Black Static

Continuing with my theme of interviewing the (un)usual suspects, I decided to put some questions to one of those unsung heroes of the literary world, a reviewer, and what better person to start with than Mario Guslandi, who happens to be the only person I know for whom reviewing is an end in itself and not simply fiction writing displacement activity.

Mario needs no introduction. If you’re a writer of a supernatural bent, or an editor/publisher of a similar disposition, then the chances are at some point you’ll have been reviewed by Mario. And if you’re a reader who likes to check what the word is online about a certain collection or anthology before deciding to buy, then the odds are good that you will have read one of Mario’s reviews. And if you’re one of those few who don’t know who Mario Guslandi is, then now is your chance to correct that omission.

Anyway, the interview…

PT: Hi Mario. Perhaps, as a starter for ten, you could just tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into reviewing?

MG: When I was in my twenties my father received as a Christmas present from a co-worker a book entitled Storie di Fantasmi (Ghost Stories), an anthology of short stories by M. R. James, Machen, Lovecraft etc translated into the Italian language. He was not interested so he passed it to me. I was immediately spellbound and, at the end of the book, hooked forever by the genre. Soon enough I discovered that very little horror/supernatural fiction is translated into Italian, so I had to start reading it in English (which, in the beginning, was a hard task).

At a certain point, for no apparent reason, I decided that I wanted to share my opinions on the books I was reading, so in the 90s I successfully submitted a few reviews to All Hallows, the journal of the Ghost Story Society.

But it was only when the Internet started booming that my activity as a reviewer took off. I will be always grateful to the editors of The Alien Online (Ariel) and Infinity Plus (Keith Brooke) for accepting to post commentaries by a completely unknown reviewer (and not even a speaker of the English mother tongue).  Since then my contributions have appeared on a number of websites such as Emerald City, The SF Site, The Agony Column, Whispers of Wickedness, Laura Hird's, The Harrow, The Zone, Horrorworld, Necropsy etc etc 

PT: Your area of interest, as far as I’m aware, is the short story and horror/supernatural fiction. What is it that attracts you to those particular things rather than, say, doorstop fantasy novels?

MG: I guess I like being scared and/or disquieted (of course while I’m safely sitting in my favourite armchair...), that’s why I like dark fiction more than fantasy. On the other hand my suspension of disbelief doesn’t last too long, so I prefer short fiction to novels.

PT: I believe you’re one of the few reviewers who doesn’t also write fiction. Do you have any literary ambitions of your own, and if not, do you think not wishing to write yourself gives you any greater objectivity/leeway when it comes to reviewing?

MG: My friends and relatives insist that I should start writing myself, especially because they think that reading so many books, it would be easy for me to get ideas. On the contrary, just because I’ve read so many stories I feel that I wouldn’t be able to find anything original to tell.  Furthermore I don’t have as much free time as I would like, so I have to choose between reading (and occasionally reviewing) and writing.

Maybe I’ll try to write after retiring from my job...

I must say, however, that being  just a reviewer and not a writer makes me feel quite free to express my opinions i.e. without fearing to offend an author who might be, in the future, the editor or the publisher responsible for  either accepting or rejecting my own work.

PT: You’re also, I believe, a freelance reviewer, rather than affiliated to one particular website/magazine. Can you tell us a bit about how you go about getting review copies? Do editors/publishers approach you, or do you put in requests to them on spec?

MG: Yes, I’m a freelance reviewer because I like to appear in different venues.

Some sites have editors who send out to their contributors a monthly list of books available for review and I try to get what interests me.

Sometimes authors/editors/publishers' editors contact me offering to send a review copy.

In other instances when I know of a certain forthcoming book that I might like, I contact the publisher and see if they are willing to send me an ARC. It’s not always easy to get what I want because small imprints can seldom afford to ship overseas, and, in general, because I dislike getting PDF files instead of actual, printed volumes.

PT: Do you have any ambitions to start your own book review blog, as others have done, or are you happy reviewing for established websites?

MG: No, I’m not planning to start my own review blog. To me it’s much more rewarding having my reviews accepted by established genre websites.

PT: What are your working methods? Do you read the stories in the order they’re printed? Do you make notes as you go, or trust to memory? Do you write the review immediately after finishing, or allow some time to elapse?

MG: Usually I read the stories in the order they appear in the volume.  I always make notes but, if I can, I prefer to write my review just after finishing the book when my feelings about it are still fresh.  Occasionally, due to other commitments, I have grudgingly to let a few days elapse before I’m able to get started.

The real problem is when I’m dealing with hefty anthologies including a large number of stories. Shall I comment upon each single story or focus only on the best tales? It’s always a dilemma, but generally I choose not to waste time and space on the poorer material.

PT: What do you feel makes a good supernatural story? And what are some of your favourite classic horror stories?

MG: A good supernatural story must be, first of all, a good story, period. To me good storytelling is a must! I especially like traditional tales with a beginning, a plot and a clear ending. Obviously a supernatural piece must have a dark element managing to elicit disquiet and fear, either from a physical or a psychological point of view.

I favour “quiet horror” rather than graphic Grand Guignol, but it’s always a matter of balance.  For instance Clive Barker’s Books of Blood were not for the squeamish, but they were so perfectly crafted that the reader was able to enjoy even the violence without being bothered or repulsed.

It’s hard for me to mention favourite classic stories, there are too many, from Dickens’ The Signal-Man to the ghost stories of authors such as M. R. James and E. F. Benson,  Robert Aickman’s short fiction, most of Terry Lamsley’s work.

PT: Looking at the current crop of writers, people who have come into prominence over the last five years or so, which do you feel have the greatest potential to be remembered in years to come?

MG: There are many good writers around who are very dependable in providing good stuff, such as Stephen Gallagher, Paul Finch, Joel Lane etc, but I suppose you want me to mention the newer authors who have impressed me.

My personal list includes, as a first line, Reggie Oliver, Steve Duffy, Gary A. Braunbeck and Glen Hirshberg.

Gary McMahon, Don Tumasonis, Peter Bell and Quentin Crisp (if he manages to make a better use of his great talent) are also writers to watch.

Being a short fiction lover I can’t say much about novelists. My favourite novel over the last five years is Dan Simmons’ The Terror and I hope we’ll read much more great stuff by this author in the upcoming years.

PT: Have you ever had any adverse experiences as a result of your reviewing (e.g. a backlash from writers)?

MG: I had a bad reaction by a writer in a blog a few years ago. Once an anthology editor whose wife had a story therein that I had failed to mention among the good material called my review “extremely shallow”. More recently, I chose not to write a review of a poor anthology from a small publisher instead of giving it a bad review. The publisher wrote me back complaining that my (positive) review of another of their books was cursory and poorly written.

Sometimes those things bother me but I guess reviewers too must accept bad reviews :-) 

PT: Finally, can you tell us a little bit about the horror/dark fantasy publishing scene in your native Italy?

MG: Unfortunately there’s not much to tell. Supernatural/horror fiction has little room in the Italian culture and tradition. We have some great horror moviemakers (Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci) but I’m not aware of any good dark fantasists except the late Dino Buzzati.

English and American material is seldom translated (barring Stephen King, obviously) and the translations are usually of poor quality. Things may change in the future but I’m not very optimistic about that.