Monster by Michael Czyzniejewski, 2017
The magic trick:
Hitchcock with a twist
“Monster” takes an old Hitchcock situation and does something surprising with it. The old Hitchcock situation is this: an average everyday man suddenly thrown into a shocking, scary situation he didn’t expect, ask for, or probably deserve.
The something surprising is this: well, actually, I can’t really say without spoiling the story. I’m not sure how to explain it really. Our average, everyday man explores the situation more fully and not only finds that he was right to suspect something odd, it turns out it’s even worse than he thought. Or maybe his perspective was completely misrepresented all along and we’ve been led around by an unreliable narrator the whole time? Or maybe life is just a series of cycles wherein sometimes you’re the hunter and sometimes you’re the hunted.
Honestly, it’s a brain scrambler of a story.
And that’s quite a trick on Czyzniejewski’s part.
The selection:
Against my instincts, I told Charlene about the guy showing up again, insisting she recognize this as beyond coincidence, as borderline threatening. For a second, I was sure I had her: She said something like, Across town? Now that is odd. Then my youngest inserted himself into the conversation, asking, “Is Dad talking about Eugene again?” and Charlene said, “Wait, Eugene? The Eugene?” Turned out our little man had been talking about a Eugene for a while—weeks before I’d noticed him—and Charlene had assumed Eugene was an imaginary friend, a phase, albeit a lingerer. I was certain now I had Charlene on my side, that we could together compose our formal complaint to the local police, see that Eugene would at least be banned from the parks.
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