Father of Lies

By: Brian Evenson

Narrated by: Mauro Hantman

Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A fearless, scathing, and irresistible novel about madness, power, and the hypocrisy of religious institutions.

Lay provost Eldon Fochs is a happily married father of four. Based on his disturbing dreams, he may also be a sex criminal. His therapist isn’t sure, and his church is determined to protect its reputation. Written from the perspectives of Fochs, his analyst Dr. Alexander Feshtig, and the letters exchanged between Feshtig and his superiors in the church hierarchy, Father of Lies is Brian Evenson’s fable of power, paranoia, and the dangers of blind obedience. It offers a terrifying vision of how far institutions will go to protect themselves against the innocents who may be their victims.

This edition includes an introduction by Samuel R. Delaney (Dhalgren).

“Evenson’s literary genius lay in his ability to spread reasonable doubt and blur lines of inquiry.” —New York Journal of Books

“Father of Lies stands out among Evenson’s work as the most institutionally critical, morally unsettling.” —Vice

“Packed with the kind of psychological tension that creates classics and a critique of organized religion that’s too loud, clear, and sharp to ignore.” —Horror Talk

“[Evenson’s] scary fictional treatment of church hypocrisy has the feeling of a reasoned attack on blind religious obedience.” —Publishers Weekly

©1998 Brian Evenson (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Needs to come with a warning label, a retch bucket and a lap to cry on.

"Despite all claims the Corporation of the Blood of the Lamb makes to be a divinely inspired Church, it seems oddly as eager as any worldly institution to soil its hands in a little impropriety, to cover a few things over if that means furthering the cause of righteousness."
- Brian Evenson, Father of Lies

Not Evenson's best, but definitely his angriest. This book might be the equivalent to reading just the darkest bits of Blood Meridian. It will seed a forest of nightmares all with hanging children of God.

It needs to come with a warning label, a retch bucket and a lap to cry on. I have to put it down every 10 pages and just pray into the abyss for my soul (not really, but you got to do something to keep from sliding into this nightmare. Imagine being forced into the mind of an evil man, protected by a fundamentalist kafkaucracy, interested only in protecting its "good" name rather than its children. I'm not sure of you -- but I can think of examples in Texas, Ireland, Boston, Arkansas, Utah, Idaho.

This was written right after Brian was kicked out of BYU for the same book of short stories that got him hired there in the first place.* Talk about a literary hat trick. Brian wrote this book post that period. It is a blood-letting. It goes into an angry place and like Clockwork Orange's Aversion Therapy Scene forces you to observe things most people would want to turn away from. But sometimes shades and shadows tell the truth, sometimes lights on a hill are not designed to guide or inform but rather obfuscate.

* Note: I bought a copy of Altmann's Tongue from the BYU Bookstore (back in the day when that bookstore rocked and didn't just sell trinkets and ice cream). I'm solidly team Evenson here.