DSL October Read: Dusty's Pick
The Collected Stories of T.C. BoyleYeah, that Robert Johnson story is downright creepy.
The one about the chef and the restaurant critic isn't bad either.
posted by mary_m @ 10:58 PM
Thursday, September 28, 2006
The Collected Stories of T.C. BoyleYeah, that Robert Johnson story is downright creepy.
The one about the chef and the restaurant critic isn't bad either.
Not your momma's book club.
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9 Comments:
That's a good point. So many collections of short stories are just throw-aways - plotless and full of boring navel gazing. In the ones that don't work, I find that there's not really a story... the big climactic hinge is just that the narrator "realizes something" or changes in a fairly insular way.
Two writers whose short stories I really admire are Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies) and Tim Gautreaux (Same Place, Same Things, Welding With Children).
Their writing isn't similar, but both of them write stories where things happen. Not big things, necessarily. What makes them work is that the characters have complicated and realistic emotional responses that harmonize with what's going on plot-wise.
I guess it goes back to the Fiction 101 thing. Everything - dialogue, characters, setting, story - has to snap together like a puzzle. The trick is to do it without letting the seams show.
Check out "Big Game." It's a take on Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," but it's surreal and twisted without being gimmicky.
I haven't gotten the book through interlibrary loan yet! It's in the mail somewhere. As soon as I get it, I'll comment away!
Oh, I have to interlibrary loan pretty much everything. Remember, I live in the Middle of Nowhere, Utah. The library just mailed it media mail instead of first class, so it's taking forever to arrive.
I like picking around at the book like this - very low key and pleasant reading.
Just read another good one: "Sitting On Top of the World." It's about a woman who is stationed at a lookout in the middle of the woods, watching for fires, and an unwelcome visitor.
It kind of reminds me of a Stephen King story (shut up... I love him).
Jesus, I've been a bad bookclub member. I have read the recommendations for Dustin, though. Really good. I really liked "The 101 Faces of Death"(I think that's what it's called and also the first story in the collection, the one Karen mentioned about the body condom called "Modern Love". I'm really surprised I hadn't read any T.C. Boyle before. He's dark, funny, cynical; everything I like in writers. Dustin: you used the word "smarmy". What does that mean? I heard Evie's Dr. use it the other day talking about John Stiratt from Wilco. IS this yankee speak you've accidentally picked up. At first I thought she said "swarthy" b/c he unbuttons his shirts way down and what not, but no-she said smarmy. Enlighten me. BTW, don't hold back and not let the group in on your good news. I don't want to ruin yer surprise, so tell it. John
Speaking of T.C.B.'s novels (wow... I wish those were my initials), which ones have you read?
The only one I've read is the Kinsey book, The Inner Circle. Unfortunately, it came out the same year as the film and didn't seem as clever as a result, even though it was much, much better.
I guess it's official the book isn't coming in--the library says it's still in transit, and they have no idea when it'll arrive. Sorry for not being able to participate this month.
Everything I've read about Drop City pretty much says it's great, but for some reason, I've steered away from it. I guess there's a certain kind of California fiction that I shy away from, although I'm not sure why.
I love the crime stuff, but for some reason, anything that deals with ordinary Californians... especially when it's written by Californians. I feel like after a certain point, you become (insert zombie voice here) ONE OF THEM, and nothing that a zombie CA writer has to say can be trusted.
Then again, if hippies are torn into, well, I might be able to get behind that.
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