Review: Beautifully Brutal
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 4, 2012
The characters that populate the dilapidated landscapes of Rawson's `The Chaos We Know' are reminiscent of grit under a fingernail - unsightly, and sometimes painful. Sure you can gnaw at it for a time but it can lead to frustration, a foul taste in the mouth, and a whole lot less fingernail leaving you prone to catching said nail (with the sensitive under-skin exposed) on clothing while getting dressed or performing any such menial activity to serve as a constant reminder that the grit was there and the hurt don't stop simply `cos you extracted the visible. Yep, the characters of `The Chaos We Know' are much like the proverbial grit though on a larger more fleshly scale - as analogies go, a more apt one fails me.Comprising 22 stories of omnipresent oppression, this collection is the personification of noir. Rawson shelves all sense of nicety (the odd good deed pops up here and there re: `Ma's Favourite Wife') and elicits the darker nature of the human psyche - predominantly where lead characters are in a position of power (i.e law enforcement) as is evident in `Having His Cake', and `The Blood, The Shattered Glass and All The Rest'. No one is safe, with treachery as rife as the burnt out prostitutes that loiter the blackened streets at night, `An Appointment with Larry' attests to the saying `trust no one' while `My World Without Jenny' merges the themes (treachery and prostitution).Sure, this is dark, depressing, lifeless, and violent though survived by some crafty humour and snappy dialogue to lighten the mood. `Three Cops' and `The Referral System' come to mind as something sure to garner a laugh or two.While most of the stories are memorable and enjoyable, the cream of the crop for me was `Life In Mesa', `The Anniversary Weekend', `Clinical Trail', `A Clipjoint Romance', `The Chaos We Know', and the aforementioned `Three Cops'. A highly recommended collection sure to appease your inner thirst for `car wreck watching entertainment' - 5 stars.