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Bob Booth (editor), The Big Book of NECON (Cemetery Dance, 2009)
There are two ways to read The Big Book of NECON, the lovingly crafted tribute to this small New England convention. One is simply as an anthology of short fiction and artwork by those affiliated with the con, whether they be one-time guests or long-time regulars. To read the book this way is to enjoy work by luminaries ranging from Stephen King (with a previously unpublished story) to Gahan Wilson to Neil Gaiman to Jack Ketchum to Peter Straub to Christopher Golden to, well, let's just say there are a lot of names in there. It's also to thumb past a few NECON travelogues and reports from folks like Stanley Wiater, Charles L. Grant, Thomas Monteleone and others, and to completely skip the alternately informative, amusing and terrifying NECON glossary helpfully provided by Douglas E. Winter. Doing so yields an entirely satisfying, highly enjoyable read of some wonderful fiction and poetry, spiced up with art by Wilson, Glen Chadbourne, Jill Bauman and others. Of course, reading the book this way completely misses the point. To get the most out of The Big Book of NECON is to understand that this is, for lack of a better way of putting it, a family album, carefully put together by NECON originator and legend Bob Booth to share with the world. Read in that light, it becomes something more than an outstanding anthology. Rather, it's a tribute to the convention and its enduring community, to the work Bob and his wife Mary and all of the other folks who have created and perpetuated NECON. Reading the book from the beginning, it becomes clear that NECON means something to all of the participants. It's not just that a lot of talented people have attended the convention over the years. After all, you can say that about an awful lot of cons. Rather, it's the fact that an enduring community of these talented people has endured and coalesced around NECON, and the book is gorgeous evidence of that fact. Does the book capture the spirit of NECON? No, not in a "you can almost smell the Saugies and see Thomas Monteleone's team losing yet another softball game" sort of way (Confession time -- your humble reviewer is a NECON camper; "saugies" are the local brand of hot dogs served at the NECON cookouts, and the estimable Mr. Monteleone's miscalculation at putting together a winning NECON softball team is legendary). There are whiffs of it in the travelogues, of course, particularly in Matt Bechtel's account of his first year at the con. But the book's job isn't to tell you what a great time everyone is having at NECON. Rather, it's to celebrate the fact that so many people, of such talent, have come together at NECON to have a good time, and to share the joy that has resulted. And Bechtel's story? True, every word of it.
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