Down to a Sunless Sea

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readersrespite, December 5, 2008 (view all comments by readersrespite)
The older I get, the more I appreciate the short story format (and no, not just because my attention span is waning, smarty-pants). Not only do I enjoy being able to read a story here and a story there, but I've also come to appreciate the difficulty of writing the short story. It is, in my considered opinion, one of the trickiest genres out there.

One of the of authors who have mastered this art form is Mathias B. Freese. Down to a Sunless Sea is a treasure-trove of fifteen short stories in which Freese captures verbal snapshots within the human brain. In other words, he explores what makes people tick. As a psychotherapist and teacher, the author commands extraordinary insight into the mind. But so do a thousand others in his field. So what makes Down to a Sunless Sea so impressive? It's simple: Freese's ability to present each errant character in an understandable light.

My favorites? Since you ask:

"Little Errands" takes only four pages to perfectly convey what it's like to live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (I know, I know, I ramble on about my book OCD all the time, but this is the real thing.) This poignant vignette takes one small incident -- the mailing of a letter -- and manages to convey the scope of living with the disorder without condecesncion.


In 1987, the tomb of former Argentine President Juan Peron was broken into and the hands removed from the corpse (they were ransomed for $8 million, in case you're wondering why someone would steal a dead person's hands). In "Juan Peron's Hands," Freese delves into the (just a little bit creepy) minds of the graverobber.

Two unclenched hands in a back street, no self, no name, no one, a reminder of us all. Two hands against a Magritte sky.
"Juan Peron's Hands," by Mathias B. Freese

Creepy the story may be, but prose like this is certainly beautiful to read.

"Alabaster" is the touching story of an elderly Polish concentration camp survivor who befriends a young boy. The boy, of course, knows nothing of the evil perpetuated during the War. His innocence, however, lies in stark contrast to the irreperable damage done to the old woman in the camps. The story is a haunting snapshot of a destroyed life. The woman survived, but at what cost to the psyche?

"Billy's Mirrored Wall" was perhaps the most resonant story in the collection. A man reflects on the importance of a seemingly innocuous event in his childhood. Coming from a solid blue-collar background, he remembers being vaguely impressed (in a twelve-year-old-boy, off-hand sort of way) after being invited over to a upper-middle class friend's home. The modern dishwasher, carpet instead of linoleum, but especially a wall covered in mirrors were all things he was unused to seeing in a home.

Boys being boys (even in the 1950's), his interest was passing at best. Just enough to mention it off-handedly to his own mother who, to his surprise, took great umbrage to the entire event. Her hurt at not being able to provide her own son with such minor luxuries morphs into anger and while the matter is quickly dropped, it is an event that her son never forgets. In fact, it incorporates itself into his adult life-view.
What Ma has done is to put something into me of her own design, unwillingly, and here I am left to master it, or make sense of it - really to metabolize it.
"Billy's Mirrored Wall," by Mathias B. Freese
The story begs the question of any parent: how much do we unwittingly damage our children in such passing moments?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories and Down to a Sunless Sea has earned a permanent spot on my bookshelf.

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judithkaye, February 21, 2008 (view all comments by judithkaye)
Mathias Freese has been a clinical social worker and psychotherapist for twenty five years. By his own admission, he has a dark view of humanity, but has kept a wry sense of humor. He shows understanding and compassion to the deviant and damaged in these fifteen short stories which are collected in his book DOWN TO A SUNLESS SEA.

Jane Holt, MLA, wrote in the book’s foreword “To be understood-to be felt- is the author’s purpose in this collection of short stories as in all of his writings because it is his purpose in his relationships with others and the world at large.”

The stories are all different and there are no happy endings or sense of closure. “I’ll make it, I think” is based on Freese’s crippled cousin. “For a While, Here, In this Moment” was written for his daughter showing his understanding of her physical agony and despair.

Dark humor shows in “The Chatham Bear” and “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Father Was a Nazi.” Chatham Bear was based on actual events while Arnold’s Father was written in 1991, before he became Governor of California.

“Alabaster” is a about a concentration camp survivor, and “Juan Peron’s Hands” is about a psychotic and how he has regained himself. “Little Errands” was scary; it was easy to see how a person can become neurotic. “Echo” ends with “What a lethally fascinating if not insular experience it must be to value one’s own self above all others and not fully realize that narcissistic attraction for most of one’s life.” “Young Man” had emotionally died a long time before his actual death “Nicholas,” who is in high-school, is a commentary about our educational system.

“Billy’s Mirrored Wall” shows how easy is for parents to instill their dysfunctional behavior in children. Another in this vein is “Mortise and Tenon”, which make you wonder if this is another serial killer in the making. “Unanswerable” uses a lesson from a father to a son to illustrate the unanswerable – what ignites human beings to hate feverishly, kill wantonly in huge numbers, and revel in genocide and final solutions.

Each of these short stories ignited in me despair, or pity, or anger. I look on these characters and feel compassion and understanding, while being a little repulsed of them or their situation. Regardless, each leads to reflective thought and a bit more insight into me.

DOWN TO A SUNLESS SEA is a great collection of dark, offbeat stories by the gifted and award winning author, Mathias B. Freese. While this might not be everyone’s type of read, for those of you that like it or want to expand your reading, I highly recommend it.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9781587367335

Author:

Freese, Mathias B.

Publisher:

Wheatmark

Subject:

Short Stories (single author)

Subject:

Literature-A to Z

Publication Date:

20071131

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Language:

English

Pages:

148

Dimensions:

8.00x5.00x.34 in. .37 lbs.