The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson is about a teenager who finds himself interested in the Mormon religion. When he is asked to write an essay for class, he stumbles across a series of articles about a murder committed by a Mormon. Shortly after reading about this, he and his half-brother get caught in a web of secrecy of a violent murder.
This book accurately captures a dark story of a Mormon teen. We are able to see his mind deteriorating throughout the book as he starts to form into the murderer himself. When the story starts off, Rudd is just a normal teenager but he was described as “troubled”. His dad died at an early age. We see him being troubled in the early parts of the book when he is looking at his “dead father’s dead things”. I found this really helpful in realizing that he wasn’t healthy in his own mind. Apparently his father was obsessed with murder as well, and that helped speed the process up as to realizing why exactly Rudd turned out the way he did.
The story is split up into specific sections. The first section being particularly in Rudd’s point of view in which he describes all that is happening around him. His half- brother is talked about often and we see him forming into his half- brother’s personality. His half brother is scary and controlling and he doesn’t believe in fear. He steps out and takes every conflict head- on and likes to challenge things. The writer of this book caught this in a way that it was easy to understand that Rudd had a need for validation and he liked to mimic other people. The second section was of Lyndi, one we didn’t really get much of an explanation for. We can see that Lyndi has importance in the development of Rudd’s character because he really is incapable of love but he is also capable of brainwashing those around him to think that he is. Incorporating Lyndi was the perfect way of showing that. The last section was Hooper, the murderer himself. The author included Hooper to show how much Rudd thought of himself as Hooper and how his personality slowly changed to match him.
This book was very dark and mysterious. I loved how well it brought me into the happenings of the story and I felt my own mind being confused throughout the book when Rudd was confused by his thoughts. I felt as though the book was meant to encompass me and amerce me into feeling and thinking in an uncomfortable way. I wanted to quit reading it, and be away from the story itself but the way that the story builds on itself made me want to continue reading. The authors need to show family, pain, loss, and the need to belong was well incorporate through the book. I think that the darkness of this book showed an overall view on the concept of the dark age of Mormon religion.
