Lonesome October

So there has been a book I've been looking for about 10 years. I read it when I was 13-15 and living in Florida. The book was about Victorian era monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, etc..) and their quest to compete and either open up a portal to allow the Elder Gods (Cthulu) back to earth. The book was told from the point view of Jack the Ripper's familiar, a dog named Snuff. I really enjoyed the book when I was younger, but right after I had finished reading it I lost the book and I was never able to remember the title. Apparently the book goblins felt that it was necessary to steal it, that or one of my family members got ahold of it, since my mother's side of the family is notorious for stealing books. A family pastime really, other families go camping together, my family steals books from one another and compiles them. For the last 10ish years I've been looking for this book on and off, never looking like I absolutely couldn't live without, but with renewed interest here and there.

Last week I went to a bookstore with my roomate, and we were perusing the fantasy section and I again looked in vain for the book. Well on our way out of the store I told my roomate about the book and he mentioned to me that I should search on the...wait for it...INTERNET. Well how fucking dumb did I feel, not doing a word search on Wikipedia or Google or Amazon. I mean it hadn't even entered my mind to look for it on the place I buy 90% of my books and search for things, a tool I use every godamn day. So we get home, and 5 minutes later I'm purchasing it online. "A Night in the Lonesome October" by Robert Zelazny was the title I've been searching for all this time and you would think with such a unique title I might have remembered this. But no.

So I got the book in the mail yesterday and it was quite a bit shorter then I remembered. Each chapter represents one night in October, and 5 nights in I was quite a bit disappointed from the expectations built up by my memories. This has been a pretty common occurrence, re-reading books I read when I was much younger and being disappointed. However, I kept reading it, hoping for the best. Well after I finished the book last night, I put it down quite contented. The book minus the first couple of chapters was everything I wanted it to be. Mysterious and clever, very abstract with lots of loose ends that tie together at the end. I'm glad I found the book again, I feel dumb that it took me so long to do so.