Customer Reviews

The Open Curtain

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Evenson takes us deep into the increasingly demented mind of young Rudd and into the inner workings of the Mormon Church. The passage regarding the marriage of Rudd and Lyndi was especially ghoulish, and, apparently too accurate for many Mormons. Carefully crafted and tautly written, we descend into madness with your Rudd as he unravels and lives out the nightmare of a historical murder that took place in the early 1900s. Very creepy at times, the novel is well worth reading and held the tension through the end.

Evenson's latest novel was given me as a review assignment for a print venue, and I find I must also praise the book here. THE OPEN CURTAIN gave me goosebumps I've never shaken; it brought me terribly close to a razor of a choice -- on the one hand the halting dance of possible human connection, even love, and on the other disgust with our sinful bodies, mere spoiled meat.

The novel's protagonist, Rudd, is half an orphan, the son of a father who killed himself. An ordinary teenage loneliness is thus exacerbated, occasionally to the point of violence, and Rudd's also too bright and imaginative for the constrictions of the Latter Day Saints, his religion, as practiced in the mid-1960s in Provo, Utah. The book's opening chapters throw the boy together with the only companionship he can count on, another teen, Lael or Lyle. This young man may be the son, by another woman, of Rudd's own father. Both maybe-brothers grow obsessed with a controversial Mormon practice, repudiated in their own day, called "blood atonement." According to this notion, old sins are best washed away by spilling new blood.

After that -- as Lael or Lyle becomes more heLL-ish, less an actual person than a diabolic presence -- Rudd's tormented acting-out turns scarier, perhaps murderous. Yet before we're halfway through THE OPEN CURTAIN, the story develops a sunnier track, one parallel to that vicious business. Rudd finds himself drawn together with Lyndi, the college-age survivor of a family that has just been slaughtered.

So this horror show develops into a searing either-or. On one side there's madness, and on the other marriage. Much of the book's second half makes this struggle quite moving, even as its basic elements emerge more clearly: demon Lael versus angel Lyndi.

Evenson has always dealt in shock and brains (see the splendid DARK PROPERTY, in particular), but in this book he works with emotional currency as well. I have a few small reservations about how well he's brought off the exploration of feeling, but I can't fault the attempt, which includes language more direct than before, and a range of reference fittingly middle American. The book's a breakthrough for this author, and well-nigh unique in its embodiment of the fractured heart, at once self-destructive and self-replenishing.

This book made me feel that madness was lurking just on the edge of my life, ready to lunge forward and bite me, or someone I know, with its sharp teeth. It genuinely frightened me. Rudd's private world, where everything is off-kilter or imaginary, is written so effectively that your own world looks a little weird, a little aslant, and you have to shake your head every few pages to clear it. The writing is wonderful, clear and yet complex, and the conception of the novel is incredible.

An absorbing, terrifying, totally addictive experience...but not for the squeamish, or the chick-lit crowd.

As a "descent into madness" thriller, The Open Curtain stands out. Brian Evenson's commitment to detail makes the novel work. By interweaving the facts of an actual 1902 murder committed by the grandson of Brigham Young (perhaps with the assistance of an accomplice) and the modern ritualistic practices of the Mormon religion (some of which, as he notes in an afterward, have recently been abandoned), Evenson charts a credible path for his main character's detachment from reality. He gives that character (Rudd) a fully developed supporting cast: a cold mother; a tolerant friend-turned-wife who finds herself drawn to him despite her recognition of his growing isolation; the wife's judgmental and intrusive aunt; teachers and police officers and religious advisers who observe parts of his disintegrating personality but do nothing about it.

The Open Curtain allows the reader to experience the disjointed perceptions of a mind that increasingly fails to distinguish reality from delusion. It does that quite well. Some ambiguities are left unresolved (is Rudd's friend Lael/Lyle real or imagined?) but that makes sense given that the story is told from the perspective of a mind that doesn't know what's real. The novel falls short of five stars for me only because, giving the disturbing nature of its subject, the writing sometimes seemed to be a bit too low-key, not as vivid as the subject warranted. Still, I was engrossed by the story. I would give the novel 4 1/2 stars if that option were available and would recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers or horror fiction.

It's no surprise to read in the afterword to The Open Curtain that Evenson wrote it as he was leaving the Mormon church; the book is a fairly brutal indictment of the church's relationship with violence, dealing with a long-rumored Mormon sacrament involving the murder of unholy individuals as a means of redemption. And yet, if that's all the book was, there's no way The Open Curtain would have the lingering impact that it does. The story of a troubled young Mormon named Rudd who becomes obsessed with an old murder case within the church, The Open Curtain is as much about the deterioration of one man's sanity as it is the impact of religious secrecy and violence on an unprepared psyche. Evenson does so much here that's brilliant that it's hard to confine this to a short review; his swapping of narrators leaves an unease to Rudd's state of mind that works deeply in the book's favor, and by the time we re-enter his mind, we're unprepared for how far gone he is. Most spectacularly, as Rudd loses more and more of his grip on the world, The Open Curtain becomes more and more unhinged, culminating in a final act whose technical prowess is astonishing and deeply unsettling for reasons a reader should discover for themselves. Evenson's books aren't for those who like easy, clear answers in their horror; this is heady, complex stuff, dealing with intricate themes and a psychology that doesn't lend itself to easy diagnosis. But for those who can take it, The Open Curtain is an unforgettable experience, one whose apocalyptic, religious horrors aren't as easy to forget as the demons and zombies of more classical horror fiction.

Brian Evenson's The Open Curtain is an unusual and disquieting book. The story is told in three parts. In the first, awkward and impressionable high-schooler Rudd Theurer falls under the influence of his illegitimate half-brother Lael. Once under his brother's spell, Rudd begins to act erratically--or perhaps Lael's influence merely coincides with Rudd's descent. We watch as Rudd becomes increasingly divorced from reality, and increasingly fixated on a story he's researched for school, the 1902 murder of a certain Anna Pulitzer by William Hooper Young, Brigham Young's grandson. (The crime is historical, and Evenson includes news reports from the period in his narrative.) Hooper Young's murder was tied up with Mormonism, and Mormon practices are important to Rudd's story as well.

In the second and third parts of the book Rudd's insanity is even more pronounced. He suffers increasingly from blackouts, engaging in actions he is subsequently unable to recall. Much of Evenson's story is told from Rudd's perspective. Because of the gaps in his understanding, we are likewise left in the dark about much of what's happening.

To an extent, because of these lacunae, reading the book is a frustrating experience. We leave the story not completely sure of what was real and what imagined. Nor are we sure to what degree blame for whatever happened should attach to Rudd as opposed to Lael. Reading the book, then, is not exactly a pleasant experience. Yet the author does a good job of suggesting events through the hazy focus of Rudd's point of view. It feels like we're watching a madman's actions from the inside out. It's not fun, but it's an impressive feat.

-- Debra Hamel

One thing that was enjoyable was the tongue-in-cheek humor in the story. Although there might be a serious purpose to this book, or a serious message that we are supposed to take away, there is a significant amount of humor, especially in the first part of the book. One example is on page 13, where Rudd was getting phrases from the Bible stuck in his head. "He would be eating a sandwich or watching TV all the while thinking, Lo verily." (Evenson, 13)
The ending of this book was so different from the beginning that it might have been a different story. The beginning is like many other books, a story about a person and the people he interacts with. The end is a mix of delusions and reality, which are often hard to differentiate between. We are left wondering what really happened, what didn't, and why?

I probably would have rated this book higher had I not just read an excellent thriller with an even more compelling account of a character's descent into madness. (see all of my reviews if you want to know what that is.) This is a good book, and a thriller with a character descending into madness is defintely a great read as far as I'm concerned. I usually like to mix it up from one book to the next, and I failed to make a good choice this time. This one just didn't cut it compared to the book I finished 2 days ago.