tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34619300722069726242024-03-05T04:39:29.023-06:00New Yorker Story CritiquesThoughtful, constructive analyses of stories published in <i>The New Yorker.</i> Posts are headed by the title of the story and the date of the issue in which it appears. Summary evaluations are offered on a four-point scale: weak, satisfactory, strong, and outstanding. Polls allow readers to record their own evaluations for up to two weeks from the posting date. SPOILER ALERT ON ALL CRITIQUES!Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-7034569265672002482013-09-12T16:00:00.001-05:002013-09-12T16:00:55.943-05:00Blogging hiatusIf you hadn't guessed, life has finally intervened (in a good way) and made it impossible for me to keep up with this blog the way I would like. I may move to a scaled-down version, with just a couple of sentences and a rating, but I don't want to make any promises I'll end up regretting.<br />
<br />
Thanks to all of you for reading. It's been fun!Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-59298028893320724552013-08-26T05:00:00.000-05:002013-08-26T05:00:09.338-05:00"Victory"By Yu Hua<br />
Translated from the Chinese by Allan Barr<br />
~5400 words<br />
<br />
A woman craves a confrontation with her cheating husband.<br />
<br />
After discovering a key hidden in her husband's dresser while he is away traveling, Lin Hong snoops out the lock it opens, in Li Hanlin's desk at work, where she finds two pictures of a woman she assumes he's having an affair with. When he returns home she confronts him about it, but he insists the relationship never went beyond a kiss. Unsatisfied, Lin Hong desires to humiliate Li Hanlin until he begs forgiveness, but he responds in such a passive way that it stymies all her efforts. Finally the couple decides to divorce, and on the way to the registry office they enter a coffee shop for a last drink together, where the husband's mistress is seated, providing Lin Hong with the opportunity for vengeance she has been craving.<br />
<br />
The story starts off well. The discovery of the key, wrapped inside three envelopes, sets up a bit of mystery, and Lin Hong's emotions are well portrayed. But ultimately I did not find her to be a sympathetic character, which is key for me in a good story. I also thought the perspective was muddled. The story is clearly about Lin Hong, so why let the POV drift so frequently — and to no apparent purpose — into that of her husband? There are also a few logistical details that just don't make sense. For example, Lin Hong sees two pictures of her husband's mistress, but when she finds her in person the coffee shop in the final scene, it seems that she recognizes her more through a process of deduction ("put two and two together").<br />
<br />
Yu's language feels week, almost voiceless, which may have something to do with the translation. I wonder, too, about the sentence "She was making inroads into their savings." It's clearly meant in a negative way, as in "She was eating up their savings," but doesn't the phrase "to make inroads" normally have a positive connotation?<br />
<br />
Finally, if you're going to base a story on a cliché like "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," it seems like you'd want to find some original ways to tell it. Unfortunately Yu Hua doesn't show us many, with the possible exception of the ending, which at any rate comes too late to redeem this piece.<br />
<br />
Weak.<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7347072/">Reader poll: I found "Victory" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-82309778834011324202013-08-12T05:00:00.000-05:002013-08-12T05:00:06.059-05:00"Meet the President!"By Zadie Smith<br />
~4700 words<br />
<br />
In a dystopian future, a cosmopolitan adolescent testing a virtual reality device is interrupted by a pair of downtrodden locals.<br />
<br />
Fourteen-year-old Bill Peek knows no nationality other than that of the Incipio Security Group, the global surveillance firm for which his father works. As the story opens, he stands on a desolate beach in Felixstowe, England while his father inspects a nearby facility. Reduced to a squalid little town of 850, Felixstowe sits amid the vast swampland known as England, where "[t]he only people left […] were the ones who couldn't leave." (A clever allusion to the Felixstowe flood of 1958—"A hundred years earlier, almost to the very month, a quaint flood had killed only forty-eight people"—places the story in the year 2058, though the exact nature of the calamity that brings about the bleak landscape is never revealed.) Confronted by two locals, a woman and a little girl on their way to a funeral, Bill Peek is torn between his "empathy for the dispossessed" (prized by his instructors at the Pathways Global Institute) and his desire to participate fully in the sprawling fantasy world of his new toy.<br />
<br />
In one sense, this story may be read a cautionary fable about the dangers of technology in the age of the surveillance state. That is certainly a timely message, though not a particularly original one. In a second sense, it might interpreted as a kind of allegory of social differentiation and class privilege. That, too, is interesting but not particularly original.<br />
<br />
The story's real potential, I think, lies in its characters, primarily in Bill Peek's character, since everything is told from his perspective. In this third sense, unfortunately, the story comes up short. One problem is that the narrator always refers to the protagonist as Bill Peek, never just plain old Bill, creating a subtle distance that undermines the play for the reader's sympathy:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That's how much my father loves me, Bill Peek thought hopefully, that's how much he wants me around.</blockquote>
Additionally, though there is an admirable amount of complexity in Bill Peek's character, the unfamiliar circumstances of the setting keep us from grasping the full significance. Sure, some of it comes through: he's a futuristic version of the military brat, a supranational being whose entire childhood has unfolded in the protective bubble of the Incipio Security Group. But we need more than that. How are we to interpret, for example, the choices Bill Peek makes in his virtual simulation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He picked out a large pair of breasts, for reasons of his own, and a long, scaled tail, for purposes of strangulation.</blockquote>
Come on. You can't just throw out a detail like that without the slightest explanation. What are these mysterious "reasons of his own"? Is Bill Peek transgendered? Does he harbor a secret desire to be a mermaid? Maybe he's just a typical alienated teen? We aren't allowed to know, and that's a shame. Besides thwarting our ability to understand his interaction with the locals, which is rich in dramatic and psychological potential, the cipher of Bill Peek's character shrouds the story's final sentences in unnecessary enigma.<br />
<br />
"Meet the President!" is an ambitious tale that satisfies on a superficial level but disappoints on a deeper one.<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
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~4100 words<br />
<br />
A man being followed through the streets of New York begins to wonder if he is paranoid.<br />
<br />
Soon after the timid Halloran Beresford buys a box of chocolates for his wife on her birthday, he notices the man in the mustache and light-colored hat. He continues to see him at various points on his way home, despite going to extraordinary lengths to avoid him, at times feeling threatened and, at others, wondering if he is imagining the whole thing. When he arrives home, anxious and exhausted, his wife demonstrates concern over his appearance but then locks herself in the hallway, where he overhears her on the phone: "Listen, he came here after all. I've got him."<br />
<br />
I thought this story was reasonably well written, boasting a good dose of tension and intrigue and some interesting psychological insights into the main character. I was disappointed in the ending, however, which seemed far too predictable, and the language is nothing to write home about.<br />
<br />
Posthumous stories are kind of like that box of chocolates Halloran Beresford carries under his arm: as Forrest Gump famously quipped, you never know what you're gonna get. In the case of "Paranoia," we get a rich, tempting exterior aound a weak, flavorless center.<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
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<div>
~6800 words</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Two men from different social backgrounds become lovers in prison.<br />
<br />
Rogelio is an illiterate rural kid arrested for transporting drug money for his brother. Henry is a writer jailed for a subversive play about the country's president. (The name of the country is not revealed, but it would appear to be somewhere in Latin America.) They end up in the same cell in the country's most infamous prison, called Collectors, where they become friends and then lovers. Henry is released after a year and a half, but Rogelio dies in a prison riot.<br />
<br />
Despite a compelling plot with several potentially poignant moments, this story failed to move me. The problems begin, I think, with the divided perspective. The narrative opens in Rogelio's point of view but switches to Henry's on the second page and never returns. Henry is clearly the main character, which makes the choice of initial perspective rather baffling. And even once the POV switches to Henry, it becomes a bit fuzzy on occasion, for example:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It was an idea that all new inmates contemplated upon first entering the prison." How would Henry know such a thing?</blockquote>
And:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"She was perfect, he said, and she was…" Do we really need that secondary narrative confirmation? Ironically, it undermines Henry's POV rather than reinforcing it.</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
I also found the emphasis on chronological precision (three dates are mentioned: 1980, 1982, and April 8, 1986) a bit odd, especially given that details such as the name of country are never revealed.<br />
<br />
Finally, the story felt on the unoriginal side to me. Prison stories are not exactly new, nor are those of prison love, and this one doesn't do much in my view to rise above the competition. In general, Alarcón borrows too heavily from the Latin American writers he clearly admires: the prison lovers from Puig's <i>Kiss of the Spider Woman</i> and the sweeping perspective of García Márquez's <i>A Hundred Years of Solitude</i> come to mind.<br />
<br />
"Collectors" is a passable story that misses many opportunities to be exceptional.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Satisfactory.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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~7600 words<br />
<br />
With his wife and kids away for the weekend, a man stays out late drinking with an old friend and finds a strange visitor awaiting him the following morning.<br />
<br />
Robert Childress wakes up with a blinding hangover and finds, in the spot by the side of the bed where he threw up in the middle of the night, an object<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
about the size of an eggplant, though in color more reddish brown, its body a mishmash of textures and lumps, a goulash molded into a ghoul. There was a shape that resembled a head, plus four distinct parts that roughly corresponded with two arms and two legs, further articulated by an assumption of ten fingers and ten toes, presently wriggling.</blockquote>
The rest of the story follows how Robert deals with this "creature," from initially trying to bury it in his backyard to eventually outfitting it in diapers and feeding it sweet potato baby food, until Becka and the kids return at the end of the story. By that point it has become reasonably clear that the creature is some sort of projection of Robert, filtered through bruised memories of childhood and reflections on a marriage that seems to be in deep trouble.<br />
<br />
This story has many fine qualities. The plot is unusual but never strains credibility, nor does it try to pull off an O. Henry ending; at bottom it is a universal tale of a man struggling desperately for redemption. A keen grasp of human nature comes across in the complexity of the main character, who is deeply flawed but also deeply aware of his flaws:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Robert wondered if he was simply good at lying, or withholding, or whatever it was that he often did, or if Becka was too trusting and a savvier wife would have seen through him.</blockquote>
This type of self-reflection, as long as it doesn't cross the line into self-pity (and it doesn't in this case), makes for an ultimately sympathetic character.<br />
<br />
Finally, Gilbert's language is beautiful. He has a knack for walking a nearly impossible line between the absurd and the heartbreaking, a talent that seeps into the story's imagery, from a turkey baster that sits "like a rogue exclamation mark" in Robert's hand to the muffled sounds coming from the creature's makeshift grave, "as if the earth were a heartbroken pillow."<br />
<br />
My only objection to "From a Farther Room" is the ick factor. Yes, I know that's part of the point, but the descriptions of the creature are just a little too disgusting for me to say I really loved the story. But it's a powerful piece of fiction any way you measure it.<br />
<br />
Strong.<br />
<br />
<br />
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~3700 words<br />
<br />
A man discovers his new wife is a pathological liar.<br />
<br />
Bud, whose real name is Thomas, is on his honeymoon with his wife Arden, whose real name is Nedra (Arden spelled backwards). Arden has a habit of inventing excuses to explain why she's perpetually late, and Bud has always explained it to himself as a sort of unspoken agreement, "that she could spin transparent yarns and he would indulge her, would even be amused by their transparency." But a phone call from his brother at the beginning of the story reveals that the problem is much more disturbing, and he spends the remainder of the narrative trying to figure out how to handle the revelation before Arden returns (of course she's late).<br />
<br />
This is a story all about intriguing characters. Let's begin with Arden. She rips off her own bridesmaids for $250 each. She neglects to leave a tip for a waitress and then blames it on Bud. She hides her real name from close friends. And of course she can't seem to tell her husband the truth about anything. Which brings us to Bud. Sexually dysfunctional with his wife, he compares her smile to his mother's (who tells Bud about a recurrent dream of hers in which she embraces a strange man) and has a creepy attraction to a portrait of Arden's grandmother (a marijuana dealer who hanged herself in prison—the Nedra that Arden doesn't want to be named after):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In fact, she looked sort of Republican, in the way of his own grandmother and his aunts and their friends, a type he'd always been attracted to—women who smoked and drank cocktails and wore glittering rings and perfume and mink coats, which he liked to hang up for them, stroking the fur that somehow brought in the cold on winter nights.</blockquote>
But Bud's biggest problem is that he covers up Arden's lying to others and refuses to confront her about it. He can't even bear the thought of her knowing he knows: "She would never forgive him for knowing." He's apparently decided that he can't risk losing her because she broke off her engagement to a wealthy art dealer in order to marry Bud. It probably also helps that she doesn't complain about Bud's sexual dysfunction (though he's a little disconcerted by her remark that those things happen to men "all the time").<br />
<br />
Both Arden and Bud, it turns out, have a serious problem with the truth, and their relationship is founded on lies. How fitting that neither of them even goes by their real name.<br />
<br />
This brief story really sneaks up on you. You start out thinking it's going to be about Arden and her lying, and you wonder a bit about the stakes, which seem pretty low, maybe even humorous. But then it takes a serious turn, and you realize the stakes are much higher, having to do with Bud's enabling of his wife's behavior. Bud, in fact, is the only character to appear in the present timeframe (Arden shows up in backstory only). While that might normally be a problem, it works perfectly in a story about the idea a man has crafted of his wife.<br />
<br />
My main quibble is with the mother's dream, which seems a bit shoehorned in and then, at the end, rather forced when Bud makes the comparison to Arden's smile. Actually, it seems more appropriate to compare Bud himself to his mother's role in the dream, as he no longer recognizes the woman he has married but is prepared to embrace her anyway. Perhaps the confusion is intentional, but it didn't work for me. Finally, the language of the story is decent but not exceptional.<br />
<br />
"All Ahead of Them" is a sobering tale of co-dependency that gets high marks for its compelling, well-wrought characters.<br />
<br />
Strong.<br />
<br />
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~5200 words<br />
<br />
A woman's companion intervenes when a mastiff turns on her.<br />
<br />
The main character, whose name is Mariella but is always referred to as "the woman," is hiking with a man she has recently begun dating (the man's name is revealed as Simon toward the end of the story). As she hikes, the woman reflects on her ambivalence toward Simon and on her own insecurities. One such insecurity, a fear of dogs she has harbored since childhood, is triggered by a mastiff she encounters on the hiking trail. When the dog later attempts to attack her, Simon intervenes and is critically wounded. The ER doctors save him, and the woman is left to reevaluate her earlier ambivalence.<br />
<br />
The story's strength lies in the way in which the woman, who is not a particularly sympathetic character, is forced to confront her prior feelings toward Simon. Unfortunately, various elements undermine the force of this denouement. First, the reference to the characters as "the man" and "the woman," even though their names are revealed (the woman's at the beginning and the man's at the end), is a bit baffling, generating a narrative coldness that retards character development. Second, the POV is rather lazy toward the beginning, drifting from the main character for no good reason ("The friend, closer to the man than to the woman, had said to the man…"; "The man was a little annoyed by the woman. Yet he was drawn to her…" etc.). Third, the woman's canine phobia feels like a convenient stock element—do we need her to be terrified of dogs in order to be attacked by one?—and the choice of a mastiff seems particularly stereotypical (and a bit unfair to the breed, which is not as prone to attack as some others).<br />
<br />
Finally, Joyce's language is not at its finest here, from awkward images (the sun sets like a "broken bloody egg") to cliched language (the woman's eyelids "were so heavy she could barely keep them open") to an over-reliance on adverbs (the dog barks furiously, the woman recalls longingly and listens avidly, the man feels sharply, the dog's master shouts futilely, the woman's heart beats erratically, etc.).<br />
<br />
"Mastiff" has a good story to tell, but it is burdened by conventional language and unsatisfying narrative choices.<br />
<br />
Barely satisfactory.<br />
<br />
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~3600 words<br />
<br />
A depressed astronomer finds herself unraveling after she witnesses a hunter kill a wolf.<br />
<br />
When Jessica lashes out against the hunter in the first section of the story, it comes across as understandable given her appreciation of nature as expressed in the opening paragraphs. But as the narrative proceeds, it becomes clear that her angry reaction is part of a general hatred of the world including those who care most about her. In the end she decides to take a leave of absence from work and ends up walking "day after day in the hills and mountains around town."<br />
<br />
The story begins with a compelling scene but goes downhill from there. Unlikeable protagonists such as Jessica are always a challenge, but they can be successfully developed in several ways, such as: 1) having them make interesting comments about the world or, alternatively, banal comments with interesting language; 2) having them demonstrate self-awareness about their weaknesses; and 3) having them change or evolve over the course of the story. I'm sure there are other possibilities, but these are some of the most prominent.<br />
<br />
Of the three, the only one Jessica comes close to is #2: "She wondered if she was just too inflexible" she thinks at one point and "There was no denying her malice" at another. She even seeks counseling, though of course she ends up hating her therapist and, in the end, never seems genuinely bothered by her failings. They're more of an intellectual conundrum for her. Consequently, she is never more than an intellectual conundrum for the reader.<br />
<br />
Regarding the other two points (1 and 3), Jessica shows no personal growth (if anything her trajectory is a downward spiral), and her way of thinking about the world is vapid and pedestrian. Her most significant insights are that "she might have been happier as a dog" (which is quickly contradicted) and that "The way geologists are liberated in time, […] astronomers are freed by space" (though later she wonders why she ever became an astronomer).<br />
<br />
Similarly, the story's diction is worn and sometimes puzzling: we read of the "crystalline depths" of the plunge pool, a "minor wave of optimism, ascribable to either caffeine or the sunrise," the "gooberish" manner of the therapist, and Jessica's "sightless" exit through the reception area. There's even a dangling participle toward the end ("shivering and waving her on in disgust," which refers to Andy, not the chill).<br />
<br />
I do appreciate McGuane's brevity, as I think that "the longer the better" is a temptation too many authors succumb to. But brevity is one thing; incompleteness is another. And "Stars," with its underdeveloped protagonist and unpolished language, feels incomplete.<br />
<br />
Weak.<br />
<br />
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~13,900 words<br />
<br />
Two brothers in Calcutta grow up in post-colonial India, their youthful adventures prefiguring a future that will be marked by violence.<br />
<br />
At nearly 14,000 words, this story is nearly a saga in miniature. It reaches back to the 1940s, but gets up a head of steam in the fifties, when two brothers—Subhash, the elder, and Udayan, the junior—engage in nightly hijinks at the Tolly Club golf course, scaling the walls of this remnant of the colonial world in order to whack a few balls into the dusk with a bent putter. A police officer with a mean streak puts an end to this mischief, but the die is cast: Udayan has started a long career of dragging his older brother into trouble.<br />
<br />
Eventually the problems turn political. After all, the brothers come of age in the sixties, and Udayan is singing the praises of communism. While Udayan flaunts authority and flirts with danger, cautious Subhash escapes to the US on a student visa, drawn by the sirens of security and science. It’s three years before he receives a telegram about his brother’s death, prompting Subhash’s return to the old neighborhood to find out how the police murdered his rebellious sibling. In a final gesture of brotherly love, he stands up to his parents and their traditions, and he offers to take in Udayan’s pregnant wife.<br />
<br />
“Brotherly Love” is a captivating piece. Lahiri shows her trademark skill at portraying family dynamics, each member of the clan tilting toward different objectives. In the midst of tension, affection bubbles up. For those of us needing a refresher course on the fractious politics of the era, the author provides just enough detail to allow us to cobble it together. We may miss some of the details, but the gist is clear. Most important, though, is the relationship of the brothers, who are bound by their adventures and close calls, by the double bind of mutual admiration and rivalry. Lahiri draws this exquisitely. Nowhere is it clearer than in the encounter preceding their break:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You’re the other side of me, Subhash. It’s without you that I’m nothing. Don’t go.<br />
<br />
It was the only time he’d admitted such a thing. He’d said it with love in his voice. With need.<br />
<br />
But Subhash heard it as a command, one of so many he’d capitulated to all his life. Another exhortation to do as Udayan did, to follow him.</blockquote>
And thus Subhash departs, striking out for America, where he follows his hotheaded brother’s endeavors via a series of cryptic letters, understanding too late where it all will lead.<br />
<br />
“Brotherly Love” is too long for a short story. Instead, it is the most concise of novels: Lahiri creates a world in these pages, flowing from the specific to the general, then springing back. Nicest of all, perhaps, is the way she develops the initial image of the Tolly Club, of the low ponds, and of the transgression represented by that first scramble over the wall. This scene prefigures all the rest, and we find the same dynamic as youthful exuberance matures into rebellion and even violence, always crushed by authority. The story is marked by images of crossing over—whether the boundary be a fence, an ocean, a padlocked gate, or the border between relationships. By the end, we have learned something. Like Subhash, we too might stand a little straighter in the face of injustice.<br />
<br />
Outstanding.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Also from the crime-fiction issue: "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-scenes-of-crime.html" target="_blank">Scenes of the Crime</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-happy-trails.html" target="_blank">Happy Trails</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-slide-to-unlock.html" target="_blank">Slide to Unlock</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-rough-deeds.html" target="_blank">Rough Deeds</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-inch-and-half-of.html" target="_blank">An Inch and a Half of Glory</a>."Dominicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01652118509356905711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-34712903033870946082013-06-10T05:04:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:46:52.925-05:00Crime-Fiction Issue: "Scenes of the Crime"By Cormac McCarthy<br />
~3300 words<br />
<br />
Shit happens along the US-Mexican border: drugs get transported, people die violently, a truck leaks sewage, and not a word is spoken.<br />
<br />
Because this is a film script (excerpted and adapted, no less) rather than a short story, I don't feel particularly qualified to evaluate it. Please feel free to register your own opinion using the poll or comment thread.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Also from the crime-fiction issue: "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-brotherly-love.html" target="_blank">Brotherly Love</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-happy-trails.html" target="_blank">Happy Trails</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-slide-to-unlock.html" target="_blank">Slide to Unlock</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-rough-deeds.html" target="_blank">Rough Deeds</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-inch-and-half-of.html" target="_blank">An Inch and a Half of Glory</a>."Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-71080830113591608222013-06-10T05:03:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:40:56.102-05:00Crime-Fiction Issue: "Happy Trails"By Sherman Alexie<br />
~1400 words<br />
<br />
A man comes to terms with his uncle's disappearance some four decades earlier.<br />
<br />
When the unnamed narrator was seven years old, his favorite relative, Uncle Hector, left the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation on a hitchhiking trip to Spokane and never returned. Forty-one years later, the narrator convinces his mother that it's time to "bury" Hector. As an empty casket is laid into the ground at a Catholic cemetery, the narrator comes to an uncomfortable conclusion about how his uncle died.<br />
<br />
The story's strength lies in the narrator's deprecating self-awareness and wry humor as he spins a tragic tale of poverty, alcoholism, and violence. The language, however, is clichéd at times—"I loved her so much," "our worst losses and our greatest beauty," etc.—and the narrative tends to meander. It's unclear, for example, what the narrator's romantic relationship to his cousin has to do with his uncle's disappearance. Such distractions lead to clumsy narrative transitions such as "Anyway…" (used twice). Finally, the long paragraph about Hector's grandmother feels too much like a pretext for slipping in a lesson on Native American history.<br />
<br />
Despite its problems, "Happy Trails" is a worthy meditation on the meaning of loss and the many social problems that confront American Indians in contemporary society.<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
<script charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7149828.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
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<br />
Also from the crime-fiction issue: "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-brotherly-love.html" target="_blank">Brotherly Love</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-scenes-of-crime.html" target="_blank">Scenes of the Crime</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-slide-to-unlock.html" target="_blank">Slide to Unlock</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-rough-deeds.html" target="_blank">Rough Deeds</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-inch-and-half-of.html" target="_blank">An Inch and a Half of Glory</a>."Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-63447516258473155912013-06-10T05:02:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:47:06.478-05:00Crime-Fiction Issue: "Slide to Unlock"By Ed Park<br />
~1100 words<br />
<br />
A man contemplates the logic behind his many cyber passwords.<br />
<br />
Most of the sentences in the story explain the logic behind one password or another: "Your daughter's name backward plus the year of her birth" or "Your daughter's best friend's name backward" or "The girl at work backward and lowercase plus last two digits of current year." Every once in a while the flow is interrupted by a two-word sentence in italics: Stop stalling. Only in the last paragraph is it revealed why the protagonist is rehearsing his passwords in this manner.<br />
<br />
I liked the premise of this piece, but I have a few objections. First, I don't find second-person narratives convincing when they are really just a substitute for first-person. If there is a good reason—shame or psychological remoteness, for example—for the narrator to distance himself, the second-person can be effective (Junot Díaz's "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2012/04/miss-lora.html" target="_blank">Miss Lora</a>" and "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-cheaters-guide-to-love.html" target="_blank">The Cheater's Guide to Love</a>" come to mind in this regard). But I don't see the justification here; instead it feels like a phony attempt at suspense. Second, the transition into the last section feels artificial for me and, to some extent, defies the general logic of the narrative in order to set up an O. Henry ending.<br />
<br />
Though not without flaws, "Slide to Unlock" is an entertaining story built on a unique premise to which we can all relate.<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
<script charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7149819.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
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<br />
Also from the crime-fiction issue: "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-brotherly-love.html" target="_blank">Brotherly Love</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-scenes-of-crime.html" target="_blank">Scenes of the Crime</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-happy-trails.html" target="_blank">Happy Trails</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-rough-deeds.html" target="_blank">Rough Deeds</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-inch-and-half-of.html" target="_blank">An Inch and a Half of Glory</a>."Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-20567858093142299472013-06-10T05:01:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:47:17.018-05:00Crime-Fiction Issue: "Rough Deeds"By Annie Proulx<br />
~5100 words<br />
<br />
A timber rush in colonial New England sets up a
confrontation between a French trader and a Scottish mill owner.<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having fled to New France (Canada) from a suffocating existence
across the Atlantic, Duquet parlays his frontier skills and connections with
refined Bostonians into a small timber empire in the forests of Maine. But his success
breeds competition, and when he captures a tree poacher on his land and tortures him, the victim's father plots a grisly revenge.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a well-researched piece, rich in historical detail.
Proulx is adept at showing how national political rivalries are no impediment
to the frontier ambitions of determined individuals. The French Duquet profits
from the advice of an Englishman and trades lucratively with Scottish
shipyards; and though he meets his fate at the hands of a Scotsman, it is the
result of a personal vendetta rather than the colonial rivalries that motivate
their mother countries.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, the story's compelling historical dimension
is undermined by a serious character deficit. Nothing in Duquet endears us to
him. We know that he is ambitious and resourceful, but other than the explosive
fury to which he is prone, we know almost nothing of his intimate life. Indeed,
it is a bit jarring to learn that the name of his business is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duquet et Fils</i> (which later becomes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duke and Sons</i>) when we've heard nothing
about his children or even if he was ever married. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A related problem is the story's stakes. Yes, we are told
that "arrangements with the English and the Scots were still secret,
complex, expensive, even dangerous," and we witness early on the confrontation
between Duquet and the captured poacher, but none of this seems beyond what one
would expect in any frontier tale, and with no investment in the main
character, we have little incentive to care. When the stakes finally become
clear, it feels too late, and the ending falls flat.<br />
<br />
"Rough Deeds" passes muster on the strength of its
historical dimension, but the mediocre characters and ho-hum stakes weigh it down considerably.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Also from the crime-fiction issue: "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-brotherly-love.html" target="_blank">Brotherly Love</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-scenes-of-crime.html" target="_blank">Scenes of the Crime</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-happy-trails.html" target="_blank">Happy Trails</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-slide-to-unlock.html" target="_blank">Slide to Unlock</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-inch-and-half-of.html" target="_blank">An Inch and a Half of Glory</a>."Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-76648414263247796482013-06-10T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:47:39.125-05:00Crime-Fiction Issue: "An Inch and a Half of Glory"By Dashiell Hammett<br />
~4700 words<br />
<br />
An unassuming man has trouble dealing with the notoriety he
gains after rescuing a child from a burning building.<br />
<br />
Earl Parish's fame begins when a brief article—"an inch
and a half of simple news"—about his bravery appears in the local paper. The
congratulations he receives at work bring him embarrassment but also secret
delight, which he comes to miss when they die down. He develops a cavalier
attitude toward others that leads to his dismissal from work as well as from
several subsequent jobs, and his desire for glory leads him into another
burning building, only to end up rescuing a kitten.<br />
<br />
The psychological depth of the main character is well done.
While the overall evolution he undergoes might strain credibility, the
description of each point along the way is well worth reading, from his
vacillation before the initial burning building, fearful of how his actions
will be interpreted; to his awkwardness at work, where he finally learns to
accept praise without perspiring; to his feelings of superiority, encapsulated
in the mantra he loves to recite ("All their ancestral courage has been
distilled by industrialism out of their veins"); to his descent into
madness, which leads him to live on the streets until he finds another burning
building in which to rush.<br />
<br />
The writing is uneven, at times weak and repetitive.
"Nevertheless," we are told, "it was pleasant to lie across his
bed…" and then, in the very next sentence, "Lying across the bed, he
found these things pleasant." Other times, it seems overly enigmatic or
out of perspective: "Out of sight, the suspended blow in the child's face
was without power." Finally, the last section of the story feels
unnecessary. Given the title and the evolution of Parish's character, wouldn't the
flurry of artificial snow from the shredded newspaper articles, at the end of
the penultimate section, have been an ideal place to end?<br />
<br />
"An Inch and a Half of Glory" is an entertaining read
that, like many posthumous pieces, has an unpolished feel to it.<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Also from the crime-fiction issue: "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-brotherly-love.html" target="_blank">Brotherly Love</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-scenes-of-crime.html" target="_blank">Scenes of the Crime</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-happy-trails.html" target="_blank">Happy Trails</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-slide-to-unlock.html" target="_blank">Slide to Unlock</a>," "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/06/crime-fiction-issue-rough-deeds.html" target="_blank">Rough Deeds</a>."Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-39717239972229282682013-06-03T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:47:54.804-05:00"We Didn't Like Him"By Akhil Sharma<br />
~5100 words<br />
<br />
A man has an uneasy relationship with his father's sister's husband's sister's son.<br />
<br />
The narrator doesn't like Manshu from the time they are children because he behaves like a bully. But the narrator's parents are of a generation of Indians that requires a certain deference toward even distant relatives, and thus, "[w]hen Manshu visited, my mother made him sherbet and presented it to him on a tray, the way she would have served it to an adult toward whom the family had to show respect." This ambivalence comes to define the narrator's relationship to Manshu as they grow up together, from the latter's appointment as pandit in the neighborhood temple to his marriage to a non-Brahman girl to the latter's death, when the narrator feels obligated to help with the funeral arrangements.<br />
<br />
An interesting feature of this story is that the first-person narrator is not the main character (and doesn't even have a name). That honor goes to Manshu, who is intriguing but, as the title implies, not very likable in the end. What does one do with an unlikable main character? One solution is to show him to the reader through the eyes of someone who gives us permission not to like him. Hence the unnamed, non-protagonist narrator, who describes Manshu as "pathologically selfish." The problem, however, is that because we never get to know the narrator well enough to appreciate him in his own right, we can never totally identify with his opinions about Manshu.<br />
<br />
The story's language is passable, though at times it veers a bit too much toward telling rather than showing (the "pathologically selfish" remark being a prime example).<br />
<br />
"We Didn't Like Him" has several weak points, but it is ultimately redeemed by the fact that the main character, while not likable, is fairly interesting (an instructive contrast to the main character of "<a href="http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/2013/05/art-appreciation_13.html" target="_blank">Art Appreciation</a>," who is neither).<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7145434/">Reader poll: I found "We Didn't Like Him" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-47507850216367079902013-05-27T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-26T17:12:49.665-05:00"Thirteen Wives"By Steven Millhauser<br />
~5100 words<br />
<br />
A man describes his thirteen wives.<br />
<br />
The unnamed narrator begins by saying that he and his wives all live together "in a sprawling Queen Anne house with half a dozen gables, two round towers, and a wraparound porch, not far from the center of town." The wives get along well with each other, though their relationship to the narrator is "more complex." The rest of the story is devoted to detailed descriptions of each of the wives, one by one. The descriptions are a mix of the tender, the routine, and the odd, with the latter gradually coming to dominate. The fifth wife is always accompanied by a young man, "slender but well muscled, dressed always in a dark sports jacket," who even sleeps between them at night. The sixth wife flies back and forth across the ceiling, "laughing her tense, seductive laugh, brushing my hair with the tip of her foot." The eighth wife is untouchable, separated from the narrator by a sword in the bed. The ninth wife cannot see the narrator. The tenth wife is always ill. The thirteenth wife "exists only in the act of disappearing."<br />
<br />
That last line is a not a bad summary of this entire piece. The descriptions are certainly unique, but because the wives are referred to only with numbers—never names—they begin to blur together. Perhaps that's the point, but the narrative voice scrupulously avoids offering any context in which to understand this "point," and the magical realist elements seem to come out of nowhere. The plot itself is nonexistent, for the actions described are habitual and never rooted in a specific moment. The language is above average, with a quaint, affected feel to it, but even exceptional language cannot make up for the lack of plot and character.<br />
<br />
As a static narrative description, "Thirteen Wives" may have some merit. As a story, however, it's sorely lacking.<br />
<br />
Weak.<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7131024/">Reader poll: I found "Thirteen Wives" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-32640452871508996352013-05-20T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-26T17:10:16.443-05:00"The Dark Arts"By Ben Marcus<br />
~7400 words<br />
<br />
A man undergoing an experimental medical procedure in Germany awaits the arrival of his girlfriend.<br />
<br />
Julian has what he believes to be some sort of autoimmune disease—"An allergy to himself," as he describes it—though apparently not all his American physicians agree, and even he has occasional doubts. At a clinic in Düsseldorf, he allows his blood and marrow to be extracted, doctored through various procedures (the "dark arts" of the title), and fed back to him. Meanwhile, he waits for his girlfriend Hayley, who was traveling with him but stayed behind in France after a feud. Her half-hearted arrival at the end, together with a brief encounter Julian has with another man and a poor prognosis he receives from one of the German doctors, ends up dooming their relationship.<br />
<br />
Complexity of character forms the heart of this story. Julian's debilitating illness has left him with an exceptionally bleak outlook on life: he views bodies as "biological sewage" and people as "rounding errors," and he spends his free time thinking up tombstone inscriptions for himself ("He lied to himself, and now he lies here"). What keeps his gloominess from tilting into unbridled self-pity is his self-awareness. With respect to his girlfriend's absence, for example, he opines: "if Hayley had been there he would have tried to scrape her, day and night, for pity and understanding. She would have been empty by now, empty and seething, but still he would have kept scraping with his spoon, digging deep into her sweetest parts until they were completely gone." And yet he is not so callous or selfish that he cannot recognize the depth of his father's love: "He should never, until the very second he died, stop knowing that he had a father who would do anything for him. What a crime to forget this." The complexity is rounded out with the question of Julian's sexuality, evidenced in the unexpected but not incongruous turn at the end.<br />
<br />
And that's just Julian. There's also Hayley, whom we see little of until the end, where, despite the built-in narrative bias against her, the reader sympathizes as she struggles with her sense of loyalty. And there's Julian's father, whose single appearance, in a phone conversation, is sufficient to confirm his gentle character. Even the doctors and nurses at the clinic, despite some stereotypical German mannerisms, come across as unique.<br />
<br />
The story's strong characterization is matched by exceptional language. The author's gift for powerful diction never slips into the verbosity of a writer like Michael Chabon. The following passage epitomizes the combination of morbidity, humor, and raw creativity that distinguishes Marcus's unique idiom:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Julian took a shortcut to the Old Town, up along Adersstrasse, dipping around the Graf-Adolf-Platz. Germany was deadly cold this time of year, the trees slick with ice, the grass so scarce it seemed the whole country had been poured in cement. The weathered stone, the weathered people—even the language was weathered. It was genius, Julian thought, to create a language from strangled cries, deathbed wheezing. There was perhaps no truer way to communicate. If he spoke German, his inanities would escalate into parable. Everything out of his mouth would be a eulogy. German was the end-times language, the only tongue worth speaking as the sun shrank and went cold. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Instead, Julian was stuck with whiny, nasal English, in which every word was a spoiled complaint, a bit of pouting. In English, no matter what you said, you sounded like a coddled human mascot with a giant head asking to have his wiener petted. Because you were lonely. Because you were scared. And your wiener would feel so much better if someone petted it. How freakishly impolite, how shameful, to let these things be revealed by one’s language. At least overseas he didn’t speak much English. He didn’t speak much anything.</blockquote>
I do have a quibble with one piece of the story's logic. It seems odd, in an age in which digital communication has become so easy, that Julian would traipse off to the train station every day, in freezing weather and in his debilitated condition, to see if Hayley has arrived. But I'm happy to suspend my disbelief on this point because the story gives us so much else to admire. With its complex characters, exceptional language, and surprising (though not O. Henryesque) turn at the end, "The Dark Arts" is a must-read.<br />
<br />
Outstanding.<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7115220/">Reader poll: I found "The Dark Arts" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-70859175990563060412013-05-13T05:00:00.001-05:002013-06-26T17:11:26.693-05:00"Art Appreciation"By Fiona McFarlane<br />
~8200 words<br />
<br />
A young man whose mother has just won the lottery begins courting a woman he hopes to marry.<br />
<br />
Henry works at an insurance firm, where Ellie is his coworker. When his mother wins the lottery (ten thousand Australian dollars, a hefty sum in 1961), it gives him the confidence to begin dating her. But there are complications: Henry doesn't like art whereas Ellie does; his mother is flighty and overbearing; and he can't seem to get over his girlfriend Kath even after proposing to Ellie.<br />
<br />
The story presents a conundrum: can a character be interesting by virtue of being boring? If ever there were one to test this hypothesis, it's Henry, about as bland a fellow as ever walked the planet. But there is something of an evolution toward the end, when Henry's complacent and uncritical demeanor finally gives way to a bit of self-awareness:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Henry's chest shook. He saw the future and Arthur in it, steering his mother by her happy elbow, smirking above the Sunday table, and always giving Henry quiet, confidential looks. And in this future Henry saw himself in his mother's house, always and only the lucky son of a lucky mother. An inheritor before she was even dead. There was something indecent about it.</blockquote>
As far as epiphanies go, it's not much, but it's probably about as much as one can expect from a character such as this.<br />
<br />
If that were the only problem, the story might be justifiable on the basis of realism. Alas, however, it's also far too long, weighed down by a plot as tedious as Henry's character. The detail of the lottery seems to have little bearing on most of the story, except maybe insofar as it prompts Henry to begin dating Ellie. Likewise, the title is a bit of a red herring: though Henry's lack of enthusiasm for art reveals something of his character and provides for tension with Ellie, it never becomes a major focus. And then there's Arthur—the mother's new boyfriend—a major character introduced over halfway through the story.<br />
<br />
Finally, the language does far too much telling in place of showing: Henry is pleased, Henry is satisfied, Henry is covetous, Henry is proud, Henry is expansive and proud, Henry is concerned, Henry is reluctant, Henry is surprised. If you insist on such a conventional character, at least give us an interesting way to think about him. There are a few places where the language is good, as in the description of Henry trying to eat a hamburger in Kath's presence ("The thick slice of beetroot threatened to slide onto his plate—it purpled his bread and his tongue—and juice of some kind, silky with fat, ran over his fingers"), but McFarlane's diction is just as often ham-fisted: Henry's mental clarity is described as a "frost" upon his brain, Kath shakes "like an arrow," etc.<br />
<br />
I'm always happy to see new authors in TNY's pages<i>,</i> but the slow pace and insipid characters of "Art Appreciation" make this story a tedious proposition. If I hadn't been reading it for the blog, I might never have finished.<br />
<br />
Weak.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7099123/">Reader poll: I found "Art Appreciation" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-56692442595362725572013-05-06T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-26T17:08:55.798-05:00"The Gray Goose"By Jonathan Lethem<br />
~7800 words<br />
<br />
A nice Jewish girl loses her virginity while reminiscing about Burl Ives. Or something.<br />
<br />
Miriam has a problem. Okay, she has several problems. One, in 1948, when she was just a girl, her father abandoned the family, "the sole Jew who'd run back to Germany." Two, her mother has an overly-intimate connection to Abraham Lincoln and is a "volcano of death" on the inside. And three, Miriam's first boyfriend is uncircumcised, and she can't seem to give him a handjob without thinking about Burl Ives' rendition of "The Gray Goose."<br />
<br />
If you're getting the idea that I didn't care for this story, you're right. I found the characters unlikeable, the storytelling full of confusing and often irrelevant details, and the language unbearably self-indulgent. But hey, I'm always willing to be convinced to the contrary. Please use the comments to do so. Otherwise, this one's fate is sealed.<br />
<br />
Weak.<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7083678/">Reader poll: I found "The Gray Goose" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-43311053212402411042013-04-29T05:00:00.001-05:002013-06-23T23:45:11.170-05:00"The Fragments"By Joshua Ferris<br />
~3700 words<br />
<br />
A man overhears snippets of unrelated conversations, including one that suggests his wife Katy is having an affair.<br />
<br />
The unnamed protagonist receives a call that is clearly not intended for him. The lines seem to have gotten crossed (Does that sort of thing happen in the digital age? A reasonable suspension of disbelief, I suppose.) at a most inopportune moment, and he hears his wife's voice saying things to another man such as "…no, he thinks I'm…" and "…just wish… could spend the night…." Convinced that Katy is having an affair, all the while hearing additional fragments of random conversations, the main character sinks into an ever deeper funk and eventually invites strangers into his apartment to cart away his possessions.<br />
<br />
The basic question posed by this story—How much can we interpret from a snippet of dialogue?—is an intriguing one. Clearly the main character's answer—A great deal—is the source of his misery, and while we may suspect that he's jumping to conclusions, we also feel ourselves being pulled along with him. The characterization is quite good, but the story's greatest achievement lies in the "fragments," which somehow manage to feel remarkably pedestrian yet remarkably interesting, brimming with a true-to-life quality that cuts across all sociological strata:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He stood at the crosswalk.<br />
"So we're like a fund of funds, because we take a stake, but we can't, you know, we have, what, a ten, maybe twenty per cent—"<br />
"Right," the other guy said.<br />
"Anyway, he's an asshole, but he knows how to make money."<br />
"Best kind of asshole."<br />
He passed two women without coats smoking outside a building.<br />
"Seriously, girl," the one said.<br />
"I know, I know—but can I just tell you?" She drew close and whispered.<br />
After work, he went to the gym. He sat down in the locker room and was removing his shoes as two guys he knew by sight were on their way out.<br />
"But not female masturbation, just male masturbation."<br />
"So you fap yourself?"<br />
"But just dudes. The word for female's like… no, I don't remember."</blockquote>
My one objection is to the ending, when the story veers into the wife's point of view, breaking the spell created by the fragments, all of which are filtered through the main character's perspective.<br />
<br />
Despite the ending, "The Fragments" gets high marks for its thought-provoking premise and compelling language.<br />
<br />
Strong.<br />
<br />
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<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7068681/">Reader poll: I found "The Fragments" to be ___.</a></noscript>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-62145533172621656802013-04-22T05:00:00.000-05:002013-08-25T21:02:48.918-05:00"Mexican Manifesto"By Roberto Bolaño<br />
Translated from the Spanish by Laura Healy<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
~4600
words</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The narrator and his female companion tour bathhouses in
Mexico City, leading to a steamy, unsettling encounter with two youths and an
old man. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OK, I’m not always a fan of the <i>New Yorker</i>’s fiction
illustrations, but this time they got it right. Through the dark mouth of a
grotto, we peer into a bluish haze through which the sprawled, naked body of a
young man appears. As our eyes focus—or the fog clears—we realize that the mouth
of the grotto is formed by the arms of a person looming above us. Entangled
with the body on the floor are other limbs. Deeper in the mist is another naked
form. And that blob, off to the left, looks to be more curves and skin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just what the heck’s going on here?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s the question I asked myself again and again while
reading “Mexican Manifesto.” But I’m not the only one who was confused. The
narrator was a bit shaky on the details, too. This is how the story opens:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Laura and I did not make love that
afternoon. In truth, we gave it a shot, but it just didn’t happen. Or, at
least, that’s what I thought at the time. Now I’m not so sure. We probably did
make love.</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, yeah, I bet we’ve all had lapses like this. Did we
just make love or didn’t we? I forget. (Try asking your partner that question.
Get back to me about how it goes.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short, the story opens in a haze. After making love (or
maybe not), the narrator and Laura start experimenting with public baths. Usually
they’d take private rooms, steeping themselves lengthily in the sauna before exiting:
“Then we would open the door and head into the chamber with the divan, where
everything was clear, and behind us, like the filaments of a dream, clouds of
steam slipped by and quickly disappeared.” But the rooms are not so private as you
might think: people knock at the doors, and Laura lets them in. There’s some
sharing of weed and steam, some possibilities of promiscuity. Then the visit of
the old man with the adolescent boys trained to give a sex show. In the fog of
the sauna, bodies overlap, voices call out, something almost happens. And then
they leave and it’s over.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It doesn’t take long to figure out that the whole story is a
sauna. And a dream. Not quite a wet dream, but a moist one. We follow the slack
thread of motivations from one scene to the next, unsure where (or if) it leads
anywhere, emerging at the end with our pores cleared but our minds still
fogged.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know. If I agree to traipse through someone’s
dreamscape, they could at least reward me with powerful prose. But sometimes
Bolaño just slips on the tiles. Declaring that “Laura seemed so sweet at that
moment” doesn’t convey sweetness any more than “I felt a kind of detached
terror” sends a chill down my spine. On the other hand, the more vigorous
images have their own problems. What does it mean to “laugh like a housewife”?
In what way are beauty and misery “paradoxical dwarves, travelling and
inapprehensible dwarves”?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know. It all left me feeling thick-headed. I think
I’ll go take a shower. A long one. Hot and steamy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Satisfactory (but just barely).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Reader poll: I found "Mexican Manifesto" to be ___.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="180" name="poll-widget-8377244019682773788" src="http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/display/-8377244019682773788/blogger_template/run_app?txtclr=%23000000&lnkclr=%2305b434&chrtclr=%2305b434&font=normal+normal+14px+Verdana,+Geneva,+sans-serif&hideq=true&purl=http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/" style="border: none; width: 100%;"></iframe>Dominicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01652118509356905711noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-76699592439470061732013-04-15T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:19:38.386-05:00"The Night of the Satellite"By T. Coraghessan Boyle<br />
<div>
~6500 words<br />
<br />
A man ensnared in a rapidly escalating lovers' feud is struck by a chunk of space debris.<br />
<br />
The narrator, Paul, gets into it with his girlfriend when, on the way to meet some friends, she wants to intervene in a spat between an unknown couple on a rural country road. Mallory's anger at Paul's refusal to help and his resentment at her anger boil over in a bar that night and, afterwards, in an empty field at 3 in the morning. In the middle of a heated argument, Paul is struck on the shoulder by a piece of metal mesh that he believes to have come from a decommissioned weather satellite. Before he can verify his theory, however, Mallory throws the scrap away, further poisoning their relationship.</div>
<div>
<br />
This story has many admirable qualities. The characters are richly developed, from Paul and Mallory to the friends they are visiting to the unidentified feuding couple (who return for a delicious final scene involving a wobbly ice cream cone). The plot, despite its ridiculously improbable premise, unfolds with impeccable ease—and I haven't even mentioned the part about the dog and sheep fight—sucking us into the pettiness of the argument between the main characters and forcing us, against our better judgment, to side with the narrator. Who doesn't sympathize with Paul when his little piece of space junk gets tossed before he's able to send it to the jet propulsion laboratory for testing? The sheer absurdity of the situation is matched only by how real it all feels.<br />
<br />
The best part of the story, however, is the extraordinary visual imagery, which begins almost immediately, with the end of the opening paragraph:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I could smell the nighttime stink of the river. I looked up and watched the sky expand overhead and then shrink down to
fit me like a safety helmet. A truck went blatting by on the interstate, and
then it was silent, but for the mosquitoes singing their blood song, while the
rest of the insect world screeched either in protest or accord, I couldn’t tell
which, thrumming and thrumming, until the night felt as if it were going to
burst open and leave us shattered in the grass.</blockquote>
And so it goes throughout. In the drive to the friends' house, "[g]rasshoppers flung themselves against the windshield like yellow hail." The friends dance with "their arms flashing white and Anneliese's flag of hair draining all the color out of the room." A thunderstorm rolls in "under a sky the color of bruised flesh." Even the quotidian becomes extraordinary with perfectly metaphors: "Next thing I was out the door, out on the street, fuming, the sun still
glaring overhead, everything before me looking as ordinary as dishwater."</div>
<br />
I do have a few quibbles with the storytelling. Early on the narrator mentions an air-conditioner, specifying that it was "doing its job." At the end, though, he says that "we sat around and sweated and tried to avoid contact as much as possible," alluding only to a fan. What happened to the AC? In the bar scene, he says that "I went to the bar instead and ordered a spritzer for Mallory and a rum-and-Coke
for myself"; but in the next paragraph, which is narrated as if it were sequential to the first, he repeats his drink order. Finally, a reference toward the end, about space debris colliding "in two wide bands of low Earth orbit, at six hundred and twenty and at nine hundred and thirty miles up," is a bit confusing. I get the general idea, but the specificity of the image throws me off (and how can the debris collide in orbits so far apart?). It wouldn't normally be much of an issue, but it comes at an important moment, as the narrator is tying together the story's symbolic threads.<br />
<br />
These quibbles—the storytelling equivalent of a few typos—do little to detract from the overall impact of "The Night of the Satellite," which draws top honors for its well-crafted characters, quirky but compelling plot, and exceptional language.<br />
<br />
Outstanding.<br />
<br />
<div>
Reader poll: I found "The Night of the Satellite" to be ___.</div>
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="180" name="poll-widget-5690651907152846488" src="http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/display/-5690651907152846488/blogger_template/run_app?txtclr=%23000000&lnkclr=%2305b434&chrtclr=%2305b434&font=normal+normal+14px+Verdana,+Geneva,+sans-serif&hideq=true&purl=http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/" style="border: none; width: 100%;"></iframe>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-91414595162452583332013-04-08T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-26T17:06:35.277-05:00"Valentine"By Tessa Hadley<br />
~7200 words<br />
<br />
A teenager in 1970s Britain has a sexual relationship with an enigmatic young man known as Valentine.<br />
<br />
Fifteen-year-old Stella lives with her mother and stepfather but spends most of her free time speculating about sex with her friend Madeleine. When she meets Valentine (presumably a last name, which Stella shortens to Val) at the bus stop one morning, she feels an instant attraction that she describes as something "more than ordinary love: something like recognition." Val is only a year older than Stella but ages ahead in countercultural savvy: his wears his hair long, reads authors such as Beckett and Ginsberg, and smokes joints at eight in the morning. Stella is completely taken with him, and their relationship has all the markings of idyllic first love except for a disconcerting lack of sex, a mystery that is not explained until the final paragraphs.<br />
<br />
The unique characters of "Valentine" are noteworthy in themselves, but it is the exceptionally crafted language that deserves special mention. The shimmering images and mesmerizing rhythm beautifully complement the sexual desire that oozes from the narrative:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I longed for the bus not to come. Proximity to his body—a glimpse, via his half-tucked shirt, of hollowed, golden, masculine stomach, its line of dark hairs draining down from the belly button—licked at me like a flame as we waited. [NB: This extraordinary passage is marred by what seems to be a missing article or possessive adjective before "hollowed." A rare TNY typo?]</blockquote>
Hadley is particularly adept at evoking smells, from the girls' dressing room with its "concentrated citrus-rot stink of female sweat" to Val's own "intricate musk, salty faintly fishy, sun-warmed even in winter—delicious to me." And her metaphors capture the extraordinary in the most ordinary of circumstances:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They [Val's parents] were polite with me, and their conversation as dully transactional as any in my house, yet in their clipped, swallowed voices they seemed to talk in code above my head.</blockquote>
And:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The shape of the long, empty room seemed the shape of our shared imagination, spacious and open.</blockquote>
And:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He stood in our neat kitchen with its blue Formica surfaces, as improbable—in his collarless shirt, waistcoat, and broken canvas shoes, with a scrap of vermillion scarf at his neck—as an exotic bird flown off course.</blockquote>
The story's weakness is the ending, where the reason for Val's muted sexual interest in Stella turns out to be a relationship he's been having with a male tutor. When a story can stand on the power of its language and characters, an O. Henry ending—and a cliched one at that—just seems a bit out of place. And as if that weren't enough, we get another twist in the final lines, where it's suggested that Stella is pregnant with Val's child.<br />
<br />
Despite the unsatisfactory ending, "Valentine" is a pleasure to read for the unique characters and extraordinary mastery of language.<br />
<br />
Strong.<br />
<br />
Reader poll: I found "Valentine" to be ___.<br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="180" name="poll-widget-1395836291603394539" src="http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/display/-1395836291603394539/blogger_template/run_app?txtclr=%23000000&lnkclr=%2305b434&chrtclr=%2305b434&font=normal+normal+14px+Verdana,+Geneva,+sans-serif&hideq=true&purl=http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/" style="border: none; width: 100%;"></iframe>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461930072206972624.post-90156221088732797602013-04-01T05:00:00.000-05:002013-06-23T23:42:43.861-05:00"Marjorie Lemke"By Sarah Braunstein<br />
~6300 words<br />
<br />
A hotel maid with low self esteem has an affair with a guest recovering from bariatric surgery.<br />
<br />
At twenty years old, Marjorie Lemke believes herself to be the "major loser" she was first called in the fourth grade. A recovering drug addict and single mother of an infant girl, she sleeps on a pullout sofa in her aunt's basement and carries her baby, Della, around with her on the hotel cleaning cart. One day while cleaning rooms she meets Gabe, who is recovering from a stomach-stapling operation while his wife travels around on a "union busting" job. They strike up a relationship that quickly goes beyond friendship. When Marjorie learns that Gabe wants a child so badly he has sabotaged his wife's diaphragm, she suggests that she will give him Della.<br />
<br />
The strength of the story lies in the complexity of the characters and the symbolic ties that unite them: both Marjorie, who has something she doesn't want (a fatherless child), and Gabe, who wants something he doesn't have (a baby of his own). The solution is seemingly simple yet so shocking that it can only be alluded to in the powerful final scene. The figure of Gabe's wife, Violet, rounds out the story with yet another well-crafted character.<br />
<br />
Speaking of character, the story presents an interesting problem: how to endear readers to a protagonist who doesn't really like herself. The author attempts this difficult task in three ways: first, by offering a telescoped retrospective of Marjorie's life in the first paragraph, so that we quickly come to see her lost innocence and vulnerability; second, by making the character self-aware, conscious of her own weaknesses; and third, by showing her struggling—and mostly failing—to overcome them. What emerges is a complex portrait of a deeply flawed woman.<br />
<br />
While the language of "Marjorie Lemke" is unexceptional and the plot minimal, the strongly fashioned characters make it a worthwhile read.<br />
<br />
Satisfactory.<br />
<br />
Reader poll: I found "Marjorie Lemke" to be ___.<br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="180" name="poll-widget-3567445949041245420" src="http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/display/-3567445949041245420/blogger_template/run_app?txtclr=%23000000&lnkclr=%2305b434&chrtclr=%2305b434&font=normal+normal+14px+Verdana,+Geneva,+sans-serif&hideq=true&purl=http://newyorkerstorycritiques.blogspot.com/" style="border: none; width: 100%;"></iframe>Criticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827751730819167713noreply@blogger.com0