The latest issue of Tin House is focused around “The Mysterious.” It has a story about Africa’s Johannesburg, one of the most violent cities in the world, a story about immortality elixirs, an interview with Peter Straub, and some gruesome and creepy fiction.
I loved Luis Alberto Urrea’s short story, “Chametla.” It tells of two soldiers, one who is dying and the other who is watching the man dying. As Guerrero fades from life, Garcia tries to bandage his head wound without much success. Then, something very strange begins to happen:
Garcia bent down, but then had to leap back because a small locomotive rushed out of Guerrero’s wound. It fell out of the wound, pulling a coal car and several small cattle cars as if it were falling off a miniscule bridge in some rail disaster. The soft train fell upon the ground and glistened, puffing like a fish. Casan pounced on it and took it in his mouth, shaking it once and gulping it down.
As Garcia continues to watch the man die, he sees all of Guerrero’s memories flow out of his head, miniature and magical, but solid. I loved this imagery, it comes across as unique and beautiful, as well as troubling.
Peter Straub’s interview was both interesting and inspiring. Straub, author of such scary stories as A Dark Matter, Ghost Story, and Shadowland talked about writing horror stories, his own dark childhood, and how he’s trying to show people how crime/horror stories can be great works of fiction.
One thing Straub said in this interview that caught my attention was when he was talking about what makes things scary. He said, “What would be frightening about me jumping out of the bush wearing a pig mask is not the sudden surprise, but that the ordinary world had split open.” I love the idea of the “ordinary world splitting open” as a metaphor for writing horror or any other type of fiction.
Richard Poplak wrote an essay about “The Suitcase Murder,” a murder that “stunned” South Africa, specifically the scary town of Johannesburg. According to Poplak, “…Johannesburg has produced 1.3 serial killers for every decade of its history, with a cumulative tally of about 450.” That’s a lot of serial killers.
But “The Suitcase Murder” was just a single act of violence that for some reason scared the town more than anything had in a long time. One day a suitcase was found on the shore filled with a woman’s chopped up body parts (sans head).
Poplak describes the story of “The Suitcase Murder” in gruesome but provocative detail adding his insight into the social and economic aspects of the town and the effect of this murder on its people.
Another piece of fiction, “Then,” by Kenneth Calhoun is worth noting as well. The story wasn’t the best that I have read but Calhoun has done something unique here with time traveling. In his story each paragraph is related to a couple and their baby, but the order is all screwed up. In one paragraph the couple are sitting on the couch with the baby, in the next she’s pregnant with the baby, in the next they can’t find the baby. This goes on (a little too long) until the end of the story where cops get involved and the story, which until then had been just confusing and a little dark, becomes very dark and all too clear.
These were my favorite parts of this issue Tin House, but it was a fantastic read as a whole which included many diverse elements under the “mysterious” umbrella.
Bent Shelf Book Reviews 