BOOK REVIEW: THESE LONG TEETH OF THE NIGHT BY ALEXANDER ZELENYJ

3/8/2022

If you are looking for slightly off-beat stories that might resonate with you long after completion then These Long Teeth of the Night has much to offer. They often capture unique moments, snapshots of life or individuals trapped within the ripples of otherworldly occurrences. The natural ability to effortlessly flow between genres is a rare literary gift and few are more skilled at this art than Alexander Zelenyj.

These Long Teeth of the Night by Alexander Zelenyj
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Horseman Press (22 Feb. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 430 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0988392216
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0988392212

A Book Review by Tony Jones

Brilliant career spanning ‘best of’ collection which defies categorisation

If you intend to take a wild punt on one short story specialist you have never previously read in the near future then I strongly suggest you choose Alexander Zelenyj. This creative and highly original Canadian author has spent the last twenty years writing short fiction and has had several collections already published, including Experiments at 3 Billion A.M (2009) and Blacker Against the Deep Dark (2018) which I previously reviewed and was greatly impressed. He has been published by a wide range of independent and literary presses, including Eibonvale Press and Fourth Horseman Press, who between them have been responsible for a decent percentage of his work.

These Long Teeth of the Night features twenty-eight of Zelenyj’s favourite or most personal (rather than ‘best’) stories from the last twenty years and has been released by Fourth Horseman Press, a long-term home for his unique genre-defying style. I would wager Zelenyj to be a significantly bigger name if his fiction were easier to categorise. But it is not. In fact, it is impossible to pigeonhole and I imagine the author likes it this way and is happy to grace the literary shadows rather than the limelight. That is not to say he does not write about traditional horror story topics, but it is his perspective which makes his voice so distinct, for example A Valley for Dorothy concerns a bounty hunter sent to kill a demon (at first glance a very traditional story), but the story veers from a potentially all action tale into a more introverted and painful family drama.

Books should not be defined by genre, but we try to do it anyway and Zelenyj’s fiction is best described as slipstream which is a style of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. This type of literature is not particularly commercial and often drops under the radar and Zelenyj is an absolute master craftsman at this style. A sizable number of his stories are noticeably short (maybe 3000-5000 words) and for 80-90% of the tale the characters might be living very normal lives before something inexplicable happens, which often goes unexplained. Poppy, The Girl Of My Dreams, And The Alien Invasion I Can Detect Like Radar Through My Braces is a notable example of this, with two girls reading a diary of a neighbour and realising the world might soon end. The Bloodmilk People is another terrific illustration of this style, a bookshop clerk discovers a gross bloody mess in the bathroom and puts it down to a difficult day, until a young man comes over and bizarrely explains why he deliberately left the gross deposit. Neither is Zelenyj particularly interested in twist or surprise endings as many short story specialists often enjoy, but The Bloodmilk People does have a killer last line!

Zelenyj’s fiction often asks questions but rarely provides answers, some readers might find this frustrating, but if you take his stories to be melancholic snapshots of quiet moments in time most work beautifully. Literary ambiguity threads through stories which combine horror with fantasy, mythology, comedy, sex, historical settings, various wars, science fiction and magical realism. A deep sense, often quite beautiful, of sadness is often laced throughout the tales, a few of which I had to read more than once to genuinely appreciate. At 420 pages in length, I would recommend tackling the collection slowly to fully savour the pieces. Zelenyj also provides lovingly and very personal notes before every story which vary in length and provide the inspiration behind them or just how he was feeling at the time. Some stories came easily, others were much harder work to complete and I enjoyed these insights into the thought process immensely.

There were too many terrific stories to mention individually, so firstly I’m going to pick out a few of my favourites, some of which I had read before but enjoyed revisiting. Both Highway of Lost Women and The Priests had little in common except that both were beautifully observed character studies. In the former four young women Alex, Darcy, Billie, Sam discovers a naked line of women standing across the middle of the road whilst driving along a remote highway. The plot then back-flips to how they got there and beautifully taps into the feelings and insecurities of the women before going full circle. The Priests was a different type of character study and in some ways looked at the failings of man. Pastor Garfield meets a horribly deformed character known as the Priests, who resembles triple cojoined twins and is so ugly he frightens and disgusts everyone he meets. After the Pastor welcomes Priests into his home, the poor unfortunate tells his moving story, calling for tolerance, mercy, and humanity, qualities he rarely sees.

Gladiators in the Sepulchre of Abominations was another monster story and a personal favourite in which a man revisits his destroyed childhood and reflects upon the monster (or was it a god?) his family kept locked in the basement. I found this tale strangely moving and maybe the beast is still out there roaming the Canadian countryside? If I had ever heard the fictional obscure cult band ‘The Deathray Bradburys’ who are the focus of On Tour With The Deathray Bradburys I reckon I would have been a fan, hell, I probably would be wearing their t-shirt! This story is written in a semi-factual informative style, about the disappearance of the mythical band and their most devoted fans. Elopers of Sirius has a vaguely similar theme about the mass suicide of a Jim Jones style cult, with science fiction overtones indicating that it is us that was missing a trick and not the dead.

Numerous inclusions leaned heavily on science fiction and there were two particular standouts. With top billing was Journey To The End Of A Burning Girl an outstanding tale of a new extremely dangerous drug Verntellus which leads to speculation that the substance has a weird transportation property. After digested the user vanishes, leaving behind strange ashen imprints of themselves called signatures, burned into the surface of their last known location. The story is very dark, oozes hopelessness, taking in a number of characters including the police who are all seeking the drug for their own reasons. We Are All Lightless Inside is also well worth a look, in this peculiar story disease can take physical form and soldiers battle an eternal role for mankind’s survival against these living viruses.

I could go on and on about other unsettling, weird treasures lurking within the pages of These Long Teeth of the Night, with Another Light Called 1-47 also hitting the spot, a sad tale of a rocket disappearing into space and its loss felt over the many following years of those left behind. Love in Uncertain Times wonders if there was proof of supernatural life before man and if so how would it impact us? And if you fancy another melancholic tale then Potato Thief Beneath Indifferent Stars features an old guy whose life takes on new meaning when he finds a green creature living in his garden.

If you are looking for slightly off-beat stories that might resonate with you long after completion then These Long Teeth of the Night has much to offer. They often capture unique moments, snapshots of life or individuals trapped within the ripples of otherworldly occurrences. The natural ability to effortlessly flow between genres is a rare literary gift and few are more skilled at this art than Alexander Zelenyj.

Tony Jones

These Long Teeth of the Night
by Alexander Zelenyj

For over twenty years, Alexander Zelenyj has been writing unforgettable fiction. His stories span the literary continuum, blending genres in new and unexpected ways to create what many critics have described as "unclassifiable" literature. Never afraid to venture to those places that few other authors would dare to explore, he weaves bold narratives that are by turns harrowing, insightful, and revelatory. They are stories that confront the most abhorrent of monsters, embrace the truth and the wonder of the human condition, and pose questions without answer. These Long Teeth of the Night celebrates the first two decades of Zelenyj's published short fiction. This special anniversary retrospective collects twenty-eight of his most remarkable stories, including new material and notes from the author that offer unique insight into the creative process. Prepare yourself. The stories of Alexander Zelenyj are stories of the night. And it has teeth.