The State We’re In by Anne Beattie

In my early days of book collecting, I avidly searched out authors whose books I admired.  My goal was signed copies.  I was not so careful in those days, because I have a lot of inscribed copies that are book club editions, or sometimes many editions removed from the first.  I only cared about the signature for my own personal collection – never about collection values.  Most authors gladly signed my books, but sometimes I had to use some minor subterfuge to gain access to those authors shy about meeting strangers.  When I heard Anne Beattie had been asked to speak at Rutgers University, I headed there with a few of her novels.  I learned there would be no signing after the lecture, but I told the guard I was a free-lance writer and reviewer, and wanted to talk to her about an article I was writing.  She agreed to see me, and she graciously signed my copies and answered a few questions, which I dutifully wrote into my notebook.  All true, although the article never found its way into print.  When I admire an author, I will go to many lengths to establish a connection – no matter how brief.  Now, Beattie has come out with a collection of short stories, The State We’re In.  While I really love her novels, I am thoroughly seduced by her short stories.

These 15 stories are loosely connected.  Most deal with teenagers suffering under the onus of parents, who are all, to my mind, parents normally concerned about the welfare of their offspring.  The peek into the mind of teenagers at the beginning and middle of their rebellious years awakens memories of my teen years and reminds me of what my students endure today.

One character who appears in the first story, “What Magic Realism Would Be,” and in the seventh story, “Endless Rain into a Paper Cup,” is Jocelyn.  In “Magic Realism,” she agonizes over an assignment in her English class, and in “Endless,” Uncle Raleigh, now worries about her passing algebra.  He encourages her, because he knows she is smart.  Beattie writes, “‘Thanks for saying something nice to me.’ // ‘That’s because I believe you deserve niceness, Jocelyn.’  […]  ‘If you don’t mind, could you print [your essay] out, because I can’t read that little screen, as you know.  And as I tell you every night.’ // She got up from his office chair, where she’d been slumped, writing and picking at her pedicure.  She turned on his printer.  When it printed out, it was not quite two pages. // ‘Yesterday’s was three pages,’ he said immediately. // ‘She’s tired of reading long papers.’ Jocelyn lied to Raleigh and Bettina – certainly to Bettina – and to her sort of best friend, who was lucky enough to be in Australia this summer, even if it did have to be with her family and her retarded – really, actually retarded – brother, the challenged Daniel Junior, who picked his nose right in front of you” (3).  No political correctness in Jocelyn, and she certainly spares no one.

In “Endless,” Jocelyn has a conversation with her English teacher.  Beattie writes, “Ms. Nementhal held open the side door.  Jocelyn trotted ahead of her, her ears a little zingy, for some reason.  Just listening to Ms. Nememthal had been exciting.  She seemed to think she could do anything.  If Jocelyn ever got into any college, it would be a miracle.  Her mother said that tutoring for the SAT was too expensive, and she couldn’t disagree.  All you could do was read stuff on the Internet and get pointers from your friends, the most helpful so far being that the questions were essentially simple, but they pointed you in a direction that made you question your own perceptions, so you’d change things at the last second and answer wrong” (76).  English professors can be quite influential.

I found the occasional use of second person a bit off putting, but I see that in my students’ essays, so I guess that’s the way of the world.  Anne Beattie has been included in four O. Henry Award collections, in John Updike’s The Best Short Stories of the Century, and in The Best American Short Stories of 2014.  She has won numerous other awards.  She  currently teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.  If Anne Beattie is an unfamiliar name, The State We’re In is a fine entre into the world of Anne Beattie.  5 stars

--Chiron, 10/3/15

Rock Springs: Stories by Richard Ford

Quite a few years ago, a friend recommended Independence Day by Richard Ford.  It was the early days of my “Rule of 50,” so I decided to stop around page 23.  Then, recently, in an assignment in a graduate class, the novel loomed before me.  I had no choice but to claw my way through the nearly 500 pages of smallish font.  To my surprise, I engaged the character, Frank Bascombe almost immediately.  I began to see the character types Ford drew, and I quickly came to an understanding of his purpose in writing this story.  That fact that he reminded me of Richard Russo only added fuel to my reading.  Since then, I have been accumulating the rest of his works.

Rock Springs: Stories is an interesting collection of tales of middle America and the characters straddling the line between good and evil, love and hate, success and failure. Ford’s prose is simple and straightforward.  Most of the characters have a matter-of-fact attitude towards their situation.  In the title story, Earl and Edna are driving a stolen car across the country with their daughter Cheryl in the back seat.  The car breaks down, and they do worry about a state trooper stopping to help – but only for a minute or two.  They want to make it to the next town so they can steal a new car.

I really didn’t have one favorite story – I enjoyed them all equally.  However, I did enjoy this exchange between the narrator, Russ, and Arlene, his wife in the story titled “Sweethearts.”  “‘What do you think when you get into bed with me every night?  I don’t know why I want to know that.  I just do’ Arlene said.  ‘It seems important to me.’ // And in truth I did not have to think about that at all, because I knew the answer, and had thought about it already, had wondered in fact, if it was in my mind because of the time in my life it was, or because a former husband was involved, or because I had a daughter to raise alone, and no one else I could be absolutely sure of. // ‘I just think,’ I said, ‘here’s another day that’s gone.  A day I’ve had with you.  And now it’s over.’ // ‘There’s some loss in that, isn’t there?’ Arlene nodded at me and smiled. // ‘I guess so,’ I said. // ‘It’s not so all-bad though, is it?  There can be a next day.’ // ‘That’s true,’ I said. // ‘We don’t know where any of this is going, do we?’ she said, and she squeezed my hand tight. // ‘No,’ I said.  And I knew that was not a bad thing at all, not for anyone in any life. // ‘You’re not going to leave me for some other woman now, are you?  You’re still my sweetheart.  I’m not crazy, am I?’ // ‘I never thought that,’ I said.” (67-68).

Other stories involved sons reminiscing about their childhoods, a crotchety old man who finds children playing with fireworks bothersome, and some Native Americans trying to scratch a living in the plains of Montana.

These stories all please on different levels.  I found much empathy for the struggles of these “ordinary Americans,” and I wanted them all to get what they wanted.  I think you will find – as I did Richard Ford’s 1987 collection of short stories, Rock Springs, a most pleasing companion on a rainy afternoon.  5 stars

--Chiron, 4/12/15

Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Lan Samantha Chang

I stumbled upon Lan Samantha Chang a couple years back, and I reviewed her novel, Inheritance.  I have now picked up her first book, Hunger¸ which consist of a novella and five stories.  Normally, I don’t care for, what I call “ethnic fiction,” but a friend urged me to try Chang.  I thoroughly enjoyed the novel of seven generations of women, who lived, struggled and survived through all the turmoil in 20^th century China.  I hardly knew it was set in China, I felt that comfortable there.  Hunger does the same thing for me.

According to the author’s bio, Chang was born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin.  She graduated from Yale University and the University of Iowa.  She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant and fellowships from Stanford University.  She divides her time between Northern California and Princeton, New Jersey, where she is a Fellow in the Humanities.  Hunger has won numerous awards.

The collection begins with the title story, and it certainly deserves top billing.  Min leaves what was then the comfortable environment of her native land, China, at the urging of her mother who wants her daughter to have a better life in America.  She struggles to learn English, but she never really masters the language.  Nin works in a Chinese restaurant, and one day, a handsome man, Tian, walks in, but leaves without his hat.  Min hides it, so she can be the one to return it.  She decides she will marry this man.  They get married and move to Brooklyn, where Tian teaches music at a local college.  He hopes for a professorship so he can adequately support his family.  They have two children, Anna, who turns out to be a disappointment, and Ruth, who, while a talented violinist, is also a rebel.  The family struggles to adapt to their new land, but pitfalls abound.  The story is about memory, loyalty, separation, and respect for elders, but their new homeland conspires against the old ways. 

The family “hungers” for more than food.  Min narrates, “[Ruth] stayed in public school with Anna, and continued after Anna left for college.  She kept practicing with Tian.  But she had developed a sudden and brilliant talent for upsetting him.  So many years of pleasing him had given her this ability.  With me she remained obedient.  I prided myself on this, until I recognized it as an emblem of indifference.  My pale love would never interest her.  Tian was her true opponent, and I was only a moth that fluttered around the brilliant bulb of her rebellion” (74). 

The remaining tales fluctuate among a variety of Chinese folktales, modern yarns, and a story of a healer and a charmer.

All in all, Lan Samantha Chang’s collection, Hunger, is a very satisfying collection of tales.  She has another novel, I think I’ll take a look at that soon.  5 stars.

--Chiron, 2/24/15

Last Night by James Salter

James Salter might be the best, under-appreciated writer working today.  His stories are deft, clever exposes of the inner lives of men and women.  His second novel, Cassada, recounts his experiences in World War II.  He left the military in 1957, after the publication of his first novel, The Hunters.  Last Night is his latest collection, and they exemplify the “slice of life” stories so common these days.  These brief peeks at turmoil and joy, success and disappointment, all leave the reader space to imagine the ending or the consequences.

Salter has written five novels and two works of non-fiction.  His first collection of stories, Dust and Other Stories, won the Pen/Faulkner Award in 1989.  Last Night is his second collection.  These ten stories all delve into relationships – strong and weak, new and old, broken and fixed.  The most intriguing story is the first, “Comet.”  Philip and Adele are about to exchange wedding vows.  Salter writes, “[Philip] didn’t make much money, as it turned out.  He wrote for a business weekly.  [Adele] earned nearly that much selling houses.  She had begun to put on a little weight.  This was a few years after they were married.  She was still beautiful – her face was – but she had adopted a more comfortable outline.  She would get into a drink, the way she had done when she was twenty-five.  Phil, a sport jacket over his pajamas, sat reading.  Sometimes he walked that way on their lawn in the morning.  She sipped her drink and watched him” (6).  The story ends with Walter searching the sky for a comet.  Adele can make it out in the haze of her alcohol consumption.  Now I have to imagine what the comet represents.  That’s the fun of these stories.

Another interesting story is “My Lord You.”  This story describes the interaction among six friends.  Ardis is new to the group, and when Warren arrives intoxicated, he frightens her.  The poet makes a pass at Ardis, and the other shrug it off as a result of his drinking.  Like all of the stories in this collection, an unexpected ending awaits the reader.  “Such Fun” opens a window into the lives of three women – Leslie, Kathrin, and Jane -- who dissect their relationships, past, present, and potential.  This story has the most humor and the least subtlety than the others.

I had a tough time deciding which story I would feature as my favorite.  Because it is last, and because most writers end a collection with their best story of poem, I chose the title story for this honor.

As a touching story, “Last Night,” details the final days of Walter Such’s wife, Marit, who is seriously ill.  With the aid of a physician, the plan is to assist her suicide.  Salter writes, “It was the night they had decided would be the one.  On a saucer in the refrigerator, the syringe lay.  Her doctor had supplied the contents.  But a farewell dinner first, if she were able. It should not be just the two of them, Marit had said.  Her instinct.  They had asked Susanna rather than someone closer and grief-filled, Marit’s sister for example, with whom she was not on good terms anyway, or older friends.  Susanna was younger.  She had a wide face and high, pure forehead.  She looked like the daughter of a professor or banker, slightly errant.  Dirty girl, one of their friends had commented about her, with a degree of admiration” (121).

As a great introduction to this interesting writer, Last Night fits the bill perfectly.  5 stars 

--Chiron, 12/20/14

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

In order to feed my craving for more of Hilary Mantel, author of two Booker Prize winning novels of the court of Henry VIII, I picked up a copy of the recently published collection of stories, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.  I have about another year until the third and final volume in the trilogy of Henry, Thomas Cromwell, and the rest of the Tudors of what I consider one of the most interesting dynasties in history.  So these ten stories will have to tide me over until then.

Mantel exercises all of her literary power in this collection.  Only one story – about a 17 year-old-girl with anorexia – disturbed me right out of my enjoyment.  The other nine however, are serious, astute, and pleasurable reads.

The first item, “Sorry to Disturb,” tells a tale of a husband, who never speaks to his wife.  She is affected by an oppressive culture, and her husband’s silence only adds to her misery.  The next, “Comma” is a rather peculiar story of two children – both from average middle class families.  Kitty is precocious and Mary developmentally challenged.  Mary transfers to another school, and and loses touch with Kitty.  They bump into each other on the street years later.

In “The Long QT,” Jody catches her husband kissing Lorraine, and a surprising result occurs.  The next, “Winter Break,” involves a couple on a pre-paid vacation, who jump in the first available taxi, and are off for a bumpy ride.  Bettina works as receptionist in a medical building.  She tries to befriend a peculiar, lonely woman, but that plan backfires in “Harley Street.”  In “Offenses against the Person,” a teen discovers her father’s affair with a co-worker.

One of the most interesting stories is “How Shall I Know You?”  The narrator is on a book tour, and must put up with grungy hotels, terrible food, and an unending series of dull and clichéd questions.  I sense a bit of biography her from Mantel.  “Terminus is a creepy story about a woman who sees her dead relatives on a train.

That brings us to the title story, “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: August 6^th 1983.”  A woman expects a boiler repairman for her home near No. 10 Downing Street.  When the bell rings, she admits him.  He turns out to be an assassin, who takes over her house.  A rather thrilling story to end the collection.

I always enjoy English writers for what they add to my vocabulary.  Hilary Mantel’s collection of short stories, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher is intelligent, interesting, and a worthy read.  I don’t “mind the gap” in the Tudor Trilogy as much as I might with these great stories.  5 stars.

--Chiron, 10/23/14

The Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood

I once drove about six hours from Philadelphia to Boston to hear Margaret Atwood read from her then latest novel, Cat’s Eye.  Set in Toronto, the book was her first novel after A Handmaid’s Tale.  Atwood is a writer I collect assiduously, because I have never read anything she has written that I have not thoroughly enjoyed.  Stone Mattress: Nine Tales is her latest work.  The peculiar title intrigued me, and I want ted to read simply to find out about a stone mattress.  This title story did that and so much more.

All nine stories focus on relationships between men and women.  The first three were lots of fun, since they detail the story of Gavin, a mediocre poet, who did have some early success, and three of his partners.  In the first, “Alphinland” is narrated by Constance, Gavin’s first.  She is a writer, who has penned a popular series of fantasy tales set in Alphinland.  Gavin disdained her work when they were married, but the popularity of the stories has provided Constance with a comfortable lifestyle.  She has put all her friends, family, and Gavin into the stories with only the thinnest of disguises.  Aging rapidly, she wanders around her apartment listening for the voice of her recently departed mate, Ewan.  The voice helps her remember things, such as “take a flashlight” when she walks through a storm to buy some food in a town with no power.  Atwood writes, “What they didn’t understand was that – increasingly – she did take it seriously.  Alphinland was hers alone.  It was her refuge, it was her stronghold; it was where she could go when things with Gavin weren’t working out.  She could walk in spirit through the invisible portal and wander through all the darkling forests and over the shimmering fields, making alliances and defeating enemies, and no one else could come in unless she said they could because there was a five-dimensional spell guarding the entryway” (22).

The second story, “Revenant,” describes Gavin’s last wife, Reynolds.  She tries to keep up Gavin’s reputation, but he is a crusty, mean old man, who does not want the attention.  Reynolds sets up an interview with a graduate student, believing she was interested in Gavin’s poetry.  To his dismay, Naveena’s thesis involves the Alphinland stories, and she wants to confirm the alter ego of Gavin.  Gavin discovers Reynolds has sold his papers to a university.

The third story involves Jorrie a former partner of Gavin, who reads his obituary in the paper.  She decided to attend the ceremony, and discovers all three women are present.  Lots of awkward fun there!

The last two stories, “Stone Mattress” and “Torching the Dusties,” round out the collection and end this marvelous book with two exciting stories.  Sorry, no spoiler alerts!  Read the collection and find out exactly what a “stone mattress” is, and then end up with a thrill ride nearly reminiscent of her great novel, A Handmaid’s Tale.”  

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales will make many readers fans of Margaret Atwood.  The visit to The Harvard Bookstore Café ended with a half dozen of her novels in my collection signed.  And it was worth every mile I drove.  5 stars

--Chiron, 10/12/14