The Praise Continues for WRECKAGE and WHAT HAPPENS IN HELLO JACK by Peter Straub

The response to Peter Straub’s unfinished novel, Wreckage, accompanied by the supplemental volume, What Happens in Hello Jack, has been hugely gratifying.

Bev Vincent covered the two-book set in depth in Cemetery Dance Online.

We’ll leave you with a few snapshots from his investigation of Peter’s work, the first from a 2016 interview with the author, conducted by Adrian Van Young, that appeared in Electric Literature:

These days and for maybe three years now I work away, when permitted by health and hospitals, on a long strange novel called Hello Jack. Jack the Ripper is invoked by a devoted admirer. The fifth-richest woman in America murders her dying husband. A black, retired homicide detective works as a private chauffeur, in which capacity he does a lot of good. Henry James pops up, thinking hard, as does the 12-year-old Aleister Crowley. There’s a weird painting, but no one can figure it out.

In the review proper, Vincent wrote:

“One notable aspect of Straub’s writing is that even characters mentioned in passing are given grace notes and interesting observations that make them feel real. He was also intensely curious about the origins of his characters. Margaret Hayward, for example, is only mentioned in passing in earlier works, but a discussion with Wolfe led him to explore her life to the extent that she is a co-lead of Wreckage, arguably its protagonist. Margot, whose favorite writer is Henry James, is married to the ‘wondrous terrible’ Harry Mountjoy, a much older, wealthy, and ruthless businessman. After suffering at his hands for several years, she decides to hasten his end-of-life process, enrolling her in the homicidal tradition of the Hayward family. However, this is her sole nefarious deed, and the rest of her story involves her efforts to do good things with her new status as the one of the richest women in the world.”

And later: 

“[Otto Sven] Harbin is one of the book’s most intriguing characters. As a Black man in the 1950s, he is often unwelcome in the upscale places Margot frequents, although she uses her power and influence to shame people into admitting him. He has contented himself to remain Margot’s chauffeur despite a significant legacy from Mountjoy’s will, but the investigative skills he acquired as a police detective come in handy while protecting her.”