First I read "Safety" by Joan Silber, which was so depressing I had to wash it down with a second story. Briefly it recounts the bad deeds of ICE and how similar it is to what went on in eastern Europe nearly a century ago.
A late in life tale by Carver relates the story of a man who cannot stop loaning and giving his family members money to keep them going. It is just about that. Over and over again until you fear for his sanity. I am sure such things happen in families but I would disown them all. Mirian Toewles reads and discusses it. I am going in for another try and what the title means. There is no tragedy here and yet...
16 ulasan:
Yeah, pass on the ICE story. I've read most of Carver but don't remember this.
William P. McGivern was a well known crime and movie writer of such stuff as THE BIG HEAST and ROGUE COP. But he started out writing pulp science fiction along with the crime stuff he is known for. I saw a reference to this and figured for 99 cents, what could it hurt to pick up THE FIRST WILLIAM MCGIVERN MEGABOOK, and in these times, what does it hurt to read incredibly silly tales of brawling spacemen and nasty Martians, all of whom walk around on different plants without space suits or helmets, speak English, and generally act like any other pulp tough guys? I've been reading one a day.
I read the third DS George Cross short story by Tim Sullivan (free from his website), "The Basket Case," and it was OK, but less interesting than the others of his I've read.
Mostly, this week I read the collection of Slow Horses novellas by Mick Herron, STANDING BY THE WALL. Good stuff, like the books.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I'm a fan of Dan Chaon, having read several of his books, including the short stories. I got his latest from the library, and was refreshing my memory with his Wikipedia page. There I discovered that when he was 19, in college, one of his writing professors was 30 year old Sheila Schwartz, who Chaon later married. She died of cancer 20 years later. She was also a writer, and I bought her collection of short stories, IMAGINE A GREAT WHITE LIGHT, and it arrived yesterday. We'll see.
My money advice comes from Benjamin Franklin- "He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing"--and Shakespeare's HAMLET: "neither a borrower nor a lender be" spoken by Polonius to his son Laertes. My parents paid cash for just about everything. Those spending habits got engrained in me.
My money advice comes from J. R. Ewing - "I need the money" - and from Donald Trump - "Gimme the money."
Cuba Gooding, Jr. - "Show me the money!"
I can understand what you mean about having to wash that first story down, Patti. The second doesn't exactly sound uplifting, either. It's an interesting question, though, about why people so willingly give money time after time...
The narrator aspires to be the "elephant" to his kids that his father was to him. You can read this from the dream sequence. The first dream is the narrator's childhood, his memory of his father, riding on his shoulders, arms outstretched and totally trusting his dad. He then falls asleep later and another dream sequence ensures: first the idyllic setting of a picnic with his wife and children but then it quickly changes to nightmare as he transitions to a party and then threatening the life of his teenage son. The payments he is making to everyone is to atone for his sins of having broken that peace, especially for his kids. At the end of the story, the tone change, where he is walking to work, the ride with his friend - he is taking joy in being the "elephant".
I left out a key word there: alcohol. The narrator is in recovery from that. He let it break up his family. That is what he is atoning for.
Jeff: THE BIG HEAT, of course...a film adaptation as well. Big McGivern fan, from kidhood...haven't read the early Ziff-Davis fantastica hacking.
Anon: Polonious, though, was supposed to be a pompous blowhard.
Margot: Sometimes it's akin to survivor's guilt, when one has done a lot, or even just somewhat, better than others in one's family, and can afford to. Anon has apparently read the story, too, and limns the reasons in the story.
Very nice analysis. And alcohol was certainly Carver's vice. Such a sad biography.
I have only read a few stories by Carver but I did not like any of them. I do hope to try more stories by him someday.
Though even without a typewriter likely to occur for several hundred years, Polonius might be able to type better than I do.
His stories are very dark. He is one of the most influential writers in terms of the short story but he's not for everyone. This is not even one of his darkest stories by a long shot Altman's movie collected many of them.
SHORT CUTS.
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