Ill Will / Sick Light

I just finished reading an engrossing and intricate novel.  These snippets may either whet your appetite for it, or warn you off;  either reaction would be appropriate.

 

a fuzz of dust on the lampshades

that made the light seem dull and dirty

-- Dan Chaon, Ill Will (2017)

 

The pool emanated 

a chlorinated glow.

-- Dan Chaon, Ill Will (2017)

 

 

Not a monostich (lacks the requisite rhythm and concision), but in the spirit of such depictions of dim/ill light:

 

There was a kind of dimness about northern Ohio light as it approached the winter solstice, a kind of suffocating lack of direct light.  On days like this, you could scope the sky for the sun, but couldn’t pinpoint its location, the cloud cover was so thick.  It made me think of the neurology class I took in college,  the professor talking about eigengrau -- intrinsic gray, brain gray.

-- Dan Chaon, Ill Will (2017)

 

This queasy-swimmy novel itself  might be dubbed, not quite noir, but eigengrau.