Though engaging, “˜In the Gloaming’ often unsettles
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 1, 2001 9:00 p.m.
BOOK INFORMATION Â
Title: In the Gloaming
Author: Alice Elliott Dark
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Price: $12.50
Pages: 286
By Michael Rosen-Molina
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With a title like “In the Gloaming,” Alice Elliott
Dark’s latest collection of stories sounds more like the work
of a folklorist, compiling traditional folk ballads, than that of a
prize-winning fiction writer.
Nevertheless, “In the Gloaming” displays the same
wit and warmth that has distinguished Dark’s previous work,
which has won her placement in the anthologies “The Best
American Short Stories” and “The Best American Short
Stories of the Century.”
Dark probes the depths of the human psyche in “In the
Gloaming.” Frequently disturbing and always interesting, all
of the stories in Dark’s collection deal with very human
emotions. While many authors are content to skim the surface, never
truly investigating what actually makes their characters tick,
Dark’s stories are all strongly character-driven. Ultimately,
it is the strong characterizations that bring these simple fables
to life.
The title story is especially touching, telling the tale of a
mother and her dying son. The story begins as Laird, afflicted with
an unnamed terminal illness, moves back in with his emotionally
distant parents. His father, Martin, avoids any uncomfortable
confrontations with his increasingly helpless son, but Janet, his
mother, sees the move as an opportunity to once again get to know
the son she lost years ago.
At first, she has little success connecting with Laird. He only
opens up to her in the evening, during the mysterious purple
twilight of the day called the “gloaming.” During this
nebulous, liminal time, Laird and Janet can talk honestly, without
masks.
“In the Gloaming” is a sad, emotionally gripping
story that avoids sliding into maudlin sentimentality. Dark does
not try to present Laird as a heroic martyr, but as an ordinary,
flawed human being. One of Dark’s greatest strengths as a
writer is that she refuses to see the world as a simple dichotomy
of good and evil; her characters all represent various shades of
gray.
Another refreshing change of pace is that Dark does not
politicize her tale. Many authors use terminal illness stories to
make broad, sweeping generalizations about the state of the world.
Dark, on the other hand, keeps the scope of her story small,
concentrating on the human dimension.
The second story, “Dreadful Language,” works
primarily because it presents a scenario familiar to so many
readers. Franny, the main character, disapproves of her
mother’s friendship with Lena, a charming, flirtatious
neighbor whom Frannie believes is a bad influence.
Lena is such a real character, an irritating coquette, that it
is difficult to believe that Dark did not pluck her directly from
her own life experience.
At the same time, it is hard to read more than one of
Dark’s stories in a single sitting. Her dense prose weighs
down on the senses and has a tendency to send the more sensitive
reader into a slowly deepening depression. Her fascinating
characters and vivid descriptions will keep her reader’s
interest engaged for chapters at a time, and it is only afterwards
that one suddenly feels the effects of Dark’s more dismal
stories.
“The Jungle Lodge,” another tale, is perhaps the
crowning achievement of the collection, detailing the adventures of
two sisters on a tourist expedition down the Amazon river. This
story is especially noteworthy for its intense descriptions of the
surrounding jungle as an overwhelming wall of green, ready to surge
forth and swallow the flimsy hotel where the sisters are
staying.
The claustrophobic ambience adds to the sense of mounting
paranoia as elder sister Abby slowly comes to suspect that her
sister is leading a secret double life.
The tropical night, deep and mysterious, silent but for the wind
and the rain, dark but for the occasional glitter of the wicked
eyes of a lazy crocodile, provides the perfect backdrop to this
unsettling tale of family secrets.
Dark’s talent for simultaneously disturbing and intriguing
readers has never been more obvious. Her unsettling language makes
it difficult to put “In the Gloaming” down, no matter
how much one might want to.
