The Shadow of the Valley

Reading this collection is like breathing in fresh air after being in a parking garage. The way humans analyze their lives is always such an interesting concept to explore, but rarely is it explored in a way that combines introspection with entertaining darkly comedic storylines. The tag "absurd" is a perfect word. These characters cannot find satisfying meaning in their routines or in their lives, even if they are talking to a tree or falling off a building or buying their suits. The dullness or sharpness of life does not make self-consciousness any less exhausting. This collection exemplifies this exhaustion well. It puts beautifully ironic and surreal exhales to ideas that most run from. The Shadow of the Valley does not run from this discomfort, but instead talks to it. It provides a sense of immense hope and immense loss when this piece shows you there is no way to get rid of these feelings, and a terrifying realization that maybe we don’t need to get rid of these feelings.

On a less theoretical note, the language in this piece is intelligent and bright. The descriptions are selected perfectly and crafted in such a way that makes the tangible intangible and the intangible tangible. The diction lets you exist in so many atmospheres. It allows you to feel sad and amused. To be in a place of great pain and a place of great relief.

None of these interpretations may have been the intent, but isn’t that the beauty? How scrambled my brain feels? We all need a brain scramble sometimes. The Shadow of the Valley will scramble your brain in a way that makes the mundane beautiful, and the beautiful mundane, it allows you to stand in the shadow instead of run from it. For a moment you are unafraid of it all, if that makes sense. The Shadow of the Valley is not a collection of words, but rather an experience. A piece that asks you to look inside yourself and challenges your fears, not by invalidating them but by questioning them in ways you never have.

Posted 10 Months Ago