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Man Standing Behind
Leaving work on a nondescript evening, Roger is held up at gunpoint when he stops at a cash machine. He attempts to hand everything in his bank account, but robbery isn’t on the gunman’s mind.
Roger is told simply to walk.
The gunman takes him on a macabre odyssey―from city pubs to suburban neighborhoods to isolated homes in the country―and as the night presses on, a seemingly not-so-random body count grows around him.
A moment-by-moment exploration of moral paralysis, Man Standing Behind charts the psyche of a random man caught in the roils of a mortal circumstance nothing to do with his own life. Is he a witness, a victim…or something altogether worse?
Praise for MAN STANDING BEHIND:
“This is where D’Stair shines. He has the ability to take a situation, one which might traditionally be addressed emotionally, and analyze it to the point of emotional emptiness. Life and death…is not a fight or flight, subconscious decision, but is one to be pondered, examined, weighed against context.” —Caleb J. Ross, author of Stranger Will , I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin , and The Soul Standard
“Over the years I’ve stopped being astonished at the multifarious things that Pablo D’Stair can do well. Let’s just say it: whatever he puts his hand to he accomplishes and with a style and panache that is his alone. So, while this short noir, Man Standing Behind …does completely satisfy, even thrill. The language is precise. The mood spot-on. The characters well-wrought and whatever the opposite of cliché is. Original. Idiosyncratic. Off-kilter. Strange. The slap-back dialog, the scenes as accurate as if directed by Fritz Lang. This is D’Stair’s world. Welcome to it. I envy you if this is your first time in.” —Corey Mesler, author of Memphis Movie and Camel’s Bastard Son
Praise for the work of Pablo D’Stair:
“Somehow again and again you’re drawn in…you get used to the book’s rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves…” —Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho , Rules of Attraction , and Lunar Park
“Pablo D’Stair doesn’t just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city’s burning, and these words he’s putting on the page are the thing that can save us all.” —Stephen Graham Jones, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Mapping the Interior , Mongrels and All the Beautiful Sinners
“Pablo D’Stair is defining the new writer [and the new film maker]. There is NO ONE else. As reckless as Kerouac’s 120-foot trace paper, D’Stair’s independence from all of us needs to be studied and celebrated. This is revolution. D’Stair’s late realism needs to be included in any examination of the condition of the novel.” —Tony Burgess, award-winning author/screenwriter of Pontypool Changes Everything and People Live Still in Cashtown Corners
“Like Kerouac before him, I felt there was one roll of paper on which the story was typed. And there’s a rhythm behind it. Not the speedy bop of jazz this time, more an urban dubstep. Shadows and edges becoming audible.” —Nigel Bird, author of Smoke and In Loco Parentis
Roger is told simply to walk.
The gunman takes him on a macabre odyssey―from city pubs to suburban neighborhoods to isolated homes in the country―and as the night presses on, a seemingly not-so-random body count grows around him.
A moment-by-moment exploration of moral paralysis, Man Standing Behind charts the psyche of a random man caught in the roils of a mortal circumstance nothing to do with his own life. Is he a witness, a victim…or something altogether worse?
Praise for MAN STANDING BEHIND:
“This is where D’Stair shines. He has the ability to take a situation, one which might traditionally be addressed emotionally, and analyze it to the point of emotional emptiness. Life and death…is not a fight or flight, subconscious decision, but is one to be pondered, examined, weighed against context.” —Caleb J. Ross, author of Stranger Will , I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin , and The Soul Standard
“Over the years I’ve stopped being astonished at the multifarious things that Pablo D’Stair can do well. Let’s just say it: whatever he puts his hand to he accomplishes and with a style and panache that is his alone. So, while this short noir, Man Standing Behind …does completely satisfy, even thrill. The language is precise. The mood spot-on. The characters well-wrought and whatever the opposite of cliché is. Original. Idiosyncratic. Off-kilter. Strange. The slap-back dialog, the scenes as accurate as if directed by Fritz Lang. This is D’Stair’s world. Welcome to it. I envy you if this is your first time in.” —Corey Mesler, author of Memphis Movie and Camel’s Bastard Son
Praise for the work of Pablo D’Stair:
“Somehow again and again you’re drawn in…you get used to the book’s rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves…” —Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho , Rules of Attraction , and Lunar Park
“Pablo D’Stair doesn’t just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city’s burning, and these words he’s putting on the page are the thing that can save us all.” —Stephen Graham Jones, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Mapping the Interior , Mongrels and All the Beautiful Sinners
“Pablo D’Stair is defining the new writer [and the new film maker]. There is NO ONE else. As reckless as Kerouac’s 120-foot trace paper, D’Stair’s independence from all of us needs to be studied and celebrated. This is revolution. D’Stair’s late realism needs to be included in any examination of the condition of the novel.” —Tony Burgess, award-winning author/screenwriter of Pontypool Changes Everything and People Live Still in Cashtown Corners
“Like Kerouac before him, I felt there was one roll of paper on which the story was typed. And there’s a rhythm behind it. Not the speedy bop of jazz this time, more an urban dubstep. Shadows and edges becoming audible.” —Nigel Bird, author of Smoke and In Loco Parentis
112 pages, Paperback
Published May 9, 2011
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Pablo D'Stair
70 books33 followersPablo D'Stair is a novelist, filmmaker, essayist, interviewer, comic book artist, and independent publisher. His work has appeared in various mediums for the past 15 years, often pseudonymously.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 17, 2019
Man Standing Behind is a short piece, reminiscent of Gil Brewer's "A Killer Is Loose." Here, too, an ordinary guy is minding his own business when a crazy killer adopts him as a buddy at gunpoint and thus a perilous evening begins. In this modern forced-Buddy tale, the dilemma is at what point do you cease being a victim and walk away and at what point do you rather unwittingly become an accomplice or is it a pseudo-accomplice. Do you stand idly by albeit being dragged along by a guy with a gun knowing he is on a razor's edge or do you try to stop him from hurting other people? Do you just go all palsy Walsy with him just to save your own butt or do you take actions? At what point are you no longer an innocent victim but an encourager? And where does abject fear take us?
April 8, 2012
After reading D'Stair's series about small-time con man Trevor English, I knew I needed to read more of him. Also, because he's apeshit bonkers, his books are free. (Go look him up on Smashwords.)
The latest one I read is Man Standing Behind, and damn if it isn't one tight piece of writing. The premise is genius and simple: Roger is waiting in line at an ATM when a dude with a gun comes up behind him. But it turns out this guy doesn't want money. He wants Roger to accompany him on a journey. The journey has many stops in which the man catches up with old friends and acquaintances... and proceeds to shoot each one of them, seemingly for the joy of it.
D'Stair is a remarkably disciplined writer. The real payoff of this book is everything you never learn about--Why Roger? Why is this guy killing everyone he knows? Why doesn't Roger do anything about it? Who is Roger, besides a guy who is being forced to go places? D'Stair keeps his focus narrow to the point of absurdity.
At the end, I was unsure if this was a work of suspense or a work of anti-suspense. In fact, I was uncertain of literally everything. And it's D'Stairs ability to generate this unnerving experience that makes him brilliant.
The latest one I read is Man Standing Behind, and damn if it isn't one tight piece of writing. The premise is genius and simple: Roger is waiting in line at an ATM when a dude with a gun comes up behind him. But it turns out this guy doesn't want money. He wants Roger to accompany him on a journey. The journey has many stops in which the man catches up with old friends and acquaintances... and proceeds to shoot each one of them, seemingly for the joy of it.
D'Stair is a remarkably disciplined writer. The real payoff of this book is everything you never learn about--Why Roger? Why is this guy killing everyone he knows? Why doesn't Roger do anything about it? Who is Roger, besides a guy who is being forced to go places? D'Stair keeps his focus narrow to the point of absurdity.
At the end, I was unsure if this was a work of suspense or a work of anti-suspense. In fact, I was uncertain of literally everything. And it's D'Stairs ability to generate this unnerving experience that makes him brilliant.
January 17, 2020
A Kafka-esque noir in which Roger is taken at gunpoint at a cash machine, but his assailant doesn't want his money, he just wants to lead Roger around the city from behind using the threat of his weapon. It would be a great one-sit read, but as life has it this took me around 6 reads to get through, which made things a little disjointed.
The fascinating thing is how Roger reacts throughout to events as the story comes from the first person. Not much more I would want to say for fear of giving anything away, but would recommend as a different take on noir.
The fascinating thing is how Roger reacts throughout to events as the story comes from the first person. Not much more I would want to say for fear of giving anything away, but would recommend as a different take on noir.
July 1, 2019
The ‘normal average guy(it’s almost always a guy) getting thrown into a not so normal situation is a well used trope in noir. However, no one has quite done it like Pablo D’Stair has in A Man Standing Behind. Gripping from page one as the protagonist, Roger finds himself on the wrong end of a gun held by a man named Donald. This starts an unpredictable, harrowing, and violent journey for both him and the reader.
D’Stair, thankfully, follows the John Carpenter Halloween model of not bothering to spend a lot of time on the why Roger is committing these evil acts or why he has chosen Roger to accompany him keeping the reader on par with the narrator, which only adds to the suspense and sense of dread that permeates every page.
D’Stair, thankfully, follows the John Carpenter Halloween model of not bothering to spend a lot of time on the why Roger is committing these evil acts or why he has chosen Roger to accompany him keeping the reader on par with the narrator, which only adds to the suspense and sense of dread that permeates every page.
June 24, 2019
Absolute noir brilliance. Nothing else need be said.
Read
October 13, 2021DNF: Another novelist who thinks it's cool to not use quotation marks around the dialog.
May 22, 2011
This review originally appeared at Outsider Writers Collective
With Man Standing Behind, Pablo D’Stair completes his set of thematically linked “existential noir” novellas, collectively called They Say the Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter.
As with most of D’Stair’s work, plot has been loosened in favor of the conflicted protagonist’s internal dilemmas. In the case of Man Standing Behind, the loose plot involves our central character, Roger, being held at gun-point by Donald, a patient, self-assured (or so we assume) murderer with unknown motivations. Donald leads Roger throughout their small, nondescript town, killing people with nonchalance that in any other author’s hands might define Donald as a soulless psychopath. And though he may be a psychopath we learn that the killer is perhaps just as confused by his actions as both Roger and the reader. The novella therefore reads as a meandering (purposefully) series of mental struggles, attempts to rationalize escape (“Not that I could leave, certainly”),to rationalize survival (“I didn’t want to give him any reason to think I might be trying something”), and to rationalize motivation (“There was very much the impulse to…bring attention to my situation. But what was my situation?”).
The keyword being, of course, rationalize.
This is where D’Stair shines. He has the ability to take a situation, one which might traditionally be addressed emotionally, and analyze it to the point of emotional emptiness. Life and death, to D’Stair’s narrators, is not a fight or flight, subconscious decision, but is one to be pondered, examined, weighed against context. In the first novella of the collection, Kaspar Traulhaine, approximate, we are privy to the killer’s (a different killer than Man Standing Behind) self-examination. Next, with i poisoned you, the narrator wedges his logic into the illogic of love. Then, with Twelve ELEVEN Thirteen, a man is consumed by his attempts to rationalize the appearance of a stranger in his apartment building hallway.
Man Standing Behind acts as a logical extension to the previous three novellas, building upon the self-reflection that saturated those books while allowing the narrator to, for perhaps the first time in the series, project upon the world outside himself. One key statement, on page 57, summarizes this book, and the entire series, beautifully:
“I looked at him, felt dead.”
Man Standing Behind is essentially a story of limbo, of a man once alive, now somewhere between life and death. But more importantly, this is a man conscious of his position.
With Man Standing Behind, Pablo D’Stair completes his set of thematically linked “existential noir” novellas, collectively called They Say the Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter.
As with most of D’Stair’s work, plot has been loosened in favor of the conflicted protagonist’s internal dilemmas. In the case of Man Standing Behind, the loose plot involves our central character, Roger, being held at gun-point by Donald, a patient, self-assured (or so we assume) murderer with unknown motivations. Donald leads Roger throughout their small, nondescript town, killing people with nonchalance that in any other author’s hands might define Donald as a soulless psychopath. And though he may be a psychopath we learn that the killer is perhaps just as confused by his actions as both Roger and the reader. The novella therefore reads as a meandering (purposefully) series of mental struggles, attempts to rationalize escape (“Not that I could leave, certainly”),to rationalize survival (“I didn’t want to give him any reason to think I might be trying something”), and to rationalize motivation (“There was very much the impulse to…bring attention to my situation. But what was my situation?”).
The keyword being, of course, rationalize.
This is where D’Stair shines. He has the ability to take a situation, one which might traditionally be addressed emotionally, and analyze it to the point of emotional emptiness. Life and death, to D’Stair’s narrators, is not a fight or flight, subconscious decision, but is one to be pondered, examined, weighed against context. In the first novella of the collection, Kaspar Traulhaine, approximate, we are privy to the killer’s (a different killer than Man Standing Behind) self-examination. Next, with i poisoned you, the narrator wedges his logic into the illogic of love. Then, with Twelve ELEVEN Thirteen, a man is consumed by his attempts to rationalize the appearance of a stranger in his apartment building hallway.
Man Standing Behind acts as a logical extension to the previous three novellas, building upon the self-reflection that saturated those books while allowing the narrator to, for perhaps the first time in the series, project upon the world outside himself. One key statement, on page 57, summarizes this book, and the entire series, beautifully:
“I looked at him, felt dead.”
Man Standing Behind is essentially a story of limbo, of a man once alive, now somewhere between life and death. But more importantly, this is a man conscious of his position.
August 15, 2011
You’re standing alone at the ATM machine. Suddenly a man pulls a gun on you. He doesn’t want your money. He wants you to come with him. Where? For what reason? What’s coming next? Who is this man? What can you do?
That’s the startling beginning of this short and suspenseful novelette by D’Stair. It’s a great premise, like a classic noir film or novel or an especially good Twilight Zone episode. The book maintains the pace, the suspense, and the sense of dread throughout. The focus is on the protagonists’s mental anguish, as he must try to figure out what’s going on, whether or not to act, and when.
Anyone who likes the more literary of the noir novels published by Black Lizard books or Stark House or Hard Case Crime should consider checking this out, along with the Trevor Knight novelettes by the same author. You can buy it at Amazon for a very reasonable price, or download it for free from the Smashwords website.
That’s the startling beginning of this short and suspenseful novelette by D’Stair. It’s a great premise, like a classic noir film or novel or an especially good Twilight Zone episode. The book maintains the pace, the suspense, and the sense of dread throughout. The focus is on the protagonists’s mental anguish, as he must try to figure out what’s going on, whether or not to act, and when.
Anyone who likes the more literary of the noir novels published by Black Lizard books or Stark House or Hard Case Crime should consider checking this out, along with the Trevor Knight novelettes by the same author. You can buy it at Amazon for a very reasonable price, or download it for free from the Smashwords website.
June 5, 2011
I liked this book a lot. The style was very interesting, a stream-of-conciousness type thing. I haven't read the other related novels, but I'm sure it would be even better after reading them. I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews