Synopsis:
HE WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
Shortly after cruise ship the Maria Calypso embarks on its latest voyage, the passengers and crew notice someone in pursuit: An elegant figure wearing a white suit who somehow keeps pace in his rowboat. No matter how hard the crew pushes the engines, they can’t escape The Boatman… and it isn’t long before sinister and mysterious events begin to unfold on the Maria Calypso. What will it cost to learn the true nature of the man who hunts them–and will the price to keep on living prove to be too dear?
Review:
The concept of cheating death is a rigged game that has been played many a time, perhaps most famously by James Wong with Final Destination, but also by Grecian himself in his latest novel “Rose of Jericho.” After that really rather excellent book, I was of course going to put all my chips in for this one. “The Boatman,” is a novella that takes this familiar gamble, packs it with action and emotion, loads it with a little eco-horror, and sends it hurtling from Port Miami, across the Pacific Ocean. A lean and fleet-footed 150 page chase, there is no better way to sell you this novella than how Grecian sold it to me when I was lucky enough to chat with him last March- a cruise ship carrying older passengers, attempts to outrun death who is in tow on a rowboat. A clean pitch. As fast-paced and fantastical as the rest of what I’ve read from Grecian thus far, but also full of introspection and commentary about morality, grief, the environment, life and death and after, “The Boatman,” docks April 7th (from Bad Hand Books- one of the best doing it) and is worth boarding.
We follow June Dennison, freshly married to her husband Walt, who boards the Maria Calypso at Port Miami for what should have been a lovely honeymoon. They are but two days in when their Captain Billy Prescott has a medical emergency. It’s amidst the panic and chaos that the man on the rowboat is first spotted- gaining on them. As you’d imagine, they do all that they can to outrun such an omen, and for weeks and months and years, the Maria Calypso doesn’t stop its voyage. Death, as stubborn as ever, rows on.
Do you fear death? I certainly do, but “The Boatman,” is one of various bits of horror I have read that reassure me that such a natural thing is unavoidable, and if for whatever reason it is not- it should be welcomed, never trifled with or outrun. You don’t fuck with death. Resistance to death, Peter Thiel, is the least dignified and most hubristic approach to it. The notion that all good things come to an end, including life itself, is one apparent throughout “The Boatman,” reflected most explicitly in the constant, steady advancement of death personified, our titular character. It’s metronome like, the steady click-click of inevitability. Consistent, and rather ominous death may be, but he is not some sneering, horned beast, or a smirking trickster, or stereotypical scythe-wielding grim reaper. Clad in the quite sharp get up you see on that gorgeous front cover, it must be said that death is very dapper, but otherwise ordinary- well-dressed, punctual, uninterested, neither cruel nor kind. Unexotic, And such is true of course of death outside of this novella, which is, all things said and done, the only certainty. Is that bleak? I hope that doesn’t sound bleak, it really wasn’t meant to, and it does not come off that way in the novella.
Whilst human life should not be prolonged for generations, you would hope that the life of The Earth is. The change in climate, the attrition and abuse of our natural resources, the incremental destruction of our planet that are all implied through the novella’s epistolary elements are the bleakest elements of this novel, not the bloke on the rowboat. Such feelings are accentuated by the presence of Mai, a child brought on board eventually by a far older June and Walt. Will her children believe polar bears and tigers to be mythical? Will their children be able to breathe clean air? When such concerns are examined alongside the fleeting nature of life, the message I took from “The Boatman,” was that just because you and I may not be around to see the worst of climate change, we are not absolved of responsibility now, and it’s important we do our utmost for those who come after us.
A frightening truth reframed, “The Boatman,” is a quality couple of hours on paper- great concept, nice writing, developed characters. It’s also a story you will find yourself considering for many sleepless nights to come. A chilling, driftwood-etched reminder of our own mortality that will cling to you like salt water, and won’t be rinsed off easily, Grecian’s horror continues to excite me.
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