Experiences & Archetypes
Why I want to publish The Night by Alison J Carr
Running a small press means, for me, following my gut. I don’t choose books because they fit a publishing plan, or will be big sellers. I publish them when they grab me as a reader, and I want to share them with you.
Alison J Carr’s The Night is one of the best books I've read in the last couple of years. With its Kickstarter ending in just two days, I want to share the reasons why it first grabbed me, and why I'd love more people to read it.
The Night is a coming-of-age story. Clearly autobiographical, it also feels archetypal, as its hero, the Girl, feels her way into her relationship with the night; with sex; with risk; with men – on her way to becoming the Showgirl and, ultimately, the Goddess.
She had words but they did not work. To be there in an encounter, but completely erased—projected onto until you do not exist. This is what it is like to be a Girl. Hyper visible and yet completely invisible. A screen for all kinds of fantasies, none of them emerging from the Girl, none of them about the Girl.
I found echoes of female friends’ lives in the Girl’s experiences; and echoes of myself in the male supporting cast.
I shared the book with my wife, with other female friends. The most common response was: “this is me”.
It has always been important to the Showgirl that there are parts of her that are secret. That she does not understand. It is important that she does not protect herself. That she is reckless. It is important she lets go of the regimes of control. The attitudes and the safety belts.
I bumped into Allie recently and told her how much I love the book. She replied that she had just sold the last copy of the original print run. This felt like a nudge from the gods of chance, asking me to bring the book back into being. Once we do, I hope that women can read it and think, “this is me,” and men to realise, “so that’s you”.
Allie & I agreed to produce a fancy hardback edition of the book, limited to 100 signed copies, with an afterword and with more pictures. And so we set up the Kickstarter.
When she entered the shed, a choir of snails greeted her and told her that the shed was haunted by the ghost of a dancer. The dancer was born with a third leg which she had amputated in order to have a conventional dance career. But her dancing was always chaotic, frenzied, unbound, as though she was possessed by the amputated leg.
You can read Allie’s latest post about The Night here, where she talks about how, for this new edition, she’s added drawings in green and blue, representing different aspects of her personality, alongside the original red and gold watercolours.
Please visit the Kickstarter where you can pledge to secure a signed, hardback limited edition of the book, as well as some of Allie’s original artwork.
