Synopses & Reviews
andldquo;Brilliant...Evenson manages to capture madness with a masterful tone. The specific genius of Fugue State rests in subtlety, in Evensonandrsquo;s ability to maintain suspense, dread and paranoia through utter linguistic control.andrdquo;andmdash;Time Out New York
andldquo;19 satisfying and surreal stories...packed with subtly hilarious sentences.andrdquo;andmdash;Cleveland Plain Dealer
andldquo;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.andrdquo;andmdash;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."andmdash;Kelly Link
Illustrated by graphic novelist Zak Sally, Brian Evensonandrsquo;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 mimeandrsquo;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.
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
"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
"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
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.
Synopsis
Nineteen chilling tales of the terror that lurks within.
Synopsis
Four separate generations of nameless characters struggle for redemption, love, and peace in a lyrically weaved collection of stories.
Synopsis
An anonymous cast spans four generations in the struggle for redemption, love, and peace. An immigrant cobbler sees his son wrongly arrested by a man who shines his shoes. The memory of a boy’s deceased mother is betrayed when his friend use her makeup as gag. A waitress secretly admires a man who atones for his troubled past by refurbishing a house. And a man laments his lost love by tracing her footsteps across the floors of his empty apartment. A storm looms, bringing the stories together across time and place, uniting them all by their common humanity. These intense portraits are packed with intelligent Christian allegory and lyricism that work together to culminate in one bright mosaic picture.
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.
Table of Contents
Elynia Prologue I A Trip to the Graveyard II Footsteps Upstairs III The Church and Military Monuments in the Town IV The Shoe Man V A Picture Found in the Salvation Army VI Man Looks too Long into a Window VII Building Ourselves Devotion VIII Reaching Out to Touch the Old Ramparts IX Consuming Romance (The Hypnotist) X The Already-Criminal XI Time Spent as a Picture upon a Shelf XII An Afternoon Game XIII A Man Buys a House XIV The Waitress and the Secret Box XV A Tendency of Staring at the Storm Drain
Epilogue Other Stories I Rope II Train Platform III The Artist is Human IV Aria Night V Cistern VI The Harbormaster