Passersthrough

Rock’s (The Night Swimmers) newest opens with such strangeness—a daughter stating that she only wants to communicate with her father via fax machine—that it’s nearly impossible not to keep going. Listeners soon learn that the daughter, Helen, wishes to unpack a mysterious incident from her past but is unable to express herself directly. The narrative absolutely drips with dread, although Eric Jason Martin’s matter-of-fact narration of Helen’s father Benjamin suggests complete equanimity. Benjamin’s acceptance of every disturbing happening demonstrates that Martin’s approach is the correct one, although listeners may remain confused as to why Benjamin is so willing to immerse himself in the increasingly bizarre landscape and form relationships with unsettling passersby. The faxed transcripts used in place of in-person conversations is an odd choice for audio, but it doesn’t detract for more than a moment. This is not a novel for listeners who want concrete answers, but rather for ones who gain satisfaction from eerie settings and disturbing moments that provide plenty of fodder for hypotheses and questions.