The Store by Bentley Little

Bentley Little rarely makes public appearances.

The Store is the first novel by Bentley Little that I’ve read, but it probably won’t be my last. It reminded me a bit of Stephen King's books, and I’m a Stephen King fan. The King novel that especially comes to mind when you read the description of The Store is Needful Things. Both are about a new store that opens in a small town, offering a full inventory of Evil to the residents. That’s pretty much where the similarities between the two books end, though. 

Review 

While the nefarious store called Needful Things is a small curio shop, the store that comes to Juniper, Arizona, is a Big Box like Walmart or Target. Like Walmart in particular, the corporation behind The Store looks for small towns that don’t have pre-existing competition from other large, national chain stores. When The Store arrives, it’s the biggest thing around, and it quickly begins to drive the independent “mom ’n’ pop” stores and restaurants on Main Street out of business. The Store also quickly becomes the biggest employer in town. (New employees soon learn, however, that The Store’s HR department isn’t exactly up-to-date on enlightened workplace practices.) 

Protagonist Bill Davis is a telecommuting tech writer, so his fortunes aren’t as tied to those of local businesses as is the case with other characters in the story. A least, not that he realizes at first. He repeatedly goes before the town council to express his opposition to The Store’s exemptions from environmental requirements, its predatory practices, and more – but it soon becomes clear that the council is fully in The Store’s pocket. And, despite his opposition to their doing so, Bill’s own daughters take jobs with the store because it pays better than any other employer in town. 

As the story develops, The Store takes over more and more of Juniper, including the schools, the parks, and even the police department. Besides that, you really don’t want to meet The Store’s pallid, emotionless “night managers” because they have a simple solution for dealing with troublesome citizens who resist The Store’s plans. Without going into detail, let’s just say opponents end up becoming night managers themselves. Resistance truly is futile. 

Ultimately, in his effort to stop The Store’s reign of terror and free his daughters from their employment contracts, Bill confronts the owner. Like Leland Gaunt, the proprietor of Needful Things, the CEO of The Store (Newman King) might just be Old Scratch himself, or possibly one of his minions. He offers Bill a deal: take our training, become manager of the Juniper store, and you can do anything you want with it. The deal seems too good to be true, and, of course, becoming manager of his local Store and virtual dictator of his whole town presents Bill with temptations and challenges that make it difficult for him to hold on to his moral core. The devil knows his business. 

The book isn’t without flaws, including some plot holes and character inconsistencies that can be hard to swallow. But overall it’s a fun, fast read, that lingers with you.

The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis

 

The author of The Queen's Gambit considering his next move.

Walter Tevis’ The Man Who Fell to Earth is about an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Anthea, which sounds a lot like Ray Bradbury’s Mars – an ancient, depleted world that is home to a dying race. The alien, who calls himself Thomas Newton, tells us there are only about 300 Antheans left and that the tiny spaceship he came in was 500 years old. Their world didn’t have enough fuel remaining to allow them to send more than one.

Review

Science fiction is never about the future; it’s about the present in which it is written. It’s important to keep that in mind when reading old science fiction stories. The Man Who Fell to Earth was written in the early 60s, so its depictions of subsequent decades are merely projections of the technologies and cultural trends of the 60s. And Tevis isn’t really interested in trying to imagine the world of the 80s and 90s anyway. He is, instead, far more interested in using his extraterrestrial character to explore the feelings of alienation and existential despair shared by many in the culture of his time.

While the Antheans are different in appearance from humans, they aren’t so different that Thomas Newton can’t disguise himself to pass as human. Eventually, he earns some money and hires an attorney to secure patents for his “inventions.” In truth, Newton invents nothing; he simply adapts existing Anthean technologies. These inventions make Newton rich, which in turn allows him to establish a base of operations for his real goal.  

I wasn’t a fan of the 1976 Nicholas Roeg film, in which Newton’s goal is to transport water to Mars. His motivations in Tevis’ novel are far more complex and interesting. This is a bit of a spoiler, so you may want to skip the rest of this paragraph if that sort of thing bothers you. Newton’s goal is to use Earth’s resources to build an interplanetary ferry that will bring more Antheans to Earth. By disguising themselves, the Antheans will fit into Earth societies, as Newton has done, so that they can eventually gain control of terrestrial governments and militaries. Ultimately, they plan to do two things: save us from ourselves and establish a new homeland (and a future) for themselves.

Tevis wrestled with alcoholism, and so too does his alien. Perhaps the genius of this novel is that it doesn’t depict the sort of extraterrestrial invader that we’re used to, i.e., one that proceeds with superhuman efficiency and determination. Rather, Newton is beset by emotional as well as physical frailties. He suffers from self-doubt, he broods in alcoholic despair, he makes mistakes. And, one more spoiler, he fails. Completely.

So, no, this isn’t a rollicking sci-fi adventure. It might be more accurate to describe it as something more like a Raymond Carver story by way of Kurt Vonnegut (but not as fun as the latter). Tevis didn’t describe any future that came to pass, but his description of the heart in conflict with itself remains pretty true.