Sacrament

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Surprisingly wonderful submitted by pkooger on April 26, 2012, 12:00pm Before reading this book I was only familiar with Clive Barker's work through horror films such as Hellraiser or Candyman. While certainly iconic in their own right, I wouldn't describe those films as thoughtful or particularly introspective. It came as a surprise to me that Sacrament was thoughtful, introspective, thematically important, and even spiritual in nature. It does no less than explore the idea of what it means to be alive, in this world, with the certainty that we will die. Barker craftily brings the reader to the realization that genetic variation (life) in all its intricacies is in a constant state of flux and renewal, despite the worst tendencies of humans. Barker returns again and again to the idea of extinction. The genetic dead end. The villain of the story, Jacob Steep, makes it his life's mission to find endangered species and end their lines. This macabre crusade is juxtaposed with the AIDS plague sweeping through the protagonist's hometown of San Francisco. Will Rabjohns realizes that each gay man killed by the plague is the end of his genetic line. Every man who dies is an extinct species with no descendants to carry his likeness into the future. "This will not come again. Nor this. Nor this."

Despite the doomsday message of beautiful creatures lost to disease and humanity's environmental corruption, Sacrament actually ends with an uplifting message. Life is spontaneous, wild, and untamed. The counterpoint to Jacob Steep's fatalistic mantra is "This has never come before. Nor this. Nor this."

This is intelligent adult fiction at its best, with a touch of the fantastic thrown in for spice. I highly recommend it.