The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

 

The Pallbearers Club

by Paul Tremblay

The Pallbearers Club is a weird book. Yes, yes, I know – this is not a very helpful description, considering that this  - Paul Tremblay’s latest novel – is a work of weird/horror fiction. So let me try again. The Pallbearers Club is, ostensibly, a memoir written by a narrator who uses the pseudonym Art Barbara. Art may, or may not be, the author himself – certainly he has much in common with Tremblay, having come of age in 1980’s Massachusetts, navigated the rock and punk scene of the area and toyed with the idea of teaching mathematics. The other protagonist of Art’s memoir is given the pseudonym Mercy Brown. She may, or may ot be, a modern-day manifestation of an alleged New England vampire who was the subject of a well-documented “vampire scare” which occurred in Rhode Island in 1892.

What brings Art and Mercy together is The Pallbearers Club, a short-lived extracurricular activity devised by Art in his college days whereby a group of volunteers would pay their respects at ill-attended funerals. Mercy is one of the very few joiners, and soon becomes the closest Art has to a close friend. But after a couple of strange nocturnal episodes, Art starts to suspect that Mercy is preying on him. His memoir, which roughly covers the period from 1988 – 2017, sets out the evidence for this.   The manuscript is discovered by Mercy who annotates it with comments written in the margins. Significantly, she starts by crossing out the subtitle a memoir, substituting it with a novel – one written by Paul Tremblay. Her witty barbs, contrasting with Art’s self-conscious, often high-flown style, punctuate the narration.

This meta-fictional conceit runs through the book. Tremblay puts enough of himself into Art to make this often read like coming-of-age auto-fiction (I am sure that readers from his same background and generation will identify with the narrator).  Even if we are to take this book as (obviously) fiction, however – should we believe Art’s supernatural explanation of the events, or should we opt for Mercy’s more down-to-earth approach? Are the vampiric episodes simply the result of Art’s generous use of drug and alcohol? Should they be read metaphorically? And what are we to make of the book’s conclusion?   A lot of questions, I know, but that is, I believe, the whole point behind the novel.

Indeed, I venture to say that this is the type of novel where the style itself becomes part of the content. Shorn of its metafictional approach, the bare narrative skeleton of The Pallbearers Club is pretty mundane (guy is haunted by a vampiric entity for close to thirty years, until he starts to fear he is himself changing into a monster).  But there’s brilliance in the exchanges between Art and Mercy and in the way we’re kept guessing on the nature of the events.  Tremblay keeps a light touch, often venturing into comedy, but then pulls out the stops in the scarier set-pieces, and in the strangely moving ending.

An original take on vampire tropes, The Pallbearers Club will surely continue to cement Tremblay’s reputation as one of the foremost contemporary horror writers. 

Paperback, 320 pages

Expected publication: July 5th 2022 by Titan Books