Is a monster still a monster if it knows it’s a monster? Stand-up comedian Sam Tallent has fashioned a golem-like creature called Billy Ray Shafer and set him on an anti-hero’s odyssey into a hell entirely of his own making in Running the Light (independently published), a book that is sometimes so funny it hurts. Along the way I cringed every time Billy Ray blew yet another opportunity to save himself, but I never gave up on the man, no matter how low he sank. How Tallent tricked me into rooting for this trainwreck is a mystery I’m happy to leave unsolved.
Our culture’s reckoning over toxic masculinity is aimed directly at the Billy Rays of the world. It’s a testament to Tallent’s skill as a storyteller that I empathized so much with a character who’s so flawed. Empathy doesn’t mean endorsing the man’s actions. That’s one of the key things that separates art from policy-making. A portrait of an ugly man can be valuable without approving his actions in the slightest. What art has to do is feel real, and Billy Ray Shafer is rendered in hi-def despite being a figment of Sam Tallent’s imagination.
