Reviewed by John Rector
If you’re a fan of The Twilight Zone, then chances are you know Charles Beaumont. He wrote some of the most famous episodes. Remember the one about the traveler who, after being lost in a terrible storm, takes shelter in a remote German monastery where he mistakenly unleashes the Devil on the world? Or how about the one about the thief, who kills a cop before being shot himself, then wakes up unhurt and with everything he’s ever wanted only to realize he’s actually in hell.
That’s the Charles Beaumont most people know, but there was a darker side to Beaumont’s writing than what people saw on The Twilight Zone.
If Noir fiction tells stories of desperate people crushed by the weight of an unjust universe and does so in breathtakingly beautiful prose, then Charles Beaumont’s “The Hunger” is as Noir as they come.
I struggled with how to introduce this story. The subject matter is rough, especially for the time it was written. Even now, writing a story about a lonely woman who actively seeks out a rape is a tough sell. But trust me when I tell you that this story is so much more than the subject.
Charles Beaumont had a rare gift.
Beaumont was a writer’s writer, and from the first sentence of “The Hunger,” you’ll know you’re in the hands of a master.
Go ahead, see for yourself.
John Rector is the author of The Cold Kiss and The Grove
Well, that’s a premise and a half! If he can off that…!