Very once in awhile there is an author who is connected to and praised by writers I hold close to my heart and whose own work looks interesting, but I still ignore them. Then I discover them and end up kicking myself and putting aside other reading projects so I can mainline their work. Brian Evenson is a prime example of such an author. His relentless Last Days is a stark existential noir from hell inspire by Hammett’s equally relentless Red Harvest and the art of Joel-peter Witkin and Odd Nerdrum and more than equals its influences. Evenson writes like a harsher more focused Paul Auster, closer to Beckett and Kafka in effect though. Bizarre, violent, and unsettling and endlessly surprising and wickedly funny, I recommend Last Days to anyone in need something savage and exhilarating.
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