Enigmas: Short Plays, 1979-1982

by Eric Basso

This volume brings together all the short plays of Eric Basso-Enigmas, plus The Armoire and Adele Pierre. In Nightlight, as two men recount their life stories to a young woman the boundary between truth and falsehood becomes increasingly blurred. The Lecture explores the reputation of a great thinker, with harrowing results to its audience of three. Gentlemen of the Old School reunites three old friends in a sinister comedy of misunderstanding, dark family secrets and revenge. In The Armoire, a dimwitted inspector conducting and investigation into a case involving exhibitionism and ritualized behavior, becomes caught in a dizzying web of conspiracy. The volume concludes with the powerful and disturbing Adele Pierre, in which a medium is confronted with a past that may, or may not, be her own.

274 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

About the author

Eric Basso was born in Baltimore in 1947. His work has appeared in Asylum Annual, Bakunin, Central Park, Chicago Review, Collages & Bricolages, Exquisite Corpse, Fiction International, and many other publications. His novel, Bartholomew Fair, is available from Asylum Arts. He is the author of twenty-one plays. His critically acclaimed drama trilogy, The Golem Triptych; the complete short plays, Enigmas; his play The Sabbatier Effect; a book of short fiction, The Beak Doctor; and five collections of poetry, Accidental Monsters, The Catwalk Watch, The Smoking Mirror, Catafalques, and Ghost Light, are available from Asylum Arts, along with Decompositions: Essays on Art & Literature 1973-1989 and Revagations: 1966-1974, the first volume of a book of dreams. Basso's most recent previous collection of poems, Earthworks, was published by Six Gallery Press in 2008.

Reviews

[Drew McIntosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Basso is a bit of an unheralded figure in weird fiction. Other than "The Beak Doctor," his work is quite hard to track down.

I'm not sure ENIGMAS is the best place to start with this arcane author. Of the five short plays included, only two seem notable to me: the first, "Nightlight," and the final, "Adele Pierre."

"Nightlight" lies a bit outside the realm of horror and weird fic, and felt more like something that would have been written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder: a post-modern chamber piece of shifting identities, frigid emotions, loaded and unspoken dynamics. Think THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT.

"Adele Pierre" is an immensely haunting and troubling piece, and very much worth the price of admission. It is most certainly horror, but a horror that is difficult to locate. A tonal horror that is less about the burden of trauma and more to do with the ideas of disposability left in its wake.

I first read this book a few years back, and I think about "Adele Pierre" frequently. I read it again, last night, and its impact remains.