All Hallows’ Eve, by Charles Williams

Want a good eerie, creepy plunge into the fruit of black magic right before Halloween? Beneath his politically pleasing exterior, Simon the Clerk is deviously working at a plan for world domination through means of magical manipulation. Only Acts of the City can stop him, and those who need to Act are new to this brand of action.

The story begins with Lester and Evelyn discovering that they were killed together at a planned social rendezvous. They find themselves in the City, which mirrors the London they knew in a shadowy, hollow way. They struggle to accept the truth of their new existence, each in the state in which she died. Perhaps this is the pivotal moment where Lester chooses a higher trajectory, for she is the one to vocalize and confront the facts. At first, I wasn’t too drawn to Lester. She is just a very typical woman who is mildly catty toward the other women who are her friends. However, as the story unfolds, the other characters speak so highly of her that it feels like a disconnect. I still liked her; she just didn’t strike me as being as exceptional as she is talked about.

This was the seal of the City, its first gift to the dead who entered it. They had what they were, and they had it (as it seemed) for ever.

All Hallows’ Eve

Betty begins as a slave to her mother and the Clerk, both of whom are using her to achieve their ends through forcing her to succumb to their black magic. They are ready to sacrifice her on multiple levels, but Lester intervenes to save her. This salvation involves Lester’s own confession to Betty to receive absolution from her for wrongs done. But once that is complete, their love is so established that it fuels their Actions for the rest of the novel.

The charity between them doubled and redoubled, so that they became almost unbearable to each other, so shy and humble was each and each so mighty and glorious.

All Hallows’ Eve

They must confront the Clerk, along with Lester’s husband and Betty’s fiancée. To defeat him, different objects are given that precisely meet the appropriateness of the moment. Two opposing trinities form foils to one another—the Clerk and his clone facades against Betty and the men. However, the Clerk discovers that his doubles truly are copies of himself, so that what is done to one of them is done to him. To undo them is to undo himself. He becomes his own source of destruction. The trinity of Betty, her lover, and her friend’s widow is one of compassion, giving grace freely given, and mutual support. She is very much the leader of this bunch, appropriately so as she has bathed in the Light of the true City along her pathway of misery. By creating a trinity of men and women, there is an otherness that unites the three.

This book reread beautifully. I remembered enough of the framework to be able to focus more on the characters, structure, and themes, which were all so clear and developed that it was a joy to revel in the content.  Fantastic insights into consuming greed, power in sacrifice, and the stark reality that darkness crumbles before Light that Acts. Evil is a real threat until it’s not, in the face of confronting Goodness.