Father of Lies

by Brian Evenson | Horror |
ISBN: 1566894158 Global Overview for this book
Registered by SpedBug of Wilmington, Delaware USA on 7/6/2016
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Journal Entry 1 by SpedBug from Wilmington, Delaware USA on Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Father of Lies opens with a letter from a psychoanalyst, Dr. Feshtig, to the Director of the Zion Foundation Institute of Psychoanalysis, Ballard Kennedy. Feshtig works for this Foundation and is a part of its religion, but he argues for client-patient confidentiality and reminds the Director that he was promised his work would "operate independently of the sponsoring religion". He refuses to share the requested information about his patient and calls into question the fact that the Director is asking for it at the request of an apostolic elder.

We learn that Feshtig's patient is a church leader, Provost Eldon Fochs. Fochs comes to Feshtig for analysis at the behest of his wife who is disturbed by his increasingly violent dreams. At first pass, Feshtig attributes the disturbing dreams to Fochs' ambivalence toward his recent appointment as church leader and a general, low self-worth since childhood. After Fochs stops attending his appointments, Feshtig begins to believe that Fochs' recountings of dream events may not have been dreams at all. And that Fochs had been deceptive and even manipulative during the sessions.

Fochs dreams of pederasty. He dreams of violently raping boys under his leadership and of killing a young girl and violating her body. A Bloody Headed Man appears to him and is, at times, a part of him. The Bloody Headed Man tells him that nothing he does is wrong because he, and therefore all his actions, are sanctioned by God.

When the mother of two boys come forward with charges against Fochs, the elders use the circular logic that Fochs is a church elder, therefore inspired by God, and so can't have committed the atrocities of which they've accused him. When the mothers don't back down, they are brought before a panel for excommunication and the ultimate vote is left to Fochs himself.

This book is a disturbing and well thought out psychological horror. It's all the more frightening because of the well-written glimpses into the insulated and isolated atmosphere of this religious sect.

Journal Entry 2 by SpedBug at Limestone Medical Aid in Wilmington, Delaware USA on Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Released 7 yrs ago (10/5/2016 UTC) at Limestone Medical Aid in Wilmington, Delaware USA

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