“Last Days” by Brian Evenson

Last Days

By Brian Evenson
2009
200 pages. Audio: 6 hours and 17 minutes
Fiction

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This is one of those books for which you have to introduce the author before you can do justice to the book. Brian Evanson was a Mormon (emphasis is on the “was”). He was faithful to his church and extremely engaged. But then the church decided that his writing, which was given to violence and depravity, was unacceptable. For a time he taught at BYU, but a student complained about one of his stories. There followed a long period of tension with the church and bureaucratic maneuvering, and eventually the church asked him to show his good faith by ceasing to write. And of course that was the beginning of the end of their relationship.

Which brings me to the book. Last Days has the form of a detective story, but really it’s a horror story. And a religious horror story at that. I don't mind telling you that of all the books I've ever read this one might be the creepiest. And this from a person who has spent much of his life trying to find the perfectly creepy story.

The book is built around a passage of Scripture, Matt. 5:29-30, which he quotes in the King James Version on the first page: “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. . . . And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee…” Can you see where this is going?

And so we have our fearless detective who gets involved with a religious cult that takes the above passage literally. That's right. We have a religious group into self-mutilation. But that's not the half of it. There are a variety of questions that must be answered in such a cult. Who has the greatest religious authority? Well, it seems it ought to be the person who has cut off the most since they show the greatest commitment. But then it becomes a question of how to keep score. Suppose a person cuts off their hand. That would seem to count as one. But what if, over a period of time, another person cuts off three fingers. Does that count as three? And then of course there is the battle between the strict interpreters that say only eyes and hands count, while others say all body parts are in play. Are you creeped out yet?

It is impossible to read Evenson's book without thinking about his Mormon background and its unhappy end. To be sure the book is about religious fanaticism and the lengths to which it can lead one. It becomes outrageously cartoonish unless of course you have the misfortune to read the newspaper. Religion is dangerous. And it leads people to do all sorts of outrageous things. We dare not forget this.

This is not a particularly easy book to find these days; I had to haunt used booksellers on the internet to find it. And I must close with the strongest possible warning: this is not for the faint of heart. The violence is extreme and relentless. And the results? The creepiest book I have ever read.