"The Munich Window" a short story in Altmann's Tongue, a book of short stories written by Brian Evenson and published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. first edition copyright 1994 is a chilling story of a man that murdered his wife and youngest daughter by pushing them out of a window. Because the murderer tells the story, all details are given to the reader through the distorted viewpoint of his psychopathic personality. His own detachment from the horrendous crimes that he has committed shows up in the fact that we never learn the names of the main characters in the story. The family that raised his daughter during his long absence is mentioned as being the Grunder�?Ts, but out side of that we are never privileged to know any of the characters by name.

As the reader gets deeper in to the storyline, the content gets consistently more disturbing. Eighteen years after the murder of his wife and child, the remaining survivor of his two children is now a suicidal young lady, who through the help of her psychiatrist, decides to confront him about his crimes. She threatens to go to the police with damning evidence if he refuses to meet with her. This proves to be a huge mistake for her and her psychiatrist. He ends up murdering both of them after he learns that they have found graphic photos of him sexually molesting his daughter before he went on his eighteen-year hiatus.

The story is dark, but it is well written. Evenson successfully gives the reader a glimpse in to the inner thought processes of his psychotic character.

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Larry Snelson
December 14, 2005