Staus – Mary Ann Malinchak Rishel

Mary Ann Malinchak Rishel – 1940 –

Researching Mary Ann, and I have found once again how the past is drawing a dotted line to the present. It’s a faint dotted line and one that I really can’t describe.

Mary Ann is a writing teacher in Qatar. She teaches for the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The photo above shows her has a happy rather youthful looking woman. I’m glad to see that. When I think back to 1978, I sometimes feel as if that time existed in another life. I was 6, and she was probably in her mid 20’s. Seeing where she is now and knowing what she is doing and apparently enjoying herself gives me fresh fuel to add to the fire of the possibilities that still exist in my own life.

The story Staus was one story of 12 that Mary Ann composed as her MFA thesis at Cornell. It was published in The Hudson Review, and pick up by Solotaroff. Further research also states that the story was made into a 10 part television mini-series...this according to the Slovak Studies Newsletter of June 1983.

It was an entertaining story...long, and a struggle for me to get through only because I had to read it in several sittings due to my inability to settle into a time slot for completing it in one session. I don’t think though that splitting the reading had any effect on what I thought of the story/writing.

I am too easily moved by stories and passages about elderly people who are left alone by the death of their spouse. I often place myself into their character and wonder about my future and if it will hold similar situations for me or mine. Do I want to be the one doing the grieving or the one that is grieved over?

I find myself thinking of this rather often.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing and the story of Staus. I read it as it being the future of “everyman”. Tending the grave of the deceased wife, living on, dealing with relatives and the internal conversations one has with oneself after the loss of your external ear (wife). The cultural atmosphere of the story should not be overlooked. I enjoyed seeing some parallels between the story’s and where I have lived.

Score 8 out of 10.

The Return of Service – Jonathan Baumbach

Jonathan Baumbach – 1933 –

Badass!

This was my first reaction to discovering a little bit more about Baumbach through my research.

First, his photo. Check that dude out. Just looks like an author.

Next, his work outside of writing. Co-founder, 1974, co-director, 1974-78, and currently member of the Board of Directors, Fiction Collective.

Instructor, Stanford University, 1958-60; instructor, 1961-62, and assistant professor, 1962-64, Ohio State University, Columbus; assistant professor, New York University, 1964-66; associate professor, 1966-70, 1971-72, and since 1972 professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Visiting professor, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 1970-71; University of Washington, Seattle, 1978-79, 1985-86; Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1994.

Woah! And...he married his fourth wife in 2004. Do the math from his birthday, and you’ll see he’s still kick’in it! -Nice-

The story – I remember reading this and learning that it was another short story with tennis in it, I came into it feeling a little –blah-.

Pleasantly though, I really enjoyed this short. It’s simply a tennis match between a father an son. Well, not simply. Of course, the author just uses this to show the relationship between the two...and the relationship they have within themselves to their own selves. As a literate person, I don’t think we would expect that an author would just write a simple story about a tennis game. It seems a bit predictable that he would lay the “relationship” theme underneath it all. He does though and he accomplishes it well. I think we can all see a bit of the relationship we have with our parents in this story. Wonderful last sentence.

“ Waiting for the ball’s arrival – it is on the way, it has not yet reached me – I concede nothing. “

And here is a nice quote by Baumbach

"We are trained to think that personal matters are less important than the global, but in fact the world tends to be too much with us and only of the moment. The personal, which is where we begin and end, is about everything."

Score 9 out of 10

Update on securing BASS volumes

So close but still out there.

So, for my birthday I requested the final four volumes of BASS missing from my collection.

Well, some of them arrived today. If you take a quick peek at the list, you will see that I have updated the statues list to show that 1980, 1981 and 1985 have been added to my collection. What about 1982? Well, the well meaning folks at Better World Books sent the wrong volume. I suppose that it must have had something to do with their internal coding of their holdings. They sent along 1999.

I sent them a nice email explaining their mistake, and I am awaiting their reply.

Alas, completion is still a few days away.

In Miami, Last Winter - James Kaplan

James Kaplan 1951 –

It’s funny. When I read this story I felt as if it had to be created by an old soul. There was a certain depth to the writing that really gave it the weight of experience. Turns out that the writer of the story was very young...late 20’s.

The story is a look into the life of a young man and his battle with his own identity reflected through the battles he engages in with chess...in particular, an opponent named Harry Urbanic.

This was a long story, and I did feel at times that it could have been shortened.

Kaplan did a wonderful job and bringing the intensity of a heated chess match to the page. The clicking of the chess clock, the lighting and the smells...wonderful atmosphere.

Growing up, and into my mid to late 20’s, I wanted to master chess. I even played it on my fathers Apple...he had a special program that would tutor you in all the attacks and moves. Got me nowhere. Wait...now that I have opened that little memory hole, I remember sitting in the guest room...which had become my room after college and playing chess on that computer and getting buzzed off of Vodka. I’m sure I had some early 90’s music on and it was probably around 1:30 in the afternoon. I’m sure that the game quickly became boring for me and I wandered into other buzzed pursuits. Writing letters, looking at magazines, listening to music or riding a bike.

You know, when I look back on that time, and question the year or more I spent in that room...I learn that the time spent there was really well spent. I learned more about myself then, when I needed it the most...it was the beginning of the education into the exploration of my inner self that continues through to this day. I could go on and on about this, and I am sure I will but I have hundreds of other stories to pull out memories. I’ll let them assist in further entries.

Look at that. All of the above rambling stirred from the discussion of Kaplan’s short story. Thanks James...you done good.

That’s what it’s all about – right?

Score 8 out of 10