The British author, Graham Greene, dubbed author Patricia Highsmith “the poet of apprehension” in his introduction to her Selected Stories. Highsmith is a one of Mark SaFranko’s favorite authors, and there are haunting echoes of her sensibility in his latest novel One False Step, appearing for the first time in English (previously published in French translation). SaFranko manages to create a world that is cruel and almost claustrophobic, drawing the reader into an unsettling feeling of dread as the protagonist’s life slowly devolves and spirals toward its inevitable conclusion.
One False Step is the story of Clay Bowers, a philanderer, whose wandering eye lands him into trouble when, in an instance of darkly humorous irony, he falls off a roof while ogling the lady of the house, rendering him a paraplegic. As he is recovering in the hospital, he realizes that “The thought that he might not be able to do anything (sic)…that he might only be able to lie there and think for the rest of his life, would eventually drive him over the edge.” Clay is not someone for introspection; in fact, SaFranko cleverly makes him one dimensional in the beginning, someone who can only feel sorry for himself and think back on his love affairs, beginning with his first encounter with a prostitute and moving on to the wives of various clients of his roofing business, love affairs he can no longer have while previously gloating about how he had been able to get away with most of them under the nose of his wife, Alicia.
However, we learn that Alicia has been aware of his trysts, and, as Clay’s caretaker, she begins to exact a terrible vengeance by bringing home lovers while he looks helplessly on. At first, we cannot totally blame her, for she is with someone who is no longer able to be intimate with her, and who is completely dependant. What starts off as casual outings with her friends quickly turns into affairs with several lovers. In an effort to rationalize her behaviour, Clay thinks of what she may be thinking: “I can’t be stuck with you here forever. I’m still a young woman. I’m alive. You might be half-dead, but I’m still alive.” Despite the seeming poignancy of this insight, Clay quickly comes to realize his victimization, thereby gaining an uncomfortable degree of self-knowledge, realizing the indifference of a world where “the people out there were oblivious, as they’d be oblivious to a deadly earthquake on the other side of the world.” Alicia dismisses his jealousy and frustration by saying he is being “dramatic” when he threatens to kill himself, further adding to his impotence and precipitating his rage.
As their relationship devolves, we learn about Clay’s struggle with the knowledge that he has lost all control, something that he took for granted throughout their life together. Finally, he decides to take drastic action, wanting to exact violent retribution upon Alicia and her lovers, yet only “able to sit there (in his wheelchair) and endure this ugly tribulation.” SaFranko adds a delicious twist to the timeless tale of couples caught cheating by their spouses when Clay observes Alicia making love in the dark as he moves from “an impotent fury” to becoming “curious, like a garden-variety voyeur.” Is this desire to witness his wife’s transgressions a form of guilt or self-torture for his own philandering? SaFranko keeps us guessing.
Clay’s ultimate humiliation as a cuckold occurs when Alicia tells her lover, Tony, that Clay is her “brother.” At first, Clay finds this humorous and “clever,” but eventually realizes that this is his ultimate emasculation. And upon this, he decides to act. The novel moves toward its inevitable and violent conclusion, but here again SaFranko puts a spin on the classic Othello jealousy-revenge tale, one where Clay becomes his own Iago that ends up leading to the dénouement of the unexpected ending with an ironic and delicious twist.
The brilliance of SaFranko’s writing lies in his ability to create an unsympathetic protagonist with whom the reader can still identify. Who can not understand and identify with the impotence we often feel in relationships, or the vicious games that couples play in a power struggle that is often marriage? While we may not feel much for Clay’s plight based on his own previous actions, we do understand the insights he undergoes, the agony and humiliation he suffers due to his wife’s infidelities, and his ultimate helplessness to render action and meaning to his life.
As in his other wonderfully complex novels, SaFranko looks beyond the surface of human beings, often finding there a surprising depth of character, but also finding that sense of unsettling dread and peril that is prevalent in a world of uncertainty where often we cannot do more than simply watch and bear witness.
One False Step is Mark SaFranko and noir fiction at its very best.
Zsolt Alapi is a professor, editor, and publisher, based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. His fiction and articles have appeared in various journals in Canada, the U.S.A., Great Britain, and France. He is the former editor and publisher of Siren Song Publishing, and his collection, Writing at the Edge, included a compilation of writing of what The Guardian called “the new underground”. His most recent work of fiction is a novel entitled Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (DC Books, Canada).
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