While horror and noir are both treated with the same level of respect and importance, I find it interesting how the author blended the two. But now a short word on the dark heart of Last Days, because in some respects what we have here is a non-supernatural horror novel.

It consists of two parts of almost equal length, the first of which, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation”, was published in 2003, in a limited edition of 315 copies. Kline then turned on a nearby oven, cauterized his hand himself, turned around and, calmly, shot his attacker in the eye. It is a temptation to discuss it in detail, as it proves more complexity that its slim lenght might suggest; it contains imagery which is graphic, visceral and disturbing.I’d wager it’s something along the lines of - it’s a slippery slope from religious zealots to fanatical death cult. As in The Trial, the two men eventually show up at Kline's place, and it becomes clear that he has no choice in this matter; he's dragged into a situation which is so bizarre and riddled with ill logic and seemingly unsolvable. Especially since it’s possible, after all, to completely exchange the religious reading of the two sects with a political reading, which could focus on a contrast between a more collectivized, communistic ideology and a pseudo-individualistic ideology like capitalism. Brian Evenson presents us with a whole compound full of people who have followed that logic to its extreme: the power structure they subscribed to leads to them lobbing off parts of their own bodies, of their own accord.

Y por otro tenemos al culto en sí y a todos los que lo integran; fanáticos capaces de mutilarse cualquier miembro con tal de seguir al pie de la letra sus absurdas creencias. Kline se ve desprovisto de una de sus manos, este hecho le lleva a sumirse en una depresión y en un bucle en el que no ve salida, hasta que un día La Hermandad de la Mutilación se pone en contacto con él para resolver un crimen. A pesar de lo grotesco, de la violencia y la extravagancia con que se narran las situaciones, se disfruta mucho (quizá yo sea una perturbada 🤔).It is always dangerous to read too much of an author's past in their works but I believe I see a lot of conflicts in the author's mind being worked on.

In contrast to many noir detectives such as Philip Marlowe, Kline isn’t likely, either, to be verbally abusive, snarky or clever. He's then approached by a cult who believe that amputation brings one closer to God, and is forced to solve a murder in their midst. Kline is thrown around, his physical strenght never in full potential, never allowing him an easy way out - but then so is the power of his opponents. This story starts out fast with the loss of Kline's hand, and then it gets truly weird and disturbing.Sin saber muy bien porqué acaba aceptando y yendo al complejo que desprende un aire a secta por todas sus aristas. was written as a stand alone in 2003 and Last Days came later picking up where the first novella ended. A very similar parallel structure can be seen in the eschatological thinking of the Pauls, another brotherhood of mutilates, which references different eschatological concepts in actual religions.