Dogs in the Moonlight
July 28th, 2007by Jay Lake
ISBN: 1930997574
I’ll be honest, until I saw this book in a small bookstore in Salem, I’d never heard of Jay Lake. I decided to buy it after reading Ray Vukcevich’s (Meet Me in the Moon Room) introduction, which starts off: “The stories in this volume are grouped under the headings Ghosts, Angels, Gods, and Aliens, but they are all about Texas.”
Lake writes twisted, disturbing, occasionally funny and always uncomfortable stories. Which is to say, I’m really glad I’ve heard of him now.
These stories can be vicious, dark, and fascinating in that way where they really shouldn’t be believable but absolutely are. They are also a bit hard to describe, because reading is believing. Imagine George Saunders in Texas with more gore, or Kelly Link’s characters if they were angrier and meaner. If you have a low tolerance for the odd, freakish and sometimes gross, you probably won’t be able to finish this slim volume and/or it will give you nightmares, so skip it. On the other hand, if this sounds like your cuppa, I highly recommend it — you’ll love it.
