![]() ![]() If we encountered Universal Harvester in the late nineties in which it’s set, when Reindeer Games and She’s All That rested proudly on the New Releases shelf of the local Video Hut, there would not have been an easy way for us to see Darnielle’s story through the reflections of others. There was no Google to spell out all the hidden references of a nuanced story, flag something as derivative, or validate any truth a time before DVDs, blu-rays, and, long before all the information in the world was harvested and networked. There was a time once of a limited cultural wheelhouse that confined a person’s touchstones only to the stories they’ve personally encountered or traded, when a hook-hand was a fresh idea if you hadn’t heard it already. ![]() John Darnielle’s new novel Universal Harvester is an urban legend - a convoluted and ultimately disappointing one, but enough of a creepy modern folktale to appeal to those readers sensitive to nostalgic storytelling. ![]()
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