The Open Curtain

by Brian Evenson

Overview

"There is not a more intense, prolific, or apocalyptic writer of fiction in America than Brian Evenson."—George Saunders

"A contemporary gothic tale about the apocalyptic connection between religion and violence."—Publishers Weekly

When Rudd, a troubled teenager, embarks on a school research project, he runs across the secret Mormon ritual of blood sacrifice, and its role in a 1902 murder committed by the grandson of Brigham Young. Along with his newly discovered half-brother, Rudd becomes swept up in the psychological and atavistic effects of this violent, antique ritual.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566894173
Publisher:	Coffee House Press
Publication date:	02/09/2016
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Brian Evenson: Praised by Peter Straub for going furthest out on the sheerest, least sheltered narrative precipice, Brian Evenson is the author of ten books of fiction. He has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the World Fantasy Award and the winner of the International Horror Guild Award, the American Library Association s award for Best Horror Novel, and one of "Time Out New York" s top books. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and three O. Henry Prizes, Evenson lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he directs Brown University s Literary Arts Program.
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Table of Contents

Part I: Rudd, Parsed
Part II: Lyndi, Adrift
Part III: Hooper, Amuck

Editorial Reviews

"No matter what book of Evenson's we're talking about, a reader might indeed feel like something had been inflicted upon him, after spending time inside Evenson's books, which are so frequently violent and disorienting, destablizing norms of behavior just as they destabilize identity, place, and memory."—Believer Logger

“This is one of the bravest, most searching novels I know.”—The Week


"No matter what book of Evenson's we're talking about, a reader might indeed feel like something had been inflicted upon him, after spending time inside Evenson's books, which are so frequently violent and disorienting, destablizing norms of behavior just as they destabilize identity, place, and memory."—Believer Logger

“This is one of the bravest, most searching novels I know.”—The Week

From the Publisher

Obsessed with both discoveries, Rudd finds himself on the road to committing murder himself. In doing so, he suffers injuries, and these lead to his being considered one of the victims. Rudd plays along, and as the action progresses, Evenson compellingly spells out what it means to be a truly lost soul.
— The Washington Post

Rosemary Herbert

Undercurrents of Mormon belief carry a teenage boy toward madness and murder in a novel bound to distress believers. Non-Mormons, on the other hand, may feel confused and alienated by the sectarian tensions chronicled in this lugubrious tale of a religion-fueled journey into madness. Forced to resign from Brigham Young University after the publication of his debut (Altmann's Tongue, 1994), excommunicated from the church at his own request in 2000, the gore-inclined Evenson can be presumed to know his Mormon business, which figures heavily in this story. Going through his deceased father's correspondence, Utah high-schooler Rudd discovers that he has a half-brother named Lael Korth somewhere in the state. Rudd's distinctly unpleasant and unloving mother denies any such person exists, but the friendless kid tracks down the Korths in a nearby community and builds a relationship with Lael, who turns out to be something of a sociopath. Lael and Rudd are both interested in blood atonement, an unacknowledged and violent tenet of the early Mormons that may have figured in the suicide of the boys' father. Manipulated by the creepy Lael, Rudd eventually finds himself participating in his father's exhumation and after that in the murder of a family of campers unlucky enough to cross the boys' path at the wrong time. Found senseless and close to death near the victims, Rudd remembers nothing of the ritualistic slaughter. The family's only surviving member, a girl slightly older than Rudd, disastrously drifts into a close relationship with the ever-more-deeply disturbed boy. A very serious, very cold look at the issue of violence in Mormon history and its pernicious effect on a modern life.

Kirkus Reviews