Gary A. Braunbeck, Mr. Hands (Leisure, 2007)
How are monsters created, and how do these monsters express the conflicting desires of their human creators?
In Mr. Hands Gary A. Braunbeck has provided a complex and thoughtful exploration of those questions, questions which lie at the heart of much of the horror and dark fantasy genres. In addition, by returning to Cedar Hill, the setting for his award winning novella "Kiss of the Mudman" (also included in this book), Braunbeck continues to develop a richly detailed and deeply psychological mythos which is reminiscent of other outstanding dark fantasy novels, such as those written by Peter Straub.
Braunbeck builds his mythos through a series of intersecting stories which come together one night on the outskirts of the strange town of Cedar Hill, Ohio, in Hangman's Tavern, a place that possesses its own terrible, though far from supernatural, history. Grant McCullers, owner of the Hangman's Tavern, has called his two friends Sheriff Ted Jackson and the Reverend, a man with a mysterious past who runs the town homeless shelter, to help deal with a stranger who has wandered into the bar with an even stranger story to tell. Fortunately for the stranger, the trio of listeners, whom the Reverend refers to as a "regular Algonquin Roundtable," appreciate a good story. Indeed, it turns out that Cedar Hill is a nexus for strange stories. As one of the characters describes his hometown in "Kiss of the Mudman":
There's an almost-joke that we use to settle the nerves of folks who are passing through, who maybe don't know about or haven't heard some of this city's colorful history: This is Cedar Hill. Weird shit happens here. Get used to it.
The story the stranger tells, the story of "the terrible miracle" of Mr. Hands' origin, concerns the bond between a serial killer known as "Uncle Ronnie" who haunted Cedar Hill a generation before and a woman named Lucy Thompson. The characterizations of Ronnie and Lucy turn the stereotypical horror trope of unrelieved-evil male attacker and moral but passive female victim on its head as, ultimately, Lucy as well as Ronnie becomes complicit in the creation of the monster, Mr. Hands. The bizarre alchemical marriage which results in the birth of Mr. Hands is described in an intensely metaphorical scene which recalls both the birth of Frankenstein's monster and the traditional golem, itself born of fear, guilt, and vengeful fury. This scene, which comes literally at the center of the story, recasts everything that comes before and after it, challenging many of the definitions of "monster" and reminding us that the origins of the word monster meant "warning," and that the ancients carved images of monsters into the gates and doorways to holy or forbidden places. Braunbeck's monsters serve a similar function, posted at the liminal space of story, warning us that, no matter how simplistically media images might reduce the stories, people are far more complex than they appear on the surface, and empathy remains the one thing that separates humans from monsters.
Braunbeck has an outstanding talent for creating characters who are so believably three-dimensional that they almost seem to be telling the story on behalf of Braunbeck. The reader gets multiple perspectives on how each character's story intersects at the birth of a monster, and how the most terrifying aspect of the monster is what we recognize of ourselves in its being.
In addition to the title story of "Mr. Hands," the book contains Braunbeck's award-winning story "Kiss of the Mudman," which I enjoyed every bit as much as the title story. "Kiss of the Mudman" is a delicately haunting story written in darkly poetical prose that evokes the supernatural works of Algernon Blackwood or Arthur Machen as it tells the story behind the mysterious lyrics and melody of a 1970s rock song.
"Kiss of the Mudman" includes a number of the characters we met previously in "Mr. Hands," including the original trio of storytellers, Grant McCullers, Sheriff Ted Jackson, and the Reverend, and fills in one more piece in the puzzle of Cedar Hill's history. Along with "Mr. Hands," "Kiss of the Mudman" is part of Braunbeck's Cedar Hill mythos, of which previous stories have been collected in two volumes, Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories, Volume 1 (Earthling Publications, 2003) and Home Before Dark: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories, Volume 2 (Earthling Publications, 2005).
If you are looking for intelligent dark fantasy or psychological horror that reminds you of why we find ourselves endlessly fascinated with scary stories about monsters, ghosts, and haunted places, then I recommend Gary A. Braunbeck's Mr. Hands. Gary A. Braunbeck's Official Web site is here.
