Modus Perfectus

by Elisabeth Hegmann

Lonely misfits face foes, beasts, and their own inner demons in search of a mythical land of music … and end up finding themselves instead.

… a woman in the chorus of a musical finds herself caught up in a love triangle with a ghost and helpless to stop the star’s obsession.

… the wife of a famous rock star realizes that the manager intends to kill the entire band and that she can only save herself — and maybe one small boy.

… a musician finds himself involved in a puzzling stunt as a pirated radio station plays an obscure song he recorded years ago with his old bandmates.

… a competitive diver turned musicologist writes a book on genetically-engineered twin musicians and finds himself under their spell — and threatened by their powerful mother.

… an 18-year-old girl realizes that it’s time to embrace her quirkiness and her dreams after the mayor of her small town hires an elderly and eccentric architect to redesign it.

… the friend of a women tries to help her get an audition for a documentary a famous actor is making about unattractive people.

… a tone-deaf woman who dislikes music finds herself pregnant at age 45 with three children who might become the saviors of music and seeks her own redemption.

172 pages, Paperback

Published June 28, 2023

About the author

Elisabeth Hegmann is a speculative fiction writer whose work has always been informed richly and powerfully by music. She grew up in a family of musicians and has a B.A. in creative writing from IU and an MFA in creative writing from NCSU. In addition to fantasy stories and novels, she writes librettos for musical stage works. Her work has been published in a variety of journals, produced on regional stages, and won awards. She lives in her hometown of North Vernon, Indiana, where she works diligently to be worthy of the love of a dog and teaches writing to tolerant college students. She is currently working on a long fantasy series. For information about her current projects, visit her website eahegmann.com.

Reviews

[Marilyn Tanger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modus Perfectus by Elisabeth Hegmann is an interrelated collection of stories for those of us who have passionately longed to be accepted into the “gifted and talented” programs of life, but we were just not quite good enough. Hegmann’s main characters are often mocked—or they themselves are doing the mocking—frustrated because they don’t fit into the everyday world nor into the world of the true artist. Some of them are selfish, angry, and jealous—but they eventually redeem themselves. They have vision—they can imagine Modus Perfectus, a place of art and love and acceptance, of truth and beauty—they passionately long for it, but they don’t have the genius to reach it. Their redemption comes from their vision to recognize, and identify with, those who do have the gift-- and to selflessly and heroically help those chosen ones reach Modus Perfectus, that “home” where only the true artist can dwell.
The rather wonderful irony in the stories is that “spirits” from Modus Perfectus often speak to the main characters to “help” them know what to do. Is this an honor or are they being used to serve the “elite”? The final story suggests that even Modus Perfectus needs to be redeemed.
Another interesting twist is that although the main characters cannot live in Modus Perfectus, they can momentarily experience it when they give themselves to the music, or to the drama, or to any artistic vision. Dobbs in “Florestan and Eusebius” feels absolute bliss while listening to the twin geniuses play Schumann, but when the music ends “the reality of his prison,” of everyday life, almost crushes him. Is giving yourself to the passionate love of art when you yourself are not a successful artist a gift or a taunt, a siren song to insanity? On the very first page we have “…a few scattered insects dying in their one last effort at music while being mocked by a warm breeze.”
In “Pirate” we have a kind of answer. How does a young violinist, for example, feel when they hear Joshua Bell? There is a choice. That person can give up in bitterness—or they can chose to love the music, and love Joshua Bell playing it. And, most of all, they can heroically keep playing-- knowing that they will never be that good. In “Pirate” there is a place for them, “The Forts” where all they need is a love and a passion for art in order to be accepted.
Is it better to die hating Mozart’s music or loving it? Augusta, in the final story, “Exalted,” makes that decision and is thereby allowed to enter Mozart’s “perfect little world” where she comes to understand that “we couldn’t have perfection and love most of the time, but we could experience it just in that moment, and then imagine the moment as forever.”
On a lighter note, Modus Perfectus is full of some of the quirkiest characters you will ever meet. It is a book full of subtle humor: a band called “The Rumbles,” an ugly woman in a castle fortress costume serving gourmet coffee to “the beautiful people”, an uppity, elite neighborhood trying to understate its wealth through architecture is painted heliotrope by a famous architect suffering from dementia.
Hegmann’s skillful mix of reality and the supernatural in Modus Perfectus keeps the narrative always alive with possibilities—and the writing itself is exquisite. Moreover, the characters will haunt you long after you put the book down.

[Hugh Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of hearing the author read these stories when she was preparing them for publication. I have just finished reading the paperback, which I thought I had better do before reviewing the book so as to have the experience of hearing it in my own head and having an idea of what it sounds like in there.

The author is my sister, so you may feel that means my review is biased, and that may be true. I can only say how I feel about the book. You can take what you want from this.

I have read a lot of short stories in my lifetime. The best ones stay with you, the characters burned into your mind as waking dreams. These stories have that quality. Patty and Adrian, Isek Kidd and Sadie, Flora and Zeb and Dobbs, Tulip and Horatio, Augie and Mal. They live alongside me and I think about what might have become of them.

These characters all want something - acceptance, escape, approval, love, enlightenment, a purpose to exist. Many of the stories take place in some version of a small, Midwestern town, and are a sort of love letter to the dichotomy of belonging and being ostracized, taking comfort in the routine and longing for the exotic, the small pleasures of everyday life and the infinite.

Modus Perfectus, a place or perhaps a metaphor for something unattainable, forms the catalyst for wants and desires in this quirky and sometimes grotesque world. This might fit nicely under the Southern Gothic label if it were a bit more, well Southern. We’ll call it Midwestern Gothic. As far as I know, Midwestern Gothic is not recognized as a genre, although there was briefly a literary journal bearing the name, and they did publish exactly what you think they would. There are fairy tales in here too, and black humor.

I think you’ll find your friends and neighbors and maybe yourself in Modus Perfectus, exaggerated or reflected in a fun house mirror. I won’t tell you where, but bits and pieces of me and my life are in here too, reflected in the same distorted mirror, although sometimes just like they happened.

Who will like this book? Well, certainly not an exclusive fan of literary realism. I think everyone else is pretty safe. I would make some comparisons to other authors but I think that’s outside my authority as a non-professional literary critic reviewing the book of a close relative. I know I enjoyed having these stories read to me and reading them for myself. I know I will revisit them again, even though I don’t always like the way I look in those fun house mirrors.

[Sharen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story lines within Modus Perfectus are gripping, richly descriptive and well-told. Elisabeth has a way of pulling a reader in. I was immediately situated in the stories, enthralled and warmed, as I felt and sensed what her characters did. I sat perched on the edge of my seat, waiting for what would happen next. I was touched by the characters' humanity and the colorful way Elisabeth shares their stories. Modus Perfectus was indeed, a very good read.

[Ty Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engaging. Easy to read and get lost in. Hegmann is so descriptive and imaginative you will not be able to put this one down! Cant wait to read more or her work.