Reality opens with “The Signal,” which revisits the country estate haunted by a specter with an unwholesome interest in children from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. One contemporary twist is that the specter is never without his cellphone (and he’s taking pictures of the kids). The eerie but ironic tale sets the tone. Several stories in this collection by British author John Lanchester also reflect on the warpage of reality by our dependance on devices. Even death can’t free us.
Much of Reality falls under the heading of uncanny, even horror fiction. In “Coffin Liquor” an economist invited to an academic conference is startled to learn that one of the speakers is presenting on “Vlad the Impaler: Narrative, Belief, and the Immanence of the Imperceptible.” He is a thoroughgoing materialist, dismissive of cultural studies or anything that can’t be supported statistically. However, odd occurrences mount after he visits a medieval graveyard and anxiety rises until one night, he hears a “sucking and slathering” coming down the hall toward his hotel room door. It’s a climax worthy of H.P. Lovecraft’s ghoulish tales.
