Spelling– Alice Munro

Alice Munro – July 10, 1931

I don’t think any introduction is need of Alice Munro. Plenty of information online and plenty of reviews of her work...even reviews of this very story. Why should I add my review?

The story was fine on all accounts. It didn’t knock me off my feet. What it did do is what these stories are supposed to do – either educate, jump start the pursuit of a portion of knowledge or ignite a stream of reflection.

“Spelling” set me off on thinking about the lives of my parents as they grow older – specifically, how I will interact with them.

Was this the intention of Munro? Well, that’s the beauty of the short, the power to move minds.

Over the past 9 years, it seems that the change in my parents have become more evident. My father of course has ALZ. Early diagnosis. He lives in PA. so I rarely see him but when I do, the effects of the disease are pretty noticeable.

Concerning my mother, I see her weekly because we live in the same city. I think that I noticed the biggest change in her a couple of years after our return from Romania.

How will I deal with them when they are well into their senior years? Because of what ALZ does, I can only expect the worst for my dad. How will it impact my life, our lives?

Score 7 out of 10.

Falling off the Scaffold – Lyn Coffin

Lyn Coffin - November 12, 1943

I’ve had some trouble with some of the experimental prose that Oates has chosen to include in this volume and I suppose I should say there was trouble with the submissions Solotaroff made.

I think though that I would be correct in labeling “falling off the Scaffold” as a bit out of the ordinary for a short story...so would it qualify as experimental?

What is the definition of experimental in literature and who has the power to define it? Am I viewing this as experimental through the lens of 1979 or am I bringing my 2009 eyes into judging it? Tough to say.

I define it as experimental because this is my blog, my writing and me having a conversation with myself.

Coffin creates a world where a writer of poetry and short stories conducts a correspondence course with a writing instructor and delivers an interesting look into the relationship between artists. It was a short glimpse and one that I found myself feeling a bit uncomfortable reading at times because of the reactions that the two characters gave to each other concerning the poets work. I enjoyed reading a bit of poetry within the story as well as shorts contained within the short. I felt that the poet/short story character toyed with the professor. She was batting him around more than seeking his criticism and advice...and he seems to be of course, full of himself, not shaping and developing the author but stroking his own feathers.

Coffin offers writing consultancy services in the real world...interesting after reading this selection. I feel though that the insight that she could provide would be genuine.

What did “Falling off the Scaffold” give me?

I have trouble with criticism, and I think that when I finally break down and start writing “for real” this is what will provide me with the most anxiety. The criticism. I have trouble with editors and I have trouble seeing their eye as just an editor’s eye...I see them hacking and slicing and manipulating more than what is just created by me...I see them attacking and changing ME.

This is an incorrect assessment of what they do and I think though that one of the reasons why I am afraid to really write is because I fear the criticism.

I’ll find a way over this, and perhaps this whole exercise I am engaged in now is allowing me a bit of that.

Lyn Coffin. She has had and continues to have, and what seems to be a wonderful life. A successful poet in the past through today...and from what I understand, this is no small feat. I mean, being a poet is HARD. Do Americans read poetry? She has quite an online presence and even a Facebook page. This shouldn’t surprise me, as after researching Coffin, one can tell that she is quite a progressive woman.

This pushing of limits/boundaries made Coffin into what she is today. I respect her for this and I intend to write her and give her a big thumbs up on this fine work.

Score – 8 out of 10.

Plaisir d’Amour - Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Lynne Sharon Schwartz March 19, 1939

The last time I encountered Schwartz, it was for her story “Rough Strife”. I was brief, and rushed in my review of both her story and a deeper investigation into her bio. Lucky me though, she is included in BASS 1979 and I think in a bit we’ll see why Oates chose her.

In researching Schwartz, I discovered that she is and has produced a decent amount of work. A steady stream. 2007 saw the last time she and I would expect another book to come out soon.

Here are a few quotes from online sources that I found need to be reproduced.

"She writes of those things that constitute our lives," commented James Kaufmann in the Los Angeles Times, that "show us how what we do and what's done to us slowly accumulate to make us what we are."

Although Schwartz knew from an early age that she wanted to be a writer, she did not begin taking her work seriously until she was over thirty. While working on her Ph.D. at New York University, she realized the time was right: "Suddenly it dawned on me: I was a little over 30, and if I was going to write, I'd better write," Schwartz told Wendy Smith in a Publishers Weekly interview. Realizing that she no longer had to live "the way it was done" she told Smith, she abandoned her graduate studies and concentrated solely on fiction writing.

Schwartz related the key objective of all her writing to Smith: "Beneath all the layers of dailiness, the commonplace that I write about, I really try to get at these things that nobody wants to look at."

I find this last quote particularly interesting especially if you look back at my page on JCO.

Let’s look deeper into the story, Plaisir d’Amour, and what I gained from it.

It allowed me to venture into thoughts again of what my life would be, or what the life of my wife would be, if either of us died and were left alone.

I think married couples have these thoughts from time to time and I believe that they can be healthy...a way to solidify the love that one has for their spouse.

I have thought of what my life would be like without M. I know that I would not be where I am today if it were not for our marriage. My health, my sanity etc. I think that problems with diet, alcohol and just my general mental health would be quite severe.

Knowing this, when I think of the very real possibility of loosing her, and this is a real possibility for any of us, I can become quite emotional. We are such fragile beings, and in this world, we place ourselves in such situations that our lives can be drastically altered in seconds. We wake living in one world and by lunch, that world could seem as if were just our imagination.

I wonder if I would sink into depression. Would I loose my mind, my health...start drinking...what would I do? Would I be strong?

As it stands now, I know that I could never be with another. My life would never be the same. I would have to continue though this daily grind ALONE.

I just can’t imagine it. How we met, the circumstances...there can be only one, and M is it.

I reflected on this subject not too long ago when I discovered that Joyce Carol Oates remarried so soon after Raymond Smith, her husband, died.

I just couldn’t understand it. I always saw Oates as a strong woman...one that would continue through life with his memory. Now, it’s like she just dropped another man into Raymond’s place.

I of course, have no idea what she is going through. It was just so startling to see the new marriage.

The love between Oates and Smith seemed so strong and true. But again, I never saw what happened behind the doors of her house. None of us did.

So, in conclusion, I found great pleasure in this story. It accomplished many things and allowed me plenty of introspection, reflection and contemplation.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Some Manhattan in New England – Peter LaSalle

Peter LaSalle

Born May 27, 1947

Whew...this was a tough one. I reaaaaallly had to concentrate to make it through this story. I wonder if my modern ADD mind was not ready for a story crafted as this was. To make it short and sweet, I found another entry into BASS that just didn’t make it onto my list of stories that will remain with me.

What did the story gift me with? Well, to be a jerk, it didn’t give me much, but stole about 20 minutes of my life.

I suppose though that I have been in situations where I have wasted 20 minutes in a worse way. Thinking of that, I need to carry this book with me more. The problem I have though is that I have a tough time reading in areas where distractions are abundant. I’m also afraid that I’ll loose my book. I think I lost one of my O. Henry prize books before, and I think there is a subconscious drive in me that forbids me from carrying books into public.

Reading about LaSalle, and all of his past writings and awards, I was upset with the selection Oates provided.

For the life of me, I could not figure out where this story was going or from where it came.

I will though give it a point for providing me with a couple of sentences that will stick with me (unlike the rest of the story).

“After I died, I returned to the mill city to visit him as a visible ghost on June 15, 1953. I loved him so much that I wanted to hug him right there. I wanted to tell him that although I was dead, real love somehow goes beyond that. But we argued again, and it was never said.”

Score 4 out of 10.

The Quail - Rolf Yngve

Rolf Yngve born around 1951???

There are times, and those times come in lengthy intervals, when I run across a really good short story. I do hold hope that those times will come with greater frequency as I progress through the years of BASS but for now, finding little treasures like “The Quail” will do just fine.

There was a special feeling that the writing imparted from the first few paragraphs of this story. It had real substance – meat. It was thick and full of flavor, but at the same time easy for the mind to flow over the words and sink into the story.

I found connections with the couple in the story...as I feel that most young couples would. Hope, devotion, longing, wonder, love, warmth and the knowledge underlying it all that all of those feelings is a certain fragility and that at any time one or more of those feelings could be extinguished by a force unseen – or seen. You could say that your life together sometimes would be similar to walking across a frozen lake in spring.

I read the final two paragraphs twice. I wanted to derive from the words their full strength.

Upon reading the biographical notes at the back of the volume, I came across a pleasant surprise.

I’ll reproduce it below.

- Rolf Yngve is a native of Minnesota, has lived in Utah, and is now home-ported in Norfolk, Va. He has been in the Navy for eight years. He holds a B.S. in Meteorology from the University of Utah, obtained through the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program. While at Utah, he bootlegged English courses and wrote. ‘The Quail” is his second published story. At sea, he stands watch on the ships bridge, tries very hard to be good to the people who work so hard for him, and writes as well as he can to make himself feel better. He is twenty-eight and married to Gail Flowers.

The first thought that I had when I read this was that it sounded an awful lot like a fragment from the bio’s of authors in the back of “Glimmer Train”. I should also say that that occurred simultaneously with the “Holy crap” moment I experience with the Norfolk connection.

I had to know more about this guy. I fired up the Google machine and “pop” there you go. I see a Rolf Yngve with a Facebook page. I see that some of his interests include those of a literary genre. Hummm...I’d bet this is him. I wrote to him asking if he was in fact the author of “The Quail”. Figured that I’d start there. Early this morning, I discover a nice message from Rolf in my inbox. In short, yes he did write it. Looks like he is writing once again. – Great! - I decided to do some more digging. I find the below on the NewPages Blog

Third place: Rolf Yngve, of Coronado, CA, wins $300 for “Going Back for His Brother”. His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Rolf also has a Blogger profile and 2 reviews on Amazon.

I like his “In My Own Words” passage on Amazon.

“It occurred to me that I somehow find things to read not widely known or appreciated. I like a fine turn of phrase, a skilled account, and a humanist's view (humanist in the modern, non-atheistic sense.)”

And appropriately, under interests:

"Reader of non-mainstream literary fiction. I actually subscribe to literary magazines."

Google books returned him in the table of contents of the Quarterly West with a story entitled “Clean Fires”.

I suppose that the above mentioned story is the other published work considering it was contained in an early issue of QW.

“The Quail” was wonderful and I enjoyed my little brush with Rolf. I wish him success in his future writing!

Finally in closing, I should mention that I only include these briefs about the authors as a way to cement them deeper in my memory. Researching them gives me insight to their skills and where they could be operating from. Everything I find about them is freely available on the web or drawn from the bio pages of BASS. I am only mentioning this as to not freak out any of the authors who may stumble across these little postings.

Score 10 out of 10.

A Party in Miami Beach - Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer – 1902 – 1991

C’mon now...is there any way I could bash something written by Singer? The guy won a Nobel Prize in 1978!

I do have to say that this story didn’t do anything for me.

How about that.

Let’s just leave it there.

I suppose that if I was more familiar with the works of Singer...I may have picked up on his style and perhaps I would have enjoyed this selection.

Researching Singer, I discovered that he usually wrote about exactly what was contained in this story. Polish Jews, Yiddish language and culture and morality.

I don’t know, there just wasn’t anything special in this story for me.

Sure, I’m impressed by the man, but not the story. Perhaps Oates included it in the collection knowing that it would draw some eyes. I don’t know if the stories were read blind back then but I am pretty confident that she was able to recognize his writing. There probably weren’t many Yiddish authors in translation who were widely read here in the States back in the late 70’s...or published in Playboy.

The Paris Review does a wonderful job by making his 1968 interview with the journal available online. I couldn’t be happier that the PR makes these interviews available. It really allows me to know the authors beyond their work, and with a case like Singer, it gives me a perspective that I would not have had with out reading the interview. I will include several quotes from the interview below...as I find them special. I may not like the story, but I like the man.

“I say that we too in each generation see such sparks which we ignore just because they don’t fit into our picture of science or knowledge. And I think that it is the writer’s duty and also the pleasure and function, to bring out these sparks.”

“You cannot take life and suddenly turn it into one great delight, one ocean of pleasure. I never believed in it, and whenever people speak about a better world, while I admit that conditions can be made batter and I hope that we can do away with wars, still there will be enough sickness and enough tragedy so that humanity will keep on suffering more or less in the same way it always has. Being a pessimist to me means being a realist.”

Towards the end of the interview, Singer is asked about what seems to be the sudden rise in popularity of Jewish authors. I have noticed this trend with the last BASS and with the mention of several Jewish authors in JCO’s circle. I was starting to wonder if I had started to develop some sort of complex and that I was picking out these authors from some sort of weird filter that my mind constructed.

Singer gives an interesting reason...one that may or may or not be correct but one that puts my mind at ease nonetheless.

Score – 6 out of 10.

The Wedding Week – Rosellen Brown

Rosellen Brown - born May 12, 1939

I think, and I hope I am correct in the reading of this, that Oates has placed a nice piece of experimental literature into this portion of the volume.

This was a difficult read for me. I couldn’t find my way and had a feeling of slowing sinking after treading water with this story. My arms were tired, my legs couldn’t kick and my will – the most important part of the equation was failing.

Looking back, I think I am correct in this observation.

So, what did I get out of or learn from this story...because, of course there is something to learn from each one of these stories.

Well, there is the father/son---son/father relationship here. Again, I think I am reading this correctly.

So, if there is any parallel, anything that I can take out of this story, it is the story triggering the movement of me reflecting on my relationship with my father and what he and we went through, and what he and we are going through now.

The last line of this story brings it together nicely, and is probably what saved it from a savaging.

“I want him to promise me, promise me like a man, not like a shivering rabbit, that he is not going to die.”

So, Brown caused me to sit back for a bit and reflect on the old man...and then to write about it here. I suppose that’s good enough.

Again, it was a rough reading...but we can’t always find treasure.

Score – 6 out of 10.