Stories from the Tube

Part of the fun in reading a novel or book of short stories by an author that you have never come across before is the uncertainty of where you will be led. In some cases, you are let down because your anticipation of the unknown has led you to expect more than the author was able to deliver. Frequently, though, you find a fresh new voice that seems to change the way you view certain things and forces you to look at your world in a different way. Such is the case with a new collection of short stories, Stories From The Tube by Matthew Sharpe.

The jacket on the book describes the group of short stories as "inspired" by television commercials. In reality, what the author has done is peel back a layer of skin on the subjects of various generic television commercials and view the lives of these people through a prism which has refracted their lives into the surreal. So, instead of the antiseptic, so-happy-to-be-talking-to-you-on-the-phone characters you see in a typical television commercial pitching long distance phone service, we get to view the unvarnished lives of the bridesmaids that are seen in the commercial discussing an upcoming wedding. We witness the despair of these perennial bridesmaids and the actions they take as a result of their desperation.

Sharpe does not attempt to shock you; he slowly drags you into his stories by starting out with settings that seem as natural as a mother dispensing cough syrup to her family. But each of the stories veers off into a dark alley of the human soul. Some of the stories go deeper into that alley than others, but each one takes you to a place that hopefully you haven't been before. In the case of the mother dispensing cough syrup, you observe a mother that takes her doctor Mom role a bit too seriously and you read on, wondering exactly how far she will extend her role.

To his credit, Sharpe is able to achieve what some of the more well-known "horror" writers are incapable of, and that is to get you feeling an "uneasiness" about how the stories are unfolding without resorting to the absurd. Compelling horror, the kind that can turn your stomach ever so slightly and get you to keep your eyes glued to the page, is the kind that is waiting for you just around the corner. The simple choice of which corner you turn will decide if you are spared or if you are to confront horror head on. It is the pure randomness of the events that makes you wonder how close you are to losing control of your own life. The stories contained in this collection are reminiscent of the ones featured in the television series "The Twilight Zone". If Rod Serling were alive, attempting a remake of his classic series for the 90's, he would want Matthew Sharpe on his staff.

Everyone who has grown up with television is accustomed to not listening to commercials, and now that the remote control has become ubiquitous you click away without thinking. After reading this collection of stories, you can't help but spend a few minutes analyzing the characters of the most mundane commercial and wondering what dark secrets they're wrestling with, and could that be me?