A Collection of Pieces and Parts

Book Review: Problems with People by David Guterson

I love short stories. There ... I said it.

It started with Steinbeck, but branched out into Hemingway, Kipling, and Edgar Allan Poe; then on to Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers - I was hooked. Detective stories, science fiction, horror ... pick a genre. They are short, sharp, succinct; something that you can read in a sitting but that can stay with you for a lifetime ("The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro").

David Guterson is a skillful writer; I especially enjoy his crafting of dialog. There is no shortage of excellent writing in the ten stories that comprise Problems with People. Yet somehow, the great writing does not seem to jell into great stories. At times I felt as if I was reading a character sketch, or a chapter randomly lifted from another book. I appreciate that the short story puts constraints on an author in terms of character development and plotting, however "short" should not mean fragmentary - there still needs to be a story.

At times, especially in the stories "Shadow" and "Hush", Guterson is almost there. I did not have that same feeling with those as I did with the remaining stories - that this was a longer work with some pieces left out, like a badly edited newspaper story. Guterson's use of the language approaches poetry at times, and can be a joy to read, the words like fine wine on the tongue. The pieces within the stories are very well done, sadly the parts don't come together as a whole.

It's All in Here

Book Review: The Best American Essays 2013 edited by Robert Atwan and Cheryl Strayed

In my opinion, the purpose of literature is to help me see the world through other eyes, and to look beyond the narrow construct of my personal view of 'how things are'. The essay seeks to accomplish this by allowing the author to forward their personal viewpoint on matters of their choosing; a well-written essay will bring the reader into the author's world view, hopefully to expand the reader's viewpoint in the process.

The Best American Essays 2013 opens to the reader a wide selection of windows on the world. While they are all written from a first-person perspective, the subjects they reveal go beyond simple autobiographical short stories. It's all in here: economics (the subject on everyone's mind), politics, science, psychology, relationships. Every essay reveals not just the author's personal outlook; to the perceptive reader they also show our collective views as Americans.

In this day of sound bites and tweets, maybe it is too much to ask for readers to look beyond the mere words on the page, to read between the lines, to savor and mull over the stories that are laid before us and see the deeper secrets they hold. As Charles Baxter points out in "What Happens in Hell":
"Why do you desire to believe the ideas that you hold dear, the cornerstones of your faith?" Are we more comfortable with our heads in the sand, seeing only that which is directly in front of us? That world where "... people will walk smiling through puddles of your blood, smiling and talking on their cellular phones. They're going to the movies." (J.D. Daniels, "Letter from Majorca").

Editor Cheryl Strayed points out that "Essayists begin with an objective truth and attempt to find a greater, grander truth by testing fact against subjective interpretations of experiences and ideas, memories and theories. They try to make meaning of actual life, even if an awful lot has yet to be figured out." This demands of us as readers to look for the greater truth as well; to not merely look at these stories like we do the evening news: passively absorbing what we are told and moving on to the next. We need to be actively looking within, even as the author shares their experience of the world.

A book to be read slowly, thoughtfully, and purposefully, digging out those golden nuggets of greater truth.

What Literature Isn't

Book Review: How Literature Saved My Life by David Shields

Before David Shields makes any declaration about literature's impact on his life, methinks he should first learn what literature is ... and isn't.

How Literature Saved My Life is yet another in a series of recent books that seems to be no more than a series of randomly connected blog posts strung together. In fact Mr. Shields actually states that a blog IS literature - stating that he simply does not have the time to read more. I suppose that explains this disconnected series of 'tweets' about books that he has written, or purportedly read.

According to the dictionary, literature consists of "writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features". Assembling sound bites from other authors, no matter what THEIR credentials may be, does not make one an author.

The stream of consciousness method has been utilized to exceptionally better and more telling effect than Mr. Shields manages to produce. If the intent behind How Literature Saved My Life is to exhibit a lack of sophistication in modern readers, it succeeds.

The Lost Art of the Essay

Book Review: Sex and the River Styx by Edward Hoagland

In the experience of the average American, the word essay brings to mind a formalized piece of writing inflicted on us in the course of high school English classes. Successor to the "book report", and predecessor to the "term paper", the essay has become a formulaic piece of drudgery that has lead more students to avoid writing as a communication method than any other form of public education.

In an effort to make the essay an achievable goal for the average student, the process has been broken down to the cellular level. Students are micro-managed in their essay-writing, to the point of being instructed not only how many paragraphs are permitted in a "good" essay, but also as to how many sentences in a paragraph, and how many words in a sentence. Grading is done by word count; content is irrelevant as long as the proper mechanics are used. It is small wonder that students throw up their hands and buy a ready-made one off the Web.

It was not always thus. The essay has its roots in the Renaissance, and left its mark on writers from Descartes and Rousseau through Huxley and Asimov. It is in this tradition that Edward Hoagland guides us in Sex and the River Styx. In the original meaning of the word, essay is "to try" or "to attempt", and Hoagland attempts to bring us along on his journey to a different perspective on life, love, and death.

In doing so we have to make a jump, not only in our understanding of what an essay really is, but in our reading as well. This is not a novel, quickly paced and easily digested while waiting in the airport. This is a book not to be read so much as mined, to be dug into, its truths extracted like prized nuggets. The digging is not always easy, but it is well worth the effort.

Each of the essays in this baker's dozen is a work unto itself; while related to each other and the whole they are not dependent on one another for understanding. They do not have to read in a particular order - choose a spot to your liking and start digging. Take your time and savor the effort, allow yourself to feel the textures, the woof and warp of the fabric Hoagland has woven.

It may not make you enjoy writing essays, but Sex and the River Styx might give you a new take on reading them.