Night Within Night

Is a normal life enough ...?

Whatever happened to the great American dream? 

It turned into the urban nightmare as Mark Rogers’ anti-hero Matt soon discovers in his bleak new novel, Night Within Night.

The young New Yorker is married to his beautiful student-day sweetheart Gwen; they have two kids and Matt a promising job working with a record wholesaler.

It’s a normal life. The bills and bank account are almost in balance. The whole family loves, fights, kisses and makes up.

But is it enough? 

The path of true love becomes less clear after Matt opts to join an old friend Lloyd who has set up his own wholesale video business while Gwen nurtures literary aspirations. 

Things really start to unravel when Lloyd is persuaded to enter into a little counterfeiting operation to boost profits after being introduced to a ‘contact’ – another former friend – of Matt’s.

The grateful boss drops Matt a $750 bonus – and temptation suddenly rears its ugly head. Instead of sharing his good fortune with his family, Matt decides his jaded love-life needs spicing up. 

First, he embarks with a friend on a little street cruising in red light districts to try his hand. 

Finding things to his liking, Matt is encouraged to try a brothel scene burgeoning with Asian beauties.

The descent into self-destructive depravity is slow but sure and Matt begins to lose a grip. 

How can he convince a vulnerable Korean prostitute they can escape to a life together in the suburbs? 

Will Lloyd put business before friendship when Matt’s work suffers through his drinking and whoring? 

How will Gwen react when she discovers Matt’s secrets? 

How low will a man go when he has acquired the taste for dirt?

Night within Night graphically portrays the amoral morass that blights the urban landscape where the delights of the flesh are always on offer but often at a devastating price. 

Mark Rogers’ urbane style is satisfyingly taut, reminiscent of great American writers like Ernest Hemingway and William Saroyan.