Reader's Diary #2048- Robert Carlton: Hannigan's Backyard

Robert Carlton's "Hannigan's Backyard" begins with a nightmarishly surreal description of a garden that is almost Lovecraftian. It becomes clear though, as the story progresses, that childhood imagination and fear may be fueling the memory. The truth might be far less sinister.

It's a story necessarily rich in imagery but accurate in terms of emotion. It made me recall a house not far from where I lived as a child that had huge white concrete lions and chains out in front. It was ostentatious and way out of wack from the Newfoundland outport surroundings. I may have believed the man inside to be a James Bond sort.