Rough Strife – Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Lynne Sharon Schwartz, 1939 -

I think that most of the stories that appeal to me are stories that present a glimpse into someone’s life. Just a slice of an everyday affair, a few years of an interesting character, a relationship examined closely.

I enjoyed “Rough Strife” because it was simply a slice of what could be a real life story. Granted the characters in the story have it rough...but overall, an entertaining relationship story.

Time peg in the story was right on with a pregnant character drinking and taking NoDoz but afraid of “drugs”. I suppose that explains what happened to my generation!

7 out of 10

Redemption – John Gardner

John Gardner July 21, 1933 - September 14, 1982

As mentioned in the previous post, I had to make it far into the volume before I found my favorite.

Now I can say that I had to make it just as far to find my least favorite.

Part of doing these reviews gives me a chance to do research on the authors. It’s nice to find wiki pages for some of the authors. I do check behind the pages to make sure that everything I see there is accurate. I’m glad to see that there are people out there that still respect their work and take time to create the pages for the authors. Sometimes I have to do a bit more digging but I rather enjoy it. I’ve really enjoyed discovering what has become of these authors. A far number of them were pretty established within the American literary community when their story was selection for inclusion in these collections. A good number also went along to write some pretty impressive works.

John Gardner wrote Grendel. I never had the chance to read it but it was on my list of “must reads”. I remember sitting at a bar in Waterside with a copy of “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!” and some guy, a think it must have been a sailor, told me to read “Grendel” and “Still Life with Woodpecker”. I suppose they fall into a genre. Never read “Woodpecker” but I think I will be adopting the wearing of red socks like Robbins who got it from Leary.

Notice that I am not writing much about the actual story?

If you don’t have anything nice to say then...

Here is what I will say about the story -

Redemption is a fictionalized account of the accident that Gardner was involved in when he was a young boy. Gardner was driving a tractor when he accidentally ran over and killed his brother. As anyone would expect, Gardner carried the guilt around for a lifetime and it should be noted that it shaped his style of fiction...how could it not.

I can’t imagine how Gardner sat down at his desk and wrote out that scene. I have trouble just standing in the shower and thinking about the death of a loved one. I choke up, tears well...

His bio states that he was a favorite at The Breadloaf Writers Conference. Well, it’s in Vermont so it’s gotta be good! He also wrote a novel won the National Book Critics' Circle Award in 1976 which was set in Vermont. Niiiice. And in a final, strange sort of weird coincidence with my life...Gardner died in a motorcycle accident in Susquehanna Pennsylvania.

3 out of 10

The Conventional Wisdom – Stanley Elkin

Stanley Elkin May 11, 1930 – May 31, 1995

Half way through the Best American Short Stories 1978, I find my favorite.

A story that will remain with me forever.

So...

A task that an author strives to fulfill is to take the reader to places they have never been. Both in this physical and pushing further, they take us into our own soul and force us to explore it. If our soul is in our heart, it is torn from it, if it is in our mind, it is wrapped further into it.

Furthermore, one job may be to uncover what frightens us.

What frightens many of us? Hell. Why? Because we- do -not -want –to- go- there.

Of course if we believe that Hell exists.

But what if we don’t believe. Can the author still provide a story that will frighten us in such a way that we question ourselves to our very core?

An author that can do all of this and more is nothing short of incredible.

I am going through a period in my life where I am struggling with my beliefs. Religion, society etc. I’m questioning it all.

Then again, shouldn’t we all...all the time? This is due largely to what I read and listen to through lectures. Where am I in this world? Where will I be in a year, 10 years, 20 years...tomorrow? Will I live to see tomorrow? What will happen to me if I fail to live past tomorrow? What will my life have been? Where will it go?

So, Elkin in this story, presents me with visions of Hell, descriptions that are painted so well through words that I think they are some of the most frightening I have read. I think it is the classic way he paints Hell that makes it the most frightening. I think he has found my secret definition of Hell, and illustrated it for me. It’s quite unsettling.

Elkin draws me into the story by giving his characters a humanity that we can relate to. That we can see in our bathroom mirror.

The main character is then forced into situations that we can find ourselves in, and, based on my above sentences, one of those situations is Hell.

I told my wife about reading this story and as I usually do, I failed to convey the strength of what was written.

“-it was to go mad, but there was no madness in Hell- the terrific vocabulary of the damned, their poet’s knack for rightly naming everything which was the fail-safe of reason – and he could find peace nowhere.”

Shit, bowels, spit, blisters, fire, blood, pus rape...it’s all there and in the right order.

Online bonus content can be found on the Paris Review website. A full PDF of an interview with the author. –It’s wonderful.

Look forward to hearing more about Elkin as he is the volume editor for BASS 1980.

10 out of 10

By The Yellow Lake – Peter Marsh

Peter Marsh (maybe??? MARCHAND, FIRMIN PIERRE)

I struggled to find real meaning in this story.

It just seemed to be just that...a story.

The only relation I could make to it was an attempt by the author to develop a character and have a connection with the reader by drawing them into what can only be seen as an impossible undertaking. –huh? Yeah right.

The main charater excavates sand from beneath the house of a neighbor preventing a room from sinking before an annual lakeside celebration. The scenes are painted nicely by the author...yes, just nicely. Not much more than that. I didn’t get any real meat out of this story. Characters are presented, a plot moves along, but there is no juice. Bit of a struggle to get through this one.

5 out of 10 points.