The Paper Grail by James P. Blaylock
"The Paper Grail" is a whimsical narrative centered on Howard Barton, who returns to Northern California after learning he has inherited a rare sketch from the Japanese artist Hokusai. Upon his arrival, he reconnects with his eccentric Uncle Roy, who runs a haunted museum, and a quirky ensemble of characters, including family members and oddball locals. The story unfolds amid a rivalry with another group led by Heloise Lamey, a mysterious woman with control over much of the town and her own band of unusual followers.
As tensions rise over the legacy of the late Michael Graham, the previous owner of the sketch, the narrative spirals into a comedic chaos marked by misunderstandings and absurd confrontations. Conflicting groups engage in a series of ridiculous escapades, questioning the reality of the museum's ghosts and the authenticity of the sketch itself. The plot thickens with strange inventions and the looming threat of violence, culminating in a stormy showdown where Howard must face Mrs. Lamey, who is desperate for the sketch and its rumored powers. This tale blends elements of mystery, humor, and eccentricity, inviting readers into a world where the bizarre and the mundane intersect.
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Subject Terms
The Paper Grail
First published: 1991
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—Magical Realism
Time of work: The 1990’s
Locale: The Mendocino County area of Northern California
The Plot
On receiving the news that he has been willed a rare sketch by the Japanese artist Hoku-sai, Howard Barton returns to his old stomping grounds in Northern California. Once there, he quickly, if unexpectedly, falls in with a group more or less led by his eccentric Uncle Roy, the perennially improvident proprietor of a haunted museum. Roy’s group includes his wife, Edith; his attractive daughter, Sylvia; Artemis Jimmers, an aged, oddball inventor; Mr. Bennett, a handyman with a predilection for making and displaying huge plywood cutouts on his property; and, in the background, the “gluers,” called so because of their habit of gluing bizarre decorations and objects on their vehicles.
Feuding with Roy’s group is an equally offbeat gang led by Roy’s landlady, Heloise Lamey, a witchlike old woman who tends a bizarre garden and owns most of the town. Mrs. Lamey’s unlikely gathering of villains includes Stoat, a slick, wheeler-dealer type; Glenwood Touchey, a disgruntled literary critic; Gwendolyn Bundy, a feminist poet who writes of the “existential woman” in “flat verse”; the Reverend White, a hard-drinking preacher; and Jason, a would-be painter. The feud has been accelerated by news of the death of Michael Graham, the old man who owned the sketch and presumably willed it to Howard. As tensions rise and conflicts intensify, the confusion increases and the questions become more and more bizarre. Are the ghosts in Uncle Roy’s “museum” real or fake? Is Graham really dead? What strange inventions is Jimmers secreting in his mysterious tin shed? Is he really trying to conjure up the spirit of John Ruskin? Does Jimmers have the sketch, along with several forgeries? What are its powers, if any?
Rhetorical agitation escalates quickly into acts of strange, often ridiculous, violence. The contesting groups chase each other around like Keystone Kops. Mrs. Lamey’s gang destroys Bennett’s plywood Humpty Dumpty, Howard destroys her clothes drier, Uncle Roy’s museum goes up in flames, and Jimmers’ tin shed is stolen. Finally, Uncle Roy and his wife are kidnapped and their lives threatened by Mrs. Lamey, who demands the sketch along with proof of its powers. Having received the drawing from Jimmers following Graham’s demise, Howard agrees to a meeting. At last, he confronts his hysterical female nemesis in the middle of a raging storm that may or may not have been caused by the sketch.