. Spinning .

Death Defier by Tom Bissell (page 174) goes a bit further into layering stories and presenting the reader with some work to define the theme.  The main story in the past tense third person POV is of a journalist (Graves) and a photographer (Donk) who have hooked up in Afganistan and are attempting to travel through dangerous war zones along with a guide (Hassan) who they’re not sure they can fully trust.  Graves is ill with malaria, and this along with the danger of the journey provide both the points of stress and conflict as well as the underlayment of death that Donk carries with him as a mental burden since his father’s death.

While the premise may appear as man against society, and this is fully covered in Donk’s wonderings about the comparisons and contrasts in human nature on a global scale, it is also his private man against himself in his reflections of death as he’s experienced it, from the quiet death of his father to the tortured deaths of those he photographs in his travels.  Now facing the possible death of his friend, Graves, he does all he can whilst being frustrated by the conditions and lack of assistance.  The ending is a satisfying and surprising twist both for those who enjoy the head-scratching "I’ll have to think about this one " as well as those who demand a more traditional ending to an adventure story.

And I must exclaim about the writing:

Graves smiled.  "Old men have to die.  The world grows moldy, otherwise."  (p. 198)

The man’s face, Donk thought, was 70 percent nose.  (p. 199)

"Mister Donk," Hassan said, apprehensive to be violating Rule One, "you are well?"  "Fine," Donk said.  "Some dirt in my eye."  Hassan almost smiled.  "Both eyes?"  Hassan was smarter that Donk realized.  Everyone, Donk thought, was smarter than you realized.  "Yes, Hassan.  Both eyes."  (p. 203)

The Girls, by Joy Williams (p. 212) is a delightfully told story that is woven together by an underlying resentment of two sisters who are content to live in an world created to manipulate their parents and everyone else while keeping it safe from interference of boyfriends and houseguests.  They are cruel in the way of Dorothy Parker’s characters; self-centered and malicious in a place in time that is also very reminiscent of Parker’s 40s and 50s wealthy residents.  Nicely written, the story is well drawn out into the characters, and yet there is again here an ending that is both unexpected and leads one to wonder what major changes the girls will be undergoing from the climactic event, or, if indeed, it is something well planned for.  Good entertainment, good study in story elements.

First Four Measures by Nathaniel Bellows is a rather odd bit of story abut a fourteen year-old boy who tries hard to gain his piano teacher’s approval, and it seems, physical touch, though we aren’t quite sure if it actually is a sexual or intense creative overture by the instructor.  His parents go off and leave the boy in the care of a housesitter who also has what appears an attraction to the boy, and there is a jealousy of sorts that is evident after she tells the boy’s parents about seeing the piano teacher’s moves.  It is a true character revelation as even the boy himself obviously manipulates all the adults.  Sensitively presented, and while I felt rather wanting more clear information, it may be the skill of the author to leave us as uncertain as the boy himself is in his desire as well as his suspicions.

Charles D’Ambrosio’s The Scheme of Things is based more on action to produce the conflict, while gradually revealing the main characters in their reactions.  Kirsten and Lance are ex-cons, down on their luck, traveling the countryside in a beat-up car and trying to sucker folks into donating to a legitimate foundation for aid to drug-damaged newborns even as they decide to keep what little they manage to solicit for themselves. Kirsten is psychic, and acts as the front man, and at one point they stay a couple days with an older couple who readily share what little they have.  When they leave, Kirsten is amused and a little upset to find that the jewelry Lance has stolen from their hosts is paste, and the corn he’s filled the back seat with is all cow corn.  Interesting delving into the side of people who even in desperation may be affected by the plight of others, yet still take advantage of them.

I love Alice Munro’s work; it always is so simple and straightforward about a common situation, and yet it’s the underlying story that the reader slowly becomes aware of being the main focus.  What’s happening is the impetus, the action; in this story, The Silence, a mother goes to pick up her daughter from a commune that she suspects is a cult, the daughter is gone, and the mother’s life changes and goes on in waiting for the girl who never does return but leads her own separate life.  Munro has an excellent way of moving time both backward and forward from her immediate action starting point that provides insight into the characters even as it reveals their growth and changes.

I want to get one or two more stories read before I do another review of Best American Short Stories – 2005, but this is one of the reasons I read, to catch the writing style, and too often my immediate delight is forgotten when the story’s done.  So…

Hassan looked at Donk and shrug-smiled, his eyes rimmed with such a fine black line they looked as if they had been Maybellined.  (BASS 2005, p. 175)

The sentence is from Death Defier by Tom Bisell.  The stop-me-dead words are "shrug-smiled" and "Maybellined." 

I love when nouns are turned into verbs, verbs into adjectives , etc.  I love nothing better in my own writing when I check out those squiggley green lines from Windows spell-check and click "ignore." 

It’s man over machine.  Creativity over proper form.  It’s a love of language and the ways it can be twisted to say exactly what you see and feel when the language as it stands cannot fulfill the need.