The Great and Secret Show is a fantasy novel by English author Clive Barker. It was released in 1989 and it is the first "Book of the Art" in a planned trilogy, known as "The Art Trilogy" by fans. It is followed by Everville (1994).
The novel is about the conflict between two highly evolved men – Randolph Jaffe and Richard Fletcher – over the mystical dream sea called Quiddity. Jaffe hopes to tap into Quiddity's power while Fletcher wants to prevent it from being tainted. The conflict between the two men spills into the real world in a decades-long feud, distorting reality and affecting the entire human race.
Clive Barker has said in interviews that this novel was the hardest to write of all his books.
Background
Barker has stated that the idea for the novel came to him from the discovery of "a little town in Ventura County just outside Los Angeles". In a 1990 interview with the Boston Herald he says: "Sometimes an image comes along which is so perfect you absolutely have to have it: who could possibly improve on the symbolic significance of a perfect little town - the lawns all evenly mowed, everything working like clockwork - constructed on a fault line?" A 1989 interview in Publishing News quotes Barker as saying: "Succinctly put, it's about Hollywood, sex and Armageddon."
Television
In December 2016, filmmaker Josh Boone announced that he is adapting the novel as a television series with co-writer Owen King.
Reception
Critical reception for the book has been mixed. Ken Tucker of The New York Times wrote: "From The Great and Secret Show, it is clear that Mr. Barker's intention is to force the horror genre to encompass a kind of dread, an existential despair, that it hasn't noticeably evinced until now. This is a tall order, one that this novel, which is skillful and funny but ultimately overwrought, doesn't quite accomplish. But, having announced the intention of writing a trilogy about the Art and its mysteries, he may yet achieve his goal". Author David Foster Wallace criticised the work as "pretentious beyond belief", but commented that the novel was "not without some cool sections". Publishers Weekly criticised the work overall, stating: "Though diverting, the novel is something of a potboiler, and despite its pervasive horrific imagery, it fails even to frighten us--or invite us to suspend disbelief", though Kirkus Reviews called it: one of the most powerful overtly metaphysical novels of recent years."