Customer Reviews

Walk in Shadows

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If short stories are one of your favorite guilty pleasures you owe it to yourself to check out the first collection by Nicholas Kaufmann. And ignore the phrase "first collection" if it suggests a lack of depth and maturity, Kaufmann's work spans several countries expertly using setting to reflect themes and his writing touches on topics from McCarthyism to modern urban angst in a way that reflects each era he selects. He entertains Baby Boomers and their children with equal ease.

"The Jew of Prague" alone makes this book worth reading. Like all the stories in this collection, it's complexity and depth are the subtext of a compelling tale. The reader constantly wants to know what happens next.

Most of these stories have (unfortunately) appeared previously in small niche markets cheating Kaufmann out of the wide readership his works deserve.

Despite what some reviewers would have you think, it's really not very often that a debut fiction collection comes along that trumpets an exciting new talent (at least new to me). I've probably only read three so far in my life. The first was Soft and Others by F. Paul Wilson, then more recently there was Douglas Clegg's The Nightmare Chronicles. Now, add Nicholas Kaufmann to that list. With Walk in Shadows, he shows a sure hand at horror, from the psychological profile ("Not That Kind of Story") to the kinetic escape (aptly titled "Go!").

There are several highlights in Kaufmann's debut collection (culled from several magazines and anthologies of which mainstream readers have likely never heard), beginning with "The Jew of Prague." This story starts out as a simple jewel heist and turns into something else. The atmosphere is the strongest point of this story and Kaufmann layers it on with gusto. Similarly, "VIP Room" is the most disturbingly sexy story I've read since Dan Simmons' "Dying in Bangkok" (as published in Lovedeath) and that is mostly due to Kaufmann's skill at setting the scene properly.

Unlike many authors, who seem to tread similar ground over and over, Kaufmann doesn't write the same kind of story (although many of them take place in his Quick City); each has a different tone -- and, surprisingly often, a different voice -- from the preceding one. This allows him to excel as the first-person narrator, since his "author's voice" is completely absorbed into the character (one prime example is with "Better Off with the Blues").

The only story in Walk in Shadows that shows its obvious origins in a themed anthology (a tribute to Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers), "With Its Sleeves Rolled," is a weaker entry, although it does manage to achieve the unthinkable: making Senator Joseph McCarthy a sympathetic character and causing the reader to think of Communism in a new way. Kaufmann's characters aren't always the nicest people (like the assassin in "The Dead Stay Dead"), but he manages to make them easy to identify with. Even the gang members in "Street Cred" -- which takes hazing to a new low, adding zombies to the equation, with complete believability -- are somehow familiar enough to elicit empathy.

"Voir Dire" is original to this collection and is another highlight. I read it prior to my own jury duty and it gets the details right, but it's really about fear: the universal fear of being found out, because everyone has a secret they wouldn't like discovered, however small. I've also ridden in a taxi in New York, but luckily it was nothing like "Hail" (a double entendre dealing with taxis and the weather). I must admit I didn't care for the ending, but I was willingly carried along up until then. Only "La Bete est Morte" was what I would call mediocre, and that only because the "surprise" was entirely predictable (in fact, I hadn't realized it was a surprise until it was revealed) and, without that, there was little remaining. This is a small complaint because the story reads so well that it almost doesn't matter.

But all of the stories in Walk in Shadows are great reading. The only piece I actually regret reading is not even Kaufmann's doing; that honor goes to Brian A. Hopkins' rambling introduction, in which he talks about himself for several pages, saving only a few paragraphs for praising Kaufmann. Aficionados of new voices in horror would do well to pick up a copy. It is filled with imagination and natural storytelling ability.

Nicholas Kaufmann's book of eleven stories is the best kind of horror short fiction. Kaufmann doesn't stint on violence of the realistic or supernatural kind: "Street Cred" is about brutal gang members and their involvement with "dirtwalkers," while "The Dead Stay Dead" is about a hit man's encounter with a female victim. But his stories are frightening in the best way -- through the unexpected, yet completely realistic turns his characters take. That it's Kaufmann's first collection is surprising: confident in his use of genres, locations and character types, he's a skillful entertainer.

Check out Nick Kaufmann's collection to have your wits handed to you on a platter, carefully removed from you by his scintillating prose.

When I read this book I wasn't able to understand it all the way. I had to ask my mom what some of the big words meant like the word "necrophelia" and the word "corpulent." But, after she told me what they meant I started to like it some. Then, my friends and I got together and acted out a few of the stories in my room.

After that I realized how brilliant this book really was. Reading it is like having a demon stab you down there with a corn cob holder. I know because it happened to me and I read this book! Talk about embarassing. Not the book.

My favorite story is the one where Ronald McDonald decides to make all his hamburgers from fat people. He goes to the casting call for one of those "Sweating to the Oldies" videos with a big truck and a cattle prod. The funniest joke is when he figures out how many quarter pounders he can make by dividing a fat guy's weight by four.

That was the best.

This is a very helpful book if you want to learn the trade of purse-snatching or if you've been a victim of petty theft. Walk softly in the shadows and carry a very big scissors. Dumb broads are always walking in the shadows with a big bag swinging off their shoulders. According to Mr. Kaufman, he's snatched more than 7,453 purses, mostly old ladies and cripples-hey, I'm not knocking him, I'm just saying. Looking forward to the sequel, "A Week In The Slammer," coming soon to a book store near you.

Walk in Shadows
by Nicholas Kaufmann,

"It was akin to having the hiccoughs and vomiting at the same time". (copyrite 1988 BS).
A few slops got smacked up the nostril leading to convulsions. I sneezed, rocketing the thumbtack out of my nose. A walk in the shadows, and then the likely stumble squishing the snail in the eye. Talk about blurred vision.
Upon seeing the title I thought it was a Charm(ed)ing title. No safe little morsels here. You ever get a lacrosse stick across the forehead? Yeah, me too; that is what these shadows are hiding.
Read 'em and weep ... er ... the shadows, that is, ... I have been summoned.

Brad (Author of Andy)