par Chaz Mena
•
1 octobre 2024
As I turned the last page in Brian Evenson ‘s, Good Night, Sleep Tight, came to me why the title story in his latest collection is chosen. Throughout the book, the reader (this reader, me) decides whether the numinous triggers its characters’ neuroses, victims -- sometimes told in third person, past, sometimes shared in first, present -- or does the opposite occur: neurosis invites/summons the uncanny? In other words, are individuals' trials with the uncanny reactive or affective? Brian Evenson encourages his characters to explore their fears, providing a comfortable parenthetical escape, a respite in memories. This is useful to readers. Does Brian Evenson invite his readers to laugh at or defang existential obstructions in ‘being’, that is, attending to what is needed at any moment, with laughter? We shouldn’t ask him. It’s reductionist, and takes away the charm of writing: not knowing where a story may take you. To paraphrase poet Paul Muldoon: good poetry/prose comes from above and goes THROUGH the writer, not FROM him/her/they. I found many of the stories, especially "Good Night, Sleep Tight," equally funny as disturbing. That's brilliant. I guffawed when I got to its most telling (betraying?) line: