Living and Dying We Feed the Fire

Sacrament
By Clive Barker
Published: 1996

Will Rabjohns work has brought him to Northern Manitoba. He is a wildlife photographer who specializes in endangered species and he has come to capture the polar bears of the region on film, unfortunatly for Will things go wrong, and he is nearly killed by one of the bears. Comatose Wills mind journeies back to the tiny English village where he grew up in and relieves his encounter with the mysterious Jacob Steep and Rosa McGee. Will's encounter with Steep, The Killer of Last Things, has profoundley influenced his life. Awakening from the coma Will returns to San Francisco only to be tormented by Lord Fox, an animal spirit who has until recently lived quietly in his head. Will well be drawn home to England, there to once again meet Jacob and Rosa, this time as enemies. Wills future and the future of the world depends apon him discovering the true nature of Jacob and Rosa, and finding the long hidden Domus Mundi, House of the World.

Well the book drags at times, Sacrament, is one of Barkers most personal works. It's protagonast Will is one of modern fictions few openly and proudly gay characters (like Barker). Yet Barkers description of Will's life as a homosexual in San Francisco, well interesting, does tend to distract from the books better parts, most of these in the flash back to Wills childohood or scenes dealing with Jacob and Rosa. Sacrament relies less on fantasy elements then most of Barkers work and the novels gay main character may cause others to forgo reading the book... there loss, as the book deserves a wide audience. Well not perfect, Sacrament is highly recommended. One hopes Barker will one day try to get this made into a movie.

**** out of *****

Note: Well Clive Barker is an openly gay man, he is not a "Gay Writer" rather he is a "Writer who happens to be Gay".

Below is a link to Barker's official website
www.clivebarker.info