By JAMES CHAMPAGNE (Eibonvale Press; 2019)
The always-eclectic Eibonvale Press is, unsurprisingly, the source for this pleasingly eccentric horror novella. Set in a convincingly delineated East Coast hipster milieu (sample sentence: “The barista was hot, in a ‘Miley Cyrus wearing a red ‘make America gay again’ baseball hat’ kind of way”), it’s a depiction of old school decadence updated, quite ably, to the 21st Century.
The narrator is Hamsa Cauldron, a literarily inclined 19-year-old lesbian based in New England. While taking classes at a local college she gets a job as a bartender, and during one of her shifts meets Hector Teufel, a retired horror novelist. The two have a most interesting conversation in which he reveals that he was once a great success due to dabbles in mysticism, resulting in the creation of a being whose nature is a great help to Teufel’s career but not his artistic integrity—leading him to an action that bequeaths this book’s title, as apparently “All writers are fairy slayers and murderers of the imagination.” Hamsa’s parting thought: “What a weirdo.”
Things take an unexpected turn when Hamsa and Teufel meet again several months later. Said meeting takes place in a bookstore where Teufel is signing his new book, a Christian novel. Clearly he’s re-engaged with his muse, but it’s now sporting an entirely new guise.
In keeping with the hipster vibe the narrator is careful to record whatever songs happen to be playing at any given time, with Blondie, Peter Gabriel, Fleetwood Mack and numerous other pop music icons name checked. Literary references also abound, including THE NIGHT LAND, Bret Easton Ellis, Alan Moore, Marquis de Sade, H.P. Lovecraft, BRAVE NEW WORLD and, most prominently, FAUST, whose themes permeate the tale.
THE MAN WHO MURDERED HIS MUSE won’t change the world, and could possibly have stood to be a bit longer (the ending is a tad abrupt), but taken on its own terms it’s an enormously clever and well-wrought little book. It may well be the ultimate example of a neo-decadent tale, set in a very up-to-the-minute environ but with a distinctly old world flavor.