A Novel
Incest, madness and photography.
Calvin Loerke is a photographer who aspires to the condition of invisibility, the better to capture the decisive moments in his subjects’ lives. Until one night he finds himself wandering in a city where everyone else has disappeared — evacuated because of a catastrophic train wreck. He seeks relief from the experience in a crowded donut shop, where he meets Brian, a born-again Christian. Negative meets positive, matter meets antimatter — the encounter sends both of their lives spinning out of control.
Without work, locked out by his girlfriend, living in what he terms "a state of apartment", Calvin finds himself, despite his misgivings, drawn to the loquacious and charming Brian, who is actively pursuing him. To gain his salvation? Perhaps certainly, as Calvin slips closer to the brink of his own private hell, Brian seems to be the only light that shines in his darkness. Yet Brian has his own dark side and his pregnant fourteen-year old daughter Virginia is bearer of the secret.
Saint and sinner, apostle and madman — each looks in the mirror of the other and sees his opposite. Calvin pursues the logic of nihilistic despair to its inevitable conclusion, while Brian is hounded by his guilt and humiliation. And each thinks he sees in the other an escape from the outer darkness that threatens to engulf them.
Outer Darkness is figure and ground of the paradox of free will and determinism, a meditation on the unexpected ways of God, and an existential thriller.