NIGHTMARES IN THE SKY

A striking collaboration between King and photographer f-stop Fitzgerald, whose stark photographs of city gargoyles are what the Maine horror master ponders upon in a lengthy introductory essay. Although King's rumination on "the 'goyles" slips too often into his customary teen stance—"l do believe they are alive. . .and am in complete possession of my faculties (ask any lunatic and he'll tell you the same thing, heh-heh-heh)"—he does evoke the weight and brooding presence of these bizarre stone guardians and neatly excavates their possible purpose ("venting the waste material of our own hidden fears"). What stands out here, though, are Fitzgerald's 100 black-and white and 24 color photographs of the gargoyles perched high above New York and other East Coast cities—forceful, mournful, frightening depictions in light, shadow, and color of these usually unnoticed symbols of darkness.