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Contributors | November 10, 2009

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Without knowing it, I'd always had two unspoken arrangements with the world. The first was that I would not trouble it with unpleasant conversation... Continue »
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Fugue State

by Brian Evenson

Fugue State Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Illustrated by graphic novelist Zak Sally, Brian Evenson's hallucinatory and darkly comic stories of paranoia, pursuit, sensory deprivation, amnesia, and retribution rattle the cages of the psyche and peer into the gaping moral chasm that opens when we become estranged from ourselves. From sadistic bosses with secret fears to a woman trapped in a mime's imaginary box, and from a post-apocalyptic misidentified Messiah to unwitting portraitists of the dead, the mind-bending world of this modern-day Edgar Allan Poe exposes the horror contained within our daily lives.

Review:

"Evenson (The Open Curtain) accesses dark, unusual facets of human frailty, powerlessness and fear in this collection, haunted by themes of amnesia, aphasia and creeping infirmity. Hecker, the protagonist of O'Henry Prize — winner 'Mudder Tongue,' can't control which words he says and is incapable of expressing even the nature of the problem to his daughter, who thinks he just needs to get out more. A similar terror informs the title story, in which a plague of amnesia afflicts the area where Arnaud lives. The stricken forget their own names, bleed from the eyes and mouth, then lapse into unconsciousness and death. Arnaud catches the illness, and as he makes his way through a landscape of quarantined apartments, looters and corpses, he interacts with the dead and soon-to-be-dead in an effort to try to remember what he is trying to accomplish. Other ailments make cameos — blindness in 'Helpful,' insomnia in 'Dread' — and the thematic anxiety is heightened by graphic novelist Sally's foreboding black and white line illustrations. This intense, nightmarish collection captures the fear of night terrors, when one wakes in the middle of the night, unable to move. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Brian Evenson is one of the treasures of American story writing, a true successor both to the generation of Coover, Barthelme, Hawkes and Co., but also to Edgar Allan Poe." Jonathan Lethem

Review:

"Brilliant...Evenson manages to capture madness with a masterful tone. The specific genius of Fugue State rests in subtlety, in Evenson's ability to maintain suspense, dread and paranoia through utter linguistic control." Time Out New York

Review:

"19 satisfying and surreal stories...packed with subtly hilarious sentences." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Review:

"The stories in this collection will thrill, unsettle, and captivate. Like lanterns in dark rooms, paper boats carried down on subterranean waters, they lead the reader into mysterious and perilous territory. Read at your own risk." Kelly Link

Synopsis:

Brilliant...Evenson manages to capture madness with a masterful tone. The specific genius of Fugue State rests in subtlety, in Evenson's ability to maintain suspense, dread and paranoia through utter linguistic control.--Time Out New York 19 satisfying and surreal stories...packed with subtly hilarious sentences.--Cleveland Plain Dealer Brian Evenson is one of the treasures of American story writing, a true successor both to the generation of Coover, Barthelme, Hawkes and Co., but also to Edgar Allan Poe.--Jonathan Lethem The stories in this collection will thrill, unsettle, and captivate. Like lanterns in dark rooms, paper boats carried down on subterranean waters, they lead the reader into mysterious and perilous territory. Read at your own risk.--Kelly Link

Illustrated by graphic novelist Zak Sally, Brian Evenson's hallucinatory and darkly comic stories of paranoia, pursuit, sensory deprivation, amnesia, and retribution rattle the cages of the psyche and peer into the gaping moral chasm that opens when we become estranged from ourselves. From sadistic bosses with secret fears to a woman trapped in a mime's imaginary box, and from a post-apocalyptic misidentified Messiah to unwitting portraitists of the dead, the mind-bending world of this modern-day Edgar Allan Poe exposes the horror contained within our daily lives.

Brian Evenson is the author of the Edgar and International Horror Guild award-nominated novel The Open Curtain. Visit his website at www.brianevenson.com.

About the Author

Praised by Peter Straub for going "furthest out on the sheerest, least sheltered narrative precipice," Brian Evenson is the author of eight previous books of fiction, including the Edgar Award-nominated novel The Open Curtain and the International Horror Guild Award-winning collection, The Wavering Knife. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he directs Brown University's Literary Arts Program.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Booleyn, August 9, 2009 (view all comments by Booleyn)
I make a left turn on Broadway; I don't care what they say; technically it wasn't even a latte, but I ordered it and I'm going to drink it; milk or no milk, I choose no milk so I can see when they drop the grounds in my cup, stomach cancer these days; sitting at Johns, sipping a tall one in half the cup 'cause there's no milk, you know? But I read the book and I liked it.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781566892254
Author:
Evenson, Brian
Publisher:
Coffee House Press
Illustrator:
Sally, Zak
Author:
Sally, Zak
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Publication Date:
July 2009
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
205
Dimensions:
8.90x5.90x.70 in. .70 lbs.

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