Nathaniel

Nathaniel

by John Saul

Since I've had a bit more time to read recently, I finished Nathaniel by John Saul last night. Having read Faces of Fear when I was in high school, I'm familiar with some of Saul's work. And I can say that he's a gifted storyteller with a wonderful vocabulary. For those of you who have never enjoyed a Saul novel, he started out writing when an English teacher gave him lists of words to turn into stories as a kid. That same teacher later told him he should consider writing as a career.

Nathaniel does a wonderful job of spinning a complicated tale that keeps the reader guessing from page one right up until the end. Saul's attempt to play close to the vest with what's really happening is an effective manner to execute a horror novel. And his talents truly shine through.

That being said, there were some moments that stuck out to me where it felt like Saul was still trying to figure himself out as a horror writer. Mainly how great of danger he is willing to put his characters in. More than a few suspense scenes were written with trepidation, as if he were afraid to harm his characters while others were wonderfully structured but lost something in being executed from a third person omniscient role.

While reading this, I couldn’t help but think back to Stephen King’s On Writing memoir, where he discusses authorial control. Essentially, he says that the writer who approaches his craft with filler words to dance around descriptions ends up losing his reader’s interest while the writer who can lay his cards out on the table and call a spade a spade is the one who keeps the reader going until the end.

While King primarily applied this to description, I’d go so far as to take it a step further and apply it directly to character actions. The job of the fiction writer is not only to make us believe in the world in which the story takes place but to also believe that the story is taking place. King is one of my favorite writers because, when I read his work, the character actions are seldom empty-enough to be unbelievable. While Nathaniel certainly has more than enough potential, it struck me as being written at a time when Saul wasn’t ready to go full-force with the danger (unlike his later work Faces of Fear). Perhaps because his books deal with children.

As a child who grew up on a farm, I found Saul's fondness for pitchforks a bit cliche, but I can chalk that up to trying to personalize the terror to the setting. I also felt like his climax and ending were underserved, lacking enough space to let the novel play out. While the twist was terrific, the character actions within it lacked enough motivation for me to believe they would happen. A few times, I found myself wondering what might have been if Saul had taken a break and edited it again before sending it to publication.

Still, while those outlooks lead me to believe that this manuscript could have used one more serious edit...the premise was intriguing. And I feel like this kind of ambitious plot truly demonstrates how willing Saul is to take risks. For that, I offer nothing but praise and applaud because some writers choose to play it safe and stick to the same formulaic plot-lines that first made their name.

Saul got creative, which is refreshing. His storytelling offered an antagonist who was compelling enough to hold up the suspense of the plot and keeping everything moving with enough forward momentum that the last hundred pages went by like nothing. By the ending, I found myself wanting to know more—to see what would happen next. And to see how he progressed as a writer. Knowing (from Faces of Fear) that Saul eventually did find himself, I'm definitely intrigued to read the rest of his earlier novels. I'd recommend Nathaniel to anyone looking for a good scare or anyone who would like to study how risk can pay off if you’re only adventurous enough to take it.

Well done, Saul.