Windeye Stories

Brian Evenson, 1966-

Book - 2012

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Subjects
Genres
Short stories
Published
Minneapolis : Coffee House Press 2012.
Language
English
Main Author
Brian Evenson, 1966- (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
188 p. ; 23 cm
ISBN
9781566892988
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Evenson's short fiction has received many awards, and the title story of this collection was an O. Henry Award winner. His style, described as literary horror, varies with the nature of the story and is sometimes straightforward, especially in very short stories, but more often ornate, almost archaic in tone. All the stories in this collection are hard-edged, tinged with emotional or physical violence and capped by shock or outright horror. Characterized by building suspense and dread, these tales often have a folkloric feel far removed from the commonplace. Recurrent themes include disappearance, murder, and paranoia based on more than a pinch of reality. In the title story, a boy watches his sister disappear only to be told he never had a sister an event that shadows his subsequent life. Dapplegrim tells the story of the youngest boy of a family with 12 children, who, leaving home to find his fortune, finds instead the misfortune of a life controlled by the whims of a murderous horse. While this collection will appeal to short-fiction readers, the real audience for these stories is horror fans.--Loughran, Ellen Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Both smartly referential and admirably distinct in voice, this collection of literary horror stories is also plagued by unevenness. The shades of Poe, Lovecraft, and the brothers Grimm are palpable, inflecting stories like "Dapplegrim," about a boy and the supernaturally powerful horse he inherits, or "Tapadera," a gruesomely literal "Tell-Tale Heart." Chilling imagery-from the mysterious, possibly malevolent house in the title story to the pagan cave world of "Grottor"-bores under the skin and stays there. These are stories of madness told from the inside, and they often read like dreams; logic and time dissolve as the world distorts and narrows. The collection's distracting inconsistency is forgivable, maybe even preferable, when it brings shifts in tone, from gothic to Hitchcockian, or fairy-tale to ghost story. But there are too often bewildering leaps and too many stories of lesser quality, such as the baffling "Bon Scott: The Choir Years," in which a music journalist discovers the AC/DC singer's Mormon leanings. Agent: Matt McGowan, Frances Goldin Literary Agency. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved