[The narrative in The Mangan Inheritance] could easily have become absurd but, although the facts stretch one's credulity beyond the rational breaking point, [Moore] handles them with such a feel for place and such an accuracy of observation that you don't stop to think how far-fetched and silly it all is until it's over and done….

This is not the first time Moore has toyed with the supernatural. He did it in The Great Victorian Collection when he had a man create a real museum of Victoriana by, in effect, focusing his imagination. He has also written about the relation between the new world and the old, most effectively in Catholics, his novella about the abolition of the old tridentine mass. I prefer the second of the two interests, at least in Moore's case. I cannot think of another novelist with the ear and the ability to evoke...