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

Gilbert Sorrentino – Decades

Gilbert Sorrentino - April 27, 1929 – May 18, 2006

This was a really fun little story.

It revolves around a writer... and well... I think it provides the reader with what they would envision a typical writer’s life to be. Drinking, drugs, relationship troubles (intimate and friendships), poor income and to me, what seems to be ever present in the “writer” type stories – a threesome.

The narrator has a relationship over the years with the Steins. He chronicles their ups downs and general “going abouts” in parallel with the events of his own life.

It all seems very 1970’s looking back on it from 2009. I can hear the tinny sounds of AM radio from my mother’s kitchen in 1979. Took me back.

In the research I have done on Sorrentino, he is described as a postmodernist. I am still attempting to discover the exact meaning of that label but I feel confident that I can lump him in there with the collection I will ultimately use to form my final definition. Nice little story to slide in towards the end of this volume.

Score 7 out of 10