Nocturnal Products

[bendk]

I finally got around to reading this collection, and I enjoyed the stories very much. Solitary, contemplative, bleak, and atmospheric, Eddie Angerhuber writes tales of urban horror akin to Ligotti. I agree with TL that "Rinaldini's Hands" is one of the best. I also noticed the influence of Thomas Owen (that Ligotti mentioned in his blurb) in another one of my favorites, but I won't say which one. Brief with no spoilers.



Nocturnal Products

Rainfall Books 2002
Paperback: 131 pages
Front cover and six interior illustrations by Thomas Wagner



" In Monika Angerhuber's stories, one can hear the true voice of horror - not simply as a literary genre or a specialized emotion provoked by certain types of art, but as the language of that set of inescapable experiences which comprise the nightmare of being alive. This publication of the author's "nocturnal products" in English - translated, amazingly, by Angerhuber herself - will allow a new audience to hear this voice and to be reminded, as we rarely are, why Horror needed to emerge as a separate tongue among the babel that makes up the history of literary expression. Angerhuber's stories have their closest affinities, quite naturally, to the more meditative and intimate prose works of such European writers as Stefan Grabinski, Dino Buzzati, and Thomas Owen, figures whose writings form a tradition of poetic horror that looks back to the oneiric landscape of Poe and at the same time looks ahead to even darker and more delirious territories that will require who knows what combination of words and silence to describe. "Rinaldini's Hands" is especially recommended as an absolute gem of a tale."

- Thomas Ligotti



The Dedication Page reads:

To Tom
I'd like to thank John B. Ford, Thomas Wagner and Mark Samuels for their kind help. Without their support this book would not have been possible.
Eddie M. Angerhuber.



Contents


Section One: Administrative Nightmares

The Nocturnal Product
The Heart Of Darkness

Section Two: The Grey Lake Visions

The Anankastic Syndrome
The Other Staircase
The Hierophant Of Dreams

Section Three: The Second Face Of Town

Rinaldini's Hands
The Blue Star
Solo For The Queen
Mrs Drasic's Farewell Party
(Written with John B. Ford)
Alchemy Of The Abyss
Hymn To The Night
Prayers To The Void
The Colours Of Sounds




You can view a longer review with a small front cover illustration at the below link, but be careful because I did not read all of it and it may contain spoilers.

http://www.members.tripod.com/brutaldreamer/reviews/nocturnal.html