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from
"Introduction" to Sweet Darkness by T. D. Eliopulos.
There is nothing sweet about Sweet Darkness, the latest
feat from skilled writer and editor Richard Logsdon.
Darkness, a collection of fifteen short stories for the
very mature reader, is an exploration of the world of the
lost and the damned. In fact, in one of the collection’s
sharpest pieces, “In Hell,” the narrator describes
the work’s hero, Sandra, and the antagonist, Father
Harold Blackstone, as individuals “absorbing each
other’s darkness.” And in many respects that
is exactly what each of the characters who inhabit these
stories does. They are people, who are caught up, some by
choice and others by circumstance, in the brutality of devil
worship, pornography, sexual obsession, and sacrifice.
After reading the collection in its entirety, the reader
does not know whom to call first, a psychiatrist, a spiritual
advisor, or a bartender. Logsdon seems to relish sending
his reader into such a creepy tailspin of emotions. But
the careful reader will recover from and see beyond the
stories’ shock. At first glance, these characters
and their worlds are void of all hope, compassion, redemption,
or empathy. Or are they? The author skillfully brings the
lives of these characters, and for that matter the lives
of the reader, to the table. Think, he whispers as we cringe
or dare to look away from the page. Many of the settings
and occupations of these stories are quite real, quite identifiable:
the small towns of the Northwest, the Las Vegas strip, the
museums of Florence, the never-ending two-lane highways
of the West; the strippers, the college professors, the
lonely teenager, the Bible-preaching Pentecostals. Can these
easily recognized people and places be that screwed up?
Yes, these works scream. But why? they also ask.
And with this question lies the psychological intrigue of
Logsdon’s writing. Because of Logsdon’s adept
use of point of view, the reader is constantly questioning
the characters’ sense of reality, often as the characters
question the same. This mind game creates a very uncomfortable
yet engaging tension between characters and reader. In addition
to the already mentioned
“In Hell,” the collections’ strongest
pieces—“Blood Flowing Backwards,”
“A Place Without Angels,” “Freak World,”
and “Dreaming of Botticelli”—explore the
individual’s quest to manage his or her sense of reality.
The characters’ realities knot into confusion as a
result of their failure or unwillingness to define their
existence, to claim their own souls. Ironically, at the
end of each work the reader is not entirely certain if the
characters have won or lost the battle. That’s part
of the charm—and I use this word cautiously here—of
the universe of these characters.
But with this confusion there is also a freaky clarity as
we see in the words of Sarah Gray, the hero of “Blood
Flowing Backwards” and “A Place Without Angels,”
when she confides to her dog Sunny Jim, “Life is one
continuing battle with the powers of darkness…and
like my Momma said, if we just hold on to Jesus, we are
going to win, baby doll, we are going to win.”
+++
The name of the collection is Sweet Darkness. Rich Logsdon
works have appeared in Shadow of the Marquis, Blood Moon
(when Duanna A. was editor), House of Pain, and countless
others.
Sweet Darkness can be found at
http://www.booklocker.com/books/904.html
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