Book Review: Halloween Nation

Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (Pelican Publishing Company, 2011)


America's leading black-and-orange journalist returns to investi-gate and celebrate the October holiday season.  In Halloween Nation, Bannatyne poses the key questions (the most overarching one being: "What does Halloween mean right now and what purpose does it serve?") and considers all the relevant elements (witches, ghosts, zombies, pumpkins, pranksters, etc.).  Her study is at once fascinatingly informative (in particular the chapter tracing the origin of the jack-o'-lantern) and endlessly entertaining.  Bannatyne writes with a sense of humor, a prose style reminiscent of Mary Roach (whose work she cites).  For instance, when learning of the amazing growth rate of giant-sized pumpkins, the author observes:
"Forty pounds a day? That's like growing a six-year-old over the weekend."  Describing a weigh-off of such gargantuan gourds, Bannatyne offers: "When a 1,180-pounder knocks the rest out of the competition, the crowd roars, and the pumpkin glides through the arena on the forklift like a plus-sized beauty queen on a parade float."

All this is not to suggest that the author has taken a flippant attitude toward her subject matter, or that she didn't work hard to produce this book.  Like a Charles Kuralt for our macabre republic, Bannatyne spent two years on the road interviewing haunters, performers, and other holiday celebrants across the country.  Halloween Nation is an undeniably democratic tome:  Bannatyne doesn't just forward her own ideas but gives voice to the perspectives of countless others.  The book seems as populous throughout as the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (which Bannatyne covers in Chapter Seven).

Brimming with brilliant color photos and illustrations, Halloween Nation is a perfect coffee table book to engross visitors to your home this October.  The book's written content (not to mention its extensive "Resources" appendix) is guaranteed to send you surfing the Internet to learn more about the people, places, and events Bannatyne discusses.  Such extra-textual forays, though, will not keep you from delving eagerly back into Bannatyne's pages again and again.  I'm not waxing hyperbolic when I state that this insightful and delightful book is an absolute must-read for every unabashed Halloween-ophile.