatos" by Vonda N. McIntyre -- first publication
- "The Eyeflash Miracles" by Gene Wolfe -- first publication

The editors have produced other themed anthologies, such as "Future crime."

Lafferty in Orbit is an anthology of the Lafferty stories appearing in the famous Orbit series edited by Damon Knight. Playful, outrageous, ridiculous and sublime, Lafferty the magician performs open-heart surgery on reality, and just for kicks removes the lungs, liver and both kidneys, juggles with them, puts them back in random order, sews up the patient and walks away grinning. The operation is always successful, and we wake up feeling hunky-dory. Included in this collection is "Narrow Valley" an often-anthologized fantasy that is one of the funniest stories ever written. What happens when an Oklahoma valley a half-mile wide appears to be no bigger than a drainage ditch to the family of homesteaders who just bought it? "The Hole on the Corner" is tour-de-force science-fiction that will leave you rolling in the aisles. Lafferty the usher leads you back to your seat and mesmerizes you with "Continued on Next Rock," one of the most haunting and transcendent fantasies ever penned. Then comes a story, "Configuration of the North Shore" of a man obsessed by a recurring dream. Lafferty takes you out of normal consciousness and into the dream world where everything is possible, yet you never quite find the thing you are searching for so desperately, if it is a thing at all... Every story is unique and bears the Lafferty watermark, each time held up the light never appearing the same, but forcing you to see in a completely different way. Read this book, but check your reality after every story--or you may find yourself trapped inside.

More than Melchisedech consists of three parts: Tales of Chicago, Tales of Midnight, and Argo.

The Tales follow Melchisedech Duffey's life, or lives, in a journey (largely memorial or psychic) that perhaps begins from New Orleans, and evolves through St. Louis and other cities towards the timeless world of The Argo legend. In the last part of the three-part novel, Duffey leads his group of Argo Masters in a sailing ship-adventure (with a bargue that is a combination of Noah's ark and Argo) to different futures to help the present, or something close to that. Wait-- Did Duffey's ship or ark have engines (and not just one)? Indeed she did, indeed she did, "whether or not it was proper that she should have them." Lafferty's work was deeply influenced by his Roman Catholic beliefs, but he never let the fact stop his imagination from soaring. Nor was his treatment of questions and problems ever easy or simplistic. Lafferty was an extremely intelligent and erudite man. Everyone can profit from reading his work, quite apart from the enormous enjoyment that can be derived from his extraordinary story-telling and writing. That man had gifts. And here is one.

This is Ray's autobiography, except that he does not appear anywhere in it as a character. It is a semi-fictionalized account of the time and place he grew up in, the people he grew up with (volume one, MY HEART LEAPS UP, concerns Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1920's as seen through the eyes of a group of schoolchildren), and the things he saw during his life. It is without a doubt the best of the Lafferty books coming out from the small press, and someday Chris may even get around to finishing all four volumes.

If you are new to Lafferty, the place to start is with one of the collections, either LAFFERTY IN ORBIT or the older collections like 900 GRANDMOTHERS or STRANGE DOINGS or RINGING CHANGES that you might be able to find in second-hand shops. The best novels to start with would be REEFS OF EARTH, SPACE CHANTEY (rare Ace double from the '60s), SINDBAD, ANNALS OF KLEPSIS, PAST MASTER (his best-known, but not the easiest read), ARCHIPELEGO (OP small press book), THE DEVIL IS DEAD,