#879 Antonya Nelson- Chapter Two

#879 Antonya Nelson- Chapter Two

Hil is in AA, we see her tell a story at a meeting. The story is about her crazy neighbor that likes to get drunk and strut around the neighborhood naked trying to get herself arrested. Telling stories about other people is probably a deflection about not wanting to tell her own story. But as we find out, she actually is telling her own story.

I’ve never read anything by Nelson before. I liked this. I don’t know if this is her normal tone or if this was just for this story. The dark, heavy sarcasm of Hil is an obvious coping mechanism for such a far gone alcoholic. It’s funny right up until you see that it really shouldn’t be.

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#876 Train- Alice Munro

#876 Train- Alice Munro

Wow, seems like ages when we last read an Alice Munro Story. She is always a joy to come back to, one of the legends of the short story genre. It helps keep in perspective the few hundred other others read for this blog. This story settles in to Munro’s slow fluidity right away.

                       

Jackson is a man coming home from the war (WWII?) and finding himself a little lost. Instead of returning to his life, he jumps off the train, literally, and decides to start new. When he comes across a lonely woman living in near squalor next to a Mennonite community, he decides to stick around. For many years they live as non-intimate life partners, co-habbitating for mutual benefit.

“He had emerged as just one of those loners who may have got themselves in too deep some way or another but have not been guilty of breaking any laws.”

It was the perfect situation. He could live a bare-bones life, un-stressful and unashamed and never have to come into contact with his past mistakes and hurt. He didn’t expect to become old their, but life moves on.

“It made him realize how he must have aged and changed over the years, and how the person who had jumped off the train, that skinny nerve-racked soldier, would not be recognizable in the man he was now.”

When the woman became ill, he brought her to a hospital and left to, once again, run from responsibility and attachment. This is not a “new start” story, it’s about escapism and denial.

Rating: 9-8-8-8 Total= 33

#870 Moving On- Diane Cook

#870 Moving On- Diane Cook

This is kind of a Stepford Wives look at widowhood. If you die here before a certain qualifying age you are sent to camps for re-learning and re-assignment to another spouse-- if you are lucky. We see a woman go through this process. She is not really taking well to it, but then again she is not trying to escape like some of the others.

“We are woman with very little to do and no certain future. Aside from the daily work of bettering ourselves, we are mostly left alone.”

                                                         

More than the Stepford wife thing, is a 1984 Orwellian vibe. The re-training of this woman and the way she just can’t move on is very much like the protagonist in Orwell’s novel not quite taking to newspeak and all the rules. There are rules for everything, just follow the manual and change will happen.

“Maybe I’ve changed. The manual says that in order to move forward we must change. But this change feels more like a collapse. And that is not how the manual says it will feel.”

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#869 The King of Elves- Philip K. Dick

#869 The King of Elves- Philip K. Dick

At the end of a quiet rainy day, Shadrach was closing up his filling station and saw a group of elves cowering in the cold and wet. He welcomed them to his home up the street and they were thankful. In the night, the Elf King died and announced his successor to be Shadrach himself. The simple act of kindness he had shown in their hour of need, had proven him kind and worthy enough to be King of the Elves.

“You brought him inside your house, out of the rain. He knew that you ecpected nothing for it, that there was nothing you wanted. He had known few who gave and asked nothing back.”

He accepted the post, and although most of his friends and neighbors thought he was going a bit looney, His best friend Phineas knew he wasn’t. A war with the trolls was coming and his leadership was needed. He wasn’t prepared to leave his filling station so soon, but found himself face-to-face with the surprising leader of the Trolls. Great opportunity reveals great men, even if you are not prepared for it.

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#868 The Monkey- Tove Jansson

#868 The Monkey- Tove Jansson

This is a humorous dig at critics. An aging sculptor lives a lonely life. His only companion is a monkey he treats like a child or a friend. This is the day his latest art show is being reviewed and like the rest, he reads the write-ups with disdain. He sees the critics as leeches and brainless animals intent only on destroying what’s there instead of enjoying or supporting artists. In the following statement he compares his monkey to the critics:

“The monkey was like all the rest of them. The tiniest crack, the least stain or defect, and her fingers were there to make it worse or pick it apart. She noticed everything, every tiny sign of weakness, and that’s where she’d bite and rip and tear. That’s the way monkeys are, but they don’t know any better and so we forgive them. The others are unforgivable.”

Notable Passage: “He overtipped him out of pure contempt.”

Rating: 7-7-8-6 Total= 28

#867 The Lighthouse- Anthony Grooms

#867 The Lighthouse- Anthony Grooms

A story told in two perspectives. Otie is in the mental home, but gets to visit church on Sunday. He watches as the congregation, mostly woman, is worked into frenzy by the young, attractive preacher. Then he gets called out and the Preacher comes over to cast out his demons. This is not the fist time, nor will it be the last time he needs saving. Watching from the back is his nephew, a college boy and a cynic. He doesn’t believe in all this and is hated by the preacher. The preacher believes book learning corrupts.

After the service, Otie goes back to his sinning ways and his nephew goes back to watching it all happen. He still goes to church, maybe for the entertainment or waiting to be taken by the spirit like everyone else.

Notable Passage: “When the commotion quiets down, the Holy Rollers get down to the real business of religion—collecting money.”

Rating: 7-6-6-7 Total= 26

#866 A Betrayal of Mirrors- Bohumil Hrabal

#866 A Betrayal of Mirrors- Bohumil Hrabal

The things we believe in keep us going. But what if it’s all a myth. Working for God and country is the drive of many people, but it could also be their undoing. We see a stonemason as a hard working man, literally working his fingers to the bone to remove commemorative plaques in one wall of a church just to re-attach them on another, all for the glory of the nation.

We also see an artist, temperamental and odd, but no less sacrificing in his work. He has been working night and day, to the point of being physically ill to create his latest piece of art, one that will be destroyed anyway, again, all for the glory of the state. Their sacrifice is to be looked on in envy by the rest of he public. Images and ethics to strive towards.

“The best minds in the country are sacrificing themselves…So am I. I’m educating the nation not to jump off moving streetcars.”

Rating: 7-8-7-7 Total= 29