Ron's Reviews > The Shrinking Man

Scott Carey ran from the giant black spider. So large was this bulbous black egg of a monster, scrambling upon seven towering legs, it matched Scott's own height. Across the endless sands he raced, to the cliff's edge, to just slip between the two giant cans, before leaping across a chasm to the orange ledge that led to more orange slopes forever down and down to the canyon floor. He raced on past the still, red, coiled serpent toward the great log pile ahead, and a possible small space in which he could find safety.

”The huge red serpent was a garden hose coiled on the floor; the immense orange structure was a stack of two wooden lawn chairs; the tank-like cans were used paint cans; and the spider was a black widow.”

This was Scott's existence, and the last week of his life. In six days he would be gone. By then, shrunk to a size so minute, he would blink out this world. A thousand times over the last year and one-half, he thought about this point of time. As he looks back, 68”, 64”, 48”, smaller, ever smaller with each passing day. Examinations by medical teams, until he could stand it no more. To the job he could not hold, a wife he could no longer provide for, and the 6 year old child he would soon look up to in physical stature. It was all so unfair. How many moments did he think of simply putting an end to it? Simply leap from the face of the cliff, or finally let the spider have him, only to turn away from those thoughts in the sake of hope, or an unknown reasoning inside him. He will live out another day then, in the cellar below the house that he once walked. Try for one more.

I don't know if you've seen the films “The Incredible Shrinking Man”, or “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” (which came much later), and then “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. The first of these was based on this novel by Matheson. I never saw it, and I believe it is strictly a Sci-Fi adaptation. I did see the other two, when young. These two films can be labeled comedies, but were completely fascinating in how they “sized” the usually normal, everyday objects of our world. A broom, a blade of grass, or an insect that was once quite harmless. With Matheson's novel it is the same, though not at all a comedy. His descriptions of Scott's ever-changing world are also captivating. Because of his size, the cellar has become a prison. For now, finding food and water is his extant.

At times, the story gets caught up in some weird sexual desires and self pity, but I won't go lower than 4 stars. The ideas, and some fabulously illustrative scenes were just too good.