Month: August 2022

  • BEST OF 2022: Short Story Review of “So Late in the Day,” by Claire Keegan

    (The short story “So Late in the Day,” by Claire Keegan appeared in the February 28th, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (And there are SPOILERS!)

    Character study, as a short story format, is one of those “classic” forms that’s taught in school; an analysis or portrayal in literature of the traits of character of an individual – so says Merriam-Webster. I find this form is used in the absence of a plot, as the “climax” of these stories usually is when the reader discovers the reason why the character behaves the way they did in the story.

    That’s what “So Late in the Day” basically is. We meet Cathal at his desk on July 29th, which is a wonderfully perfect weather day. He clearly is avoiding people, and even his boss suggest that he head home early, but Cathal prefers to finish out his day, per normal. After work he takes a bus home, and then the story starts to unfold his romance with Sabine. As this relationship is shared with us, we begin to see the faults in his character. When they decide to get married, and Sabine moves in with Cathal, we see his misogyny on display, which is also registered by Sabine. Then the reveal comes, and it turns out that July 29th was to have been their wedding day, which now has clearly been called off.

    Keegan’s writing is fine, and engaging. I found the character believable, and could see why they were attracted to each other, but the story still left me with the feeling that something was missing. I felt like the story wasn’t clear on what its intentions were for the reader. As a character study, it fit the mold – dude’s a misogynist, hence why his girl leaves. But, what are we supposed to feel about that? I don’t think the intention was to feel sorry for Cathal. He is upset with the situation he is in, but I don’t think he learned his lesson, which implies that this behavior will repeat. That’s unsatisfying. But, with Cathal being the focus, I feel that the intention was that Cathal should understand his responsibility in creating the situation that he is in, but I didn’t find that through line in the story. What I found was that Cathal wasn’t a good guy, but he wasn’t a bad one either. It was ambiguity, and that’s a tough one to end on for a character study.

  • BEST OF 2022: Short Story Review of “What the Forest Remembers” by Jennifer Egan

    (The short story, “What the Forest Remember” by Jennifer Egan, appeared in the January 3rd & 10th, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Why did our parents do the things that they did? Why did my dad stop buying sports cars in the 70’s and then start buying station wagons? I can guess, which is that he started a family, and two door sports cars just aren’t practical for a growing family. That’s a logical answer, and most likely correct, but there is an outside chance it could be something else. Do I want to know his thought process as to why he made this decision when it came to cars? No. I want to believe he made that decision because he loved his family and it was the right thing to do. I would hate to know that he was guilted by my mother to give up his sports car for a station wagon, and he spent the rest of his life resenting her and his kids. It’s not a pleasant thought, but it is possible.

    I feel that was what Jennifer Egan was trying to tackle with her short story, “What the Forest Remembers,” which is a fun read. She tells the story of four men, three of which who are married with families, all living around the San Francisco area in 1965, who go on a trip to the wilderness around Eureka, CA. The point of the trip is to visit a marijuana farm/commune, experiment with grass, and have a good weekend. The crazy right turn of this story is that the narrator, Charlie, who is the daughter of Lou, one of the four men going on the trip, has access to the memories of her father, the rest of the men, and even some of the people at the commune. This is because Charlie exists in the near future where people have uploaded their memories into a Collective Consciousness, and thereby, one can review memories and thoughts of the past. It was a bit of a jarring twist, but it had a slight Vonnegut feel to it, so I went with it. I don’t want to spoil the story, but this trip plays an important role in the three married men’s lives.

    I had to read this story twice, because the first time through it, I just felt like I had missed something. The story and the writing is very, I think, charming is the best way to describe it, but the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. I sat on it for a day, and then decided I needed to take another crack at it. The second time through, I began to pick up on a little of the nuance of disappointment Charlie has with her father, which I found at odds with the concept of the story. If the premise is that Charlie can see and hear her father’s thoughts and memories, then there shouldn’t be any vagueness on her understanding of his intention and thought process of those decisions. There are moments and lines that are dropped by Charlie about her father’s thoughts towards her, that you would believe would be difficult for her to hear, but these thoughts are treated like adjectives in describing a person’s hair color. In fact, at one point in the story, Charlie rhetorically asks what should be done with this overload of information that comes from viewing a person’s memories? Which causes Charlie to state, “Not every story needs to be told.”

  • BEST OF 2022: Short Story Review of “Long Distance,” by Aysegul Savas

    (The short story “Long Distance,” by Aysegul Savas, appeared in the January 31st, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Sometimes it’s nice to read a love story. And sometimes it’s also nice to read a love story about “relationships where you get jerked around,” to quote the Fortune Teller from The Simpsons. When it came to Aysegul Savas’ story “Long Distance,” it’s a love story about two people who try not to jerk each other around, but might be jerking each other around.

    This was a story that seemed like it could have been published in Collier’s back in the 50’s, as it sort of had the casualness of a Post-War world where American’s came and went in Europe, like visiting a farm upstate – free of the burdens the rest of the world is dealing with. The story is basically about Lea, a student doing a semester of research in Rome, and her male gentleman friend (I don’t think he is ever referred to as a boyfriend) Leo, coming to visit her from California. Their relationship is new, starting just before she left for Rome, and has consisted of phone calls and emails. There is a large anticipation on Lea’s part, and when Leo arrives, the two never seems to line up their intentions, especially when it comes to a story about an elderly woman Leo met on his flight to Rome.

    I am a fan of the short story with subtle and small events that have impactful ramifications to character’s lives, even to the point where the reader understands the importance though the characters may not. That’s what I think this story was aiming for, and I feel it succeeded at that goal. I understood Lea’s high expectations for Leo’s visit, and how when each miscommunication occurs, she feels more insecure that the trip will be a failure. The story is from her point of view, as she is the only character we get internal thoughts from, so we have to take Leo’s words and actions, and figure out what is his truth. I like that Savas structured his story in that way, as it doesn’t make Leo’s true intentions the focus, but rather Lea’s decision on what she thinks is Leo’s true intention are. For that reason, I feel the story stuck its landing.

  • This Week: The Best of 2022 (So Far)

    As the Summer comes to a close and we can see Labor Day on the horizon, I will be taking this week off from working on the blog. I want to spend this final week with the kid before she returns to school, and see what trouble we can get in.

    For this week, I will be posting the top five blogs that have received the highest view counts. A “Best of 2022” so to speak. (Well, the first six months of the years, anyway.) The fifth most viewed post will be today, Monday, and I’ll work our way up to the most seen post on Friday.

    I would also like to take a moment and say an appreciative thank you, to all of you who have stopped by and read my blog over the past two years. When I started out, I was lucky to get one person to look at it. Now, on a good day, I just might get ten views. So, don’t tell me that hard work doesn’t pay off.

    And (you know it’s coming) if you like what you have read, don’t be chicken, go ahead and like, comment, and share. You’ll be helping an angel get his wings!

  • ODDS and ENDS: Student Loans, Champions League, and This Site

    (I haven’t done the tag line thing in awhile…)

    I am sure you all know this; if you have a Federally backed student loan, the government is forgiving $10,000 of it, and up to $20,000 if you received a Pell Grant. This does personally affect me, as I have student loans, and when I was in college, I received Pell Grants. (Full disclosure: I did refinance and consolidate my loans fifteen years ago, so I’m in a limbo right now because I’m not sure the action I took so long ago now disqualifies me from the forgiveness. I’m still waiting to hear from the DOE as to what the status of my loans are.) What I do want to talk about is the debate about this action taken by Biden. Conservatives have an emotional response to it (It’s not FAIR!) while Liberals seem to be mucking up their response – veering between emotional (The right thing to do) and logical (It will help people economically) which makes the progressive message not very clear and easy to explain. The one argument I find funny is the Conservative accusation that Biden is just doing this to please his base, which Democrats dance around. Personally, I think that Biden should just lean into it and say, “Yes, I am doing this for my base.” Republicans have been cutting wealthy peoples taxes for years, and the only reason they do it is to make their donors happy, and no one is surprised by it. Biden has sort of said it, claiming that he’s fulfilling his campaign promise. But, really, I just want to see a Democrat put it like this, “You vote for us, you get your loan forgiven. You vote for them, you get nothing.” At the end of the day, that is politics. No one votes for a party to only help the other side. People vote for a party because they will get something first, and then hopefully the rest of the country next.

    CHAMPIONS LEAGUE is COMING! Which means I will be writing about Tottenham matches even more! And the Spurs play Nottingham Forrest this weekend in the Premier League, which I am expecting Tottenham to win. No offense to Nottingham.

    So, I paid the money and have my own site now, and no longer am I under the yoke of Word Press. I really haven’t had a chance to try out all the bells and whistles that I now have access to being that I am a paid site. Most likely, I’ll start working on some updates after Labor Day, when the kid is back in school. The one thing I have noticed is that my page views are WAY UP! While my blog views are exactly the same. Not sure if this means anything, but my gut tells me that my site is being poked by bots. The four of you who continue to come by and read this blog, again, I thank you for your dedication. I am looking into monetizing this site. Not sure how to do that, nor am I sure how I’m going to spend the $0.15 cents I will make annually. But, I think some changes might be coming.

    (Yo! Please take a moment to give tis post a like, or a share. No comments though. Seriously, I don’t know if I can handle to contact.)