The asocial, sexually repressed Edgar, kneeling in grief at his mother’s graveside, turns abruptly to witness a terrifying and life-altering event: the brutal rape of a young woman. Compelled by muddled instinct (and ingrained religious conviction), our hero bears the unconscious victim home, solemnly pledging to care for her – and to act as her saviour. As winter closes in, the captor’s neuroses are revealed and his behaviour becomes increasingly violent, allowing the victim only one escape.With The Obese Christ, Larry Tremblay squarely situates himself within the realm of Hitchcock, Polanski, and Stephen King. A brilliant exercise in unease and paranoia, The Obese Christ demonstrates Tremblay’s powerful ability to evoke dead and fear, while immersing the reader in a wrapped and putrid world told from Edgar’s sanctified point of view.
