Steve Alten’s The Loch (2005)
Posted by Tom Paskins on September 20, 2009 in Reviews tagged with
The Loch (2005), Steve Alten.
Review by Tom Paskins, University of Stirling
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Taking a break from Megaladon’s but still remaining firmly within the realms of crypto zoology, The Loch is Alten’s attempt to breathe fresh life into what is perhaps the most famous monster myth of all time, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.
Set above and beneath the water line of the world famous Loch, Alton delivers a whole sea of Clichéd characters who are accompanied by a Tsunami of ridiculous dialogue and situations. Groans of frustration are guaranteed upon discovering that the central protagonist, marine biologist Zachary Wallace, is a direct descendent of, you guessed it, William Wallace. It will also be difficult not to collapse with laughter when his father Angus, who is on trial for murder, uses Nessie as an alibi. Especially since this is what ultimately acts as the trigger for the investigation into the depths of Loch Ness to find out if a creature really inhabits it and therefore substantiate his claim.
Nevertheless when it comes to the creature itself, Alten avoids the obvious and has gone to great lengths to avoid drawing on most of the popular mythology surrounding it and eventually comes up with a much more scientific sounding explanation which appears to be well researched and credible. By refusing to describe the monster in all its hideous glory until the final fifth of the book, he successfully infuses the attack sequences with a similar sense of the primal terror to that experienced in Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). This was something which was disappointingly absent from his rather unsubtle, albeit entertaining Meg series. The backdrop of the Loch with its mists and the surrounding highland scenery also comes across as being suitably menacing. To top it off the link that Nessie is ultimately revealed as having with Scottish history and the time of Robert the Bruce is imaginative and intriguing.
So while it is not exactly Radcliffe, The Loch is a perfectly enjoyable, gripping and at times even frightening holiday read. You will never be able to look at a smiling, cuddly Nessie in quite the same way again.
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Haven’t come across this, but sounds interesting, so thanks. The weird thing will be how the Loch Ness monster, which, as you suggest,has become trivialised by the tourist industry, becomes recuperated as gothic monster. I wonder how often this is managed. Look forward to it!
Yes, the recuperation of it as a gothic monster was what interested me about the book. The only well known recent fictions that I can think of that deal with the legend are the films ‘Loch Ness’ and ‘The Water Horse’ which were both essentially fairy tales for children.
There isn’t, so far as I know, much of a gothic heritage in the Nessie myth. I’d love to know more and be corrected on this, but it’s largely just the folksy stuff and the photo-hoaxes.
‘Nessie’ or a dragon beast very like it was already a myth by the time Adomnan of Iona wrote his life of St Columba. So that’s pretty old. However, the modern version of the Nessie myth is surprisingly recent and only goes back to about 1936 when an American showman used Nessie as a means of conjuring up business to his loch-side circus.
It would be really intersting to ‘see’ the monster as it’s described in this novel and if it connects with the old sources in any way. Would you mind pasting up just a short paragraph of decription then we can have a look?
That would be good, Tom, if you have a short passage. I’m always interested in the question of how folklore is transformed into Gothic, and what the difference is.
I wnt back a looked again at the Adomnan passage, and sadly although it’s vividly written as I remembered, the monster isn’t really described in any detail. It is a definite quasi-Jaws moment though which is really interesting. This book certainly has something in common with the original myth/miracle.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
How an Aquatic Monster was driven off by virtue of the blessed man’s prayer.
ON another occasion also, when the blessed man was living for some days in the province of the Picts, he was obliged to cross the river Nesa (the Ness); and when he reached the bank of the river, he saw some of the inhabitants burying an unfortunate man, who, according to the account of those who were burying him, was a short time before seized, as he was swimming, and bitten most severely by a monster that lived in the water; his wretched body was, though too late, taken out with a hook, by those who came to his assistance in a boat. The blessed man, on hearing this, was so far from being dismayed, that he directed one of his companions to swim over and row across the coble that was moored at the farther bank. And Lugne Mocumin hearing the command of the excellent man, obeyed without the least delay, taking off all his clothes, except his tunic, and leaping into the water. But the monster, which, so far from being satiated, was only roused for more prey, was lying at the bottom of the stream, and when it felt the water disturbed above by the man swimming, suddenly rushed out, and, giving an awful roar, darted after him, with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the middle of the stream. Then the blessed man observing this, raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, “Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed.” Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. Then the brethren seeing that the monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they themselves had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians.
I will do that either later on today or tomorrow. Alten references that passage you have quoted Andrew in the novel actually.
Tom, from my point of view it’s already interesting. For one thing, I hadn’t remembered just how Jaws-like the original myth was – Nessie is a much more benign creature in the modern version (and hence not usually very Gothic at all). I had thought that Adomnan gave a description of the beast but he clearly doesn’t. My memory let me down there I’m afraid. So, we can already say that the book does reflect something more of the originary flavour of the myth. I don’t know anything about this author. Has he written other ‘Scottish’ book, do you know?
One thing about modern Nessie is it partially shows how a folk myth can be degraded, rather than preserved, by the heritage industry. Just think, this monster now largely exists as a cuddly toy for tourists to take home as a momento of an equally fictional Scotland. So in that sense, this new ferocious old school Nessie is most welcome!
As promised here are the quotations describing the beast.
‘It was passing beneath the boat, its form revealed in the moonlight. The thickly muscled back was chocolate brown in colour, adorned with a horsehair dorsal fin that tapered back to a finless rounded tail. As long and wide as two tour buses connected end to end, the creature moved left, then right, left, then right as it swam, twisting with snakelike undulations’ (The Loch, p 343).
Number 2.
‘The forward beam caught the advancing monster flush in its horrid yellow eyes, sending it ducking back into the underground river whence we came.
My mind fought to recall the gruesome image as my spasming chest struggled to catch air.
The Monster’s head was colossal, its face a combination of a giant eel and a vampire bat. Snub nose nostrils were upturned and pronounced, revealing a mouth filled with an assortment of elongated teeth that would put a Tyrannosaurus rex to shame. Most were fixed within the jawline, but several of the larger fangs jutted outside the mouth at bizarre angles like an angler fish, and I wandered if the creature could even close its jowls without impaling itself. A thick horsehair mane began along the top of the skull, which was covered in pusecreting lesions, and the eyes were a jaundiced version of those that had gazed at me a lifetime ago in the Sargasso Sea’ (The Loch, p 500)
In answer to your question Andrew. As far as I know he has not written any other Scottish books but as I have mentioned he has written the Meg series. These are about the Megaladon Shark, which is the 70ft prehistoric ancestor of the Great White.
These deal with the theory that they never went completely extinct but are in fact still alive deep in the trenches of the Pacific ocean and the possible consequences if one ever surfaced. They are also very entertaining reads.
I enjoyed your comments about how the Nessie Myth has been degraded by the tourist industry. They along with films such as Braveheart have fictionalised Scotland and presented it as being something that it really is not. As you said this ferocious Nessie provides a welcome retaliation against this concept.
Thinking about this again Tom, the new beastie seems kind of an integration of the visciousness of the old with the serpentine, snakey quality of the new.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed this thread and hope you find more stuff like this. What is it you are actually working on, Tom?
At the moment Andrew I’m a fourth year undergraduate about to start my dissertation. The Gothic however is my main area of interest.
Well, good luck for your final year, Tom. I hope you enjoy the dissertation – it’s the best part of being an undergraduate!