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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Grim subject matter; Good read, 10 Jan 2005
Top marks to Steven Sherrill for plotting a grim tale of 'what lurks beneath', an examination of the dark underbelly of western society, a darkness that is allowed to fester and intensify in today's atomised society (see Sherrill's characters live among one another, at close quarters, but never really connected). But the horror only fully raises its brutal head when a seismic event (the drowned girl) riddles the facade of Benny's uncomplicated life with cracks - cracks that rapidly deteriorate into the fissures that will tragically undermine and destroy our protagonist.It is at times a grim read, but one that draws you in and horrifies as Benny, to whom we initially warm, drifts into a series of misguided, morally reprehensible and ultimately fatal actions. He is a subtle portrait of an individual set adrift, unable to genuinely connect with those around him, a committmentphobe and voyeur of the highest order (witness the tapes, his relationship with Doodle, and his inability to take decisive action a number of times). What, if anything, lets this book down is the rather ponderous imagery deployed at various points. The bonsai tree and the midget, the juxtaposition of the preacher's daughter to halloween, and the satanic incident of goats and the preacher's daughter, among others, felt a little contrived and unnecessary. The resulting exchanges did not have the authenticity of earlier dialogue. It's a good read, but it certainly does not measure up to the light-handed accomplishment of Sherrill's 'The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break'.
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