From Publishers Weekly
Michele Slung, an accomplished editor whose past books include I Shudder at Your Touch and Murder & Other Acts of Literature, has selected stories that muse on the matter of unfamiliar faces from eight decades of creepy fiction in Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters. In addition to the usual suspects Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, even Patricia Highsmith there are pleasant (and very literary) surprises: contributions from Shirley Jackson, Mark Helprin and Edith Wharton. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Don't talk to strangers: the advice everyone hears and few heed. Now its menace has inspired acclaimed anthologist Michele Slung to seek a haunting variety of interpretations reminding us why we ignore this counsel at our peril. Intrigued as well by the slippery definition of "stranger," Slung has looked to such masters of lingering discomfiture as Patricia Highsmith, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Mark Helprin, and Edith Wharton for memorable waking nightmares.Wherever each tale takes us -- to a greasy spoon somewhere off the highway or to an estate deep in the English countryside, to the basement lair of a suburban hobbyist or to an isolated Saharan oasis -- it sends us spiraling into that blackness yawning beyond its particular unseen trap door.Slung's choices are both old and new, real and surreal, noir and nervy. Once you've been introduced to the strangers she's sending your way, one thing is certain -- you'll regard everyone you encounter differently... including that very familiar person who stares back at you from the mirror.
About the Author
Michele Slung's previous books include Fever, Slow Hand, Momilies, and I Shudder at Your Touch. She lives in Washington, DC and New York City.
Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters FROM THE PUBLISHER
Don't talk to strangers: the advice everyone hears and few heed. Now its menace has inspired acclaimed anthologist Michele Slung to seek a haunting variety of interpretations reminding us why we ignore this counsel at our peril. Intrigued as well by the slippery definition of "stranger," Slung has looked to such masters of lingering discomfiture as Patricia Highsmith, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Mark Helprin, and Edith Wharton for memorable waking nightmares. Wherever each tale takes us — to a greasy spoon somewhere off the highway or to an estate deep in the English countryside, to the basement lair of a suburban hobbyist or to an isolated Saharan oasis — it sends us spiraling into that blackness yawning beyond its particular unseen trap door. Slung's choices are both old and new, real and surreal, noir and nervy. Once you've been introduced to the strangers she's sending your way, one thing is certain — you'll regard everyone you encounter differently...including that very familiar person who stares back at you from the mirror.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Michele Slung, an accomplished editor whose past books include I Shudder at Your Touch and Murder & Other Acts of Literature, has selected stories that muse on the matter of unfamiliar faces from eight decades of creepy fiction in Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters. In addition to the usual suspects Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, even Patricia Highsmith there are pleasant (and very literary) surprises: contributions from Shirley Jackson, Mark Helprin and Edith Wharton. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The editor of I Shudder at Your Touch and National Geographic's Living with Cannibals and Other Women's Adventures (2000), polyanthologist Slung (erotica, crime detection, hauntings), offers 22 trap-door tales guaranteed to leave you hanging in suspense. Hasn't your mother told you, "Don't talk to strangers, honey-or Alfred Hitchcock'll getcha!" Measuring the smiles of strangers in this toothy collection are Richard Matheson's "Button, Button," Ray Bradbury's "The Town Where No One Got Off," Thomas Disch's "The Asian Shore," Edith Wharton's "Afterward," H. P. Lovecraft's "He," Shirley Jackson's "Jack the Ripper," Patricia Highsmith's "The Nature of the Thing," and Tabitha King's "The Women's Room"-among other reasons for a lonesome single not to leave the TV on and find herself sucked into an eight-year X-Files marathon or, as in Lisa Tuttle's goofy "Honey, I'm Home," serially involved with famed TV husbands like Ricky Ricardo and Leave It to Beaver's Ward Cleaver who've shown up in her kitchen-and bed. Now, do you really need a hand with that suitcase, honeybunny?
Art & Photography
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