Childhood’s end
Parenthood is scary, especially in supernatural fiction. The final devilish twist at the end of “Rosemary’s Baby” comes with Rosemary’s maternal acceptance of the son of Satan. The horror that drives Stephen King’s “The Shining” hinges on Jack Torrance’s desperate desire to be a good father.
With his new dark fantasy novel, “The Changeling,” Victor LaValle explores some of the most frightening aspects of parenthood, whether mundane or fantastic. He constructs a modern-day tale of terror rooted in ancient myth and folklore, brimming with magical revelation and emotional truth.
LaValle explicitly stakes out his territory in the novel’s first line: “This fairy tale begins in 1968 during a garbage strike.” The sentence seems innocuous, but perceptive readers will be wary. Calling the story a fairy tale suggests that the narrative will end on an upbeat note, but it’s wise to recognize how much pain and suffering can be inflicted along the way.
Take, for example, the romance between parole officer Brian West and receptionist Lillian Kagwa. Their courtship starts auspiciously and results in marriage and the birth of a child, Apollo, named for the sun god. But something happens to cause West to abandon the family by the time the boy is 4 years old.
Although haunted by one peculiar dream about his father, Apollo grows up determined not to be like him. Then someone delivers to his front door a box decorated with the word “Improbabilia.” It’s from Brian, and contains among other mementos a single book, Maurice Sendak’s “Outside Over There.” Later on, “Improbabilia” becomes the name of Apollo’s used-book business.
Apollo falls in love with and marries Emma Valentine, a librarian from Virginia. He wins her over by cutting away the red string bracelet she wears around her wrist for good luck. “With me,” he says, “all three of your wishes will come true.” A dangerous proposition when you don’t know what all three requests might be.
Named for his still-missing grandfather, young Brian West is born underground, during a delayed subway ride. When Brian is just a few months old, Apollo takes him on book-scouting expeditions, trades parenting tips with the other cool dads at the park and posts literally dozens of photos of the infant online every day.
Apollo fancies himself a New Dad. One who wears his child in a BabyBjorn, does the dishes and laundry, cooks the meals. “New Dads fix all the mistakes the Old Dads made. New Dads are the future, or at least they plan to be, but since they’re making all this s— up as they go along, New Dads are also scared as hell.”
Despite Apollo’s enthusiasm for fatherhood, all is not well in his household. Emma and Brian don’t seem to connect, and she behaves strangely around the child. She claims to receive disturbing texts and photos about the boy, but they always disappear before she can show them to anyone.
Eventually, Emma commits an act of violence that upends every aspect of their marriage. Before she disappears from their apartment, Emma chillingly tells Apollo: “It’s not a baby.”
Last year, LaValle made a splash with “The Ballad of Black Tom,” a novella in the cosmic horror tradition of H.P. Lovecraft, only with an African American protagonist. “The Changeling” is a much more complex enterprise, but LaValle expertly builds a sense of growing dread as Apollo embarks on a quest for retribution, navigating a New York imbued with treacherous magic.
The novel cleverly mixes folklore with modern technology. Rapunzel and the Norwegian hero Askeladden play their parts, and so do iPhone apps and Facebook. Especially apt is the notion that using social media is akin to inviting a vampire to enter through your bedroom window. And what kind of creature is it that uses the Internet to sow the seeds of turmoil?
To save himself, his wife and his son, Apollo must face his own culpability, as well as recognize the power his loved ones possess in their own right. It is a harrowing journey, but one ultimately worth the heartbreak and adversity.
A supporting character says at one point, “A bad fairy tale has some simple goddamn moral. A great fairy tale tells the truth.” “The Changeling” is a great fairy tale, and LaValle conveys the truth about love, marriage, magic and the stories that attempt to make sense of an often dangerous world.
Michael Berry writes the science fiction and fantasy column for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: books@sfchronicle.com