Rucker, Lynda - Now It’s Dark
I recall reading Rucker’s previous You’ll Know When You Get There a few months after publication. A worthwhile collection that I enjoyed, it put Rucker on my radar as someone to keep an eye out for.
That book did not prepare me for this set.
Throughout, the tone is more seasoned, wearied, characters written as resigned or fatalistic.
Sylvia accompanies John to the cabin campground he has been visiting since childhood. As a couple, they are spent. Sylvia sidesteps confrontations and arguments, while John is bossy, argumentative, inattentive. Why does she – why do people – endure such martinets? In “The Dying Season” Sylvia asks herself just that, before recognizing the trap.
Searching the fringes led to disappearance. Adam liked the broken lands. Places between civilization, battered rubble and empty wastes. As if there was a rent in the fabric there. After Adam goes missing, his sister contacts a friend in “The Other Side” and they try to track his steps.
“Knots” will resonate with those who have slipped into the unequal relationship. One where identity dwindles, along with one’s ability to make decisions, even simple decisions such as what to wear, to eat, where to go for a walk.
David encounters Anna on the train in Romania. Just as well, since he has lost his passport, his money, and she offers to “fix things” with Customs officials. From that point onward, in “The Vestige” David becomes the proverbial stranger in a strange land.
Anyone who has traveled on their own, not part of a group, in the foreign land, ignorant of the language, without reservations, without phone, will relate. And yes, that is exactly how I travel.
Into “The Unknown Chambers” Catherine goes, questing for the forgotten pulp writer. Probably best left forgotten. This one is Lovecraft territory.
I’m leaving the rest for fresh discoveries. Rest assured, this is a carefully chosen and arranged collection, the stories building in intensity and emotional impact.
Swan River titles do not stay in print forever.