Book Review: 'Playboy's Stories of the Sinister and Strange'
'Playboy's Stories of the Sinister and Strange' (217 pp.) was published in 1969, and features cover art by Gilbert Stone.
All of these stories first saw print in Playboy during the 1950s and 1960s. My capsule summaries of each entry:
The Mannichon Solution (1967), by Irwin Shaw: Collier Mannichon is a chemist with the Vogel-Paulson Research Laboratory. Burdened with a deeply unsatisfying home life, Mannichon is thrilled to discover a new compound with unusual properties.....a compound that could vault him into the echelons of the company's most estimable (and wealthiest) scientists. But as Mannichon is to learn, morals are in short supply in those echelons. A satirical story, with a twist at the end, from author Shaw.
The Dark Music (1956), by Charles Beaumont: the prudish Miss Lydia Maple has a fateful encounter in a wooded area adjoining the Gulf Coast.
Somewhere Not Far from Here (1965), by Gerald Kersh: soldiers engaged in a combat mission must surmount a daunting array of obstacles. A well-plotted, crisp, 'macho' tale from author Kersh.
The Investor (1962), by Bruce Jay Friedman: a man is hospitalized with an ailment related, in some inexplicable way, to the ups and downs of the stock of Plimpton Rocket Fuels. A unremarkable entry from author Friedman.
The Dispatcher (1967), by Gerald Green: America finds itself afflicted with a strange plague: officious Army officers and enlisted men are showing up at random places and subjecting every procedure to military oversight. This troubles the first-person narrator, who, during his time in the service, remembers how badly the Sad Sacks messed things up.
This story goes on too long to be entertaining. Plus, by '67, the Baby Boom generation had little affinity, and few if any memories, of the demobilization that accompanied the end of World War Two, making inane the story's messaging.
Wise Child (1967), by John Wyndham: scientist Donald Solway has made a discovery that can remake the human race. But his wife is unenthusiastic about validating the discovery. This story is slow-moving, but pays off with a clever denouement that calls to mind Roald Dahl. The best entry in the anthology.
Welcome to the Monkey House (1968), by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: satire about a near-future USA where, in order to combat overpopulation, the government forces everyone to take anti-libido drugs, dampening ardor and the birth rate. A rebel named Billy the Poet aims to change things. An unremarkable tale from Vonnegut. I thought the pictorial in this January, 1968 issue, featuring actress Stella Stevens, was much more interesting:
Room 312 (1967), by G. L. Tassone: the Hotel Madison in New York City is just another forgettable, low-rent hotel peopled by transients. But clerk Charles Shelton has noticed something very special about room 312..........a funny story, rather than a sinister one.
The Golden Frog (1963), by Ken W. Purdy:
Purdy had a lot of fiction and nonfiction pieces published in Playboy
in the 1950s and 1960s, and most of these are not all that memorable. In 'Frog,' a carillon player witnesses something very strange and unusual. This story is too overwritten to be very engaging.
The Annex (1968), by John D. MacDonald: A labored allegory with a denouement that most readers will see coming well before the story's end. Not one of MacDonald's best efforts.
Summing up, the only worthwhile entries in 'Playboy's Stories of the Sinister and Strange' are those by Beaumont, Kersh, Russell, and Wyndham. The other 7 entries don't qualify as being sinister and / or strange, being more in the line of the sort of fabulist or fantastical stories that would resonate with fans of R. A. Lafferty and other practitioners of 'speculative fiction.' If that's not your bag, then you can pass on this title.
