Memory always needs a marker

I bow down to The King.

Stephen King.

Teaching is just four - relaxing - days away, which means it has crept back into my mind as careers are wont to do.

My freshman are reading short stories this quarter, so I thought I might liven up my break with some by Stephen King.

My history with Stephen King began as me being a hater for much of my life, but has come full circle to me now calling him the Jane Austen of horror.

I shouldn't - then - be surprised to find his short story collection, Just After Sunset, to be fabulous.

Writing this is filling up the halftime I'm taking in the middle of the collection because I just read a short story that was so meaningful I have to take a moment. Let it marinate. I can't let any other words mess with the ones currently floating around my head.

The story: "The Things They Left Behind"

It is about a man who didn't die in the twin towers on 9/11 because he was playing hooky from work. A little less than a year later, artifacts from his now deceased co-workers show up in his apartment. They don't talk to him really, but when they are around he begins to remember them and then - later - also knows how they died.

I won't tell you how it ends. At 29 pages you can read it for yourself. I will say that throwing the objects away does NOT get them out of his apartment for long...

I find that after reading the story, I don't want to read anything else for a bit. I just want to think for a bit. Kudos to King, because isn't wanting to pause your reading to let the words resonate with you the mark of a successful tale?

Then again, I could be touchy because I teach a group of young people to which 9/11 means barely anything. I want to yell and say, "The world changed that day; don't you understand?"

They don't. Perhaps if they read this story they could begin to.

"The things I want to tell you about - the ones they left behind - showed up in my apartment in August of 2002.I'm sure of that, because I found most of them not long after I helped Paula Robeson with her air conditioner. Memory always needs a marker, and that's mine."
Stephen King

T G I sappy F

I used to think short stories were stupid.

I thought they were too short to get anything accomplished. What was the point? Plus, there are a bunch of crap short stories out there.

And then, slowly, I can to realize that while - yes - there are horrible short stories, there are also magical ones. We know my favorites are Ellen Gilchrist, Alice Munro and Doris Lessing. I find myself, thanks to them, opening up to other short stories.


I am just about to finish Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage. All the short stories take place at and around Comstock (MI) specifically and Kalamazoo (MI) generally. My transient lifestyle has created a romantic spot in my heart for my birthplace, but it should be noted that Kalamazoo is an amazing city. But every city has its issues, and this collection doesn't shy away from them.

It's true I only read it because my aunt photographed the cover, which my cousins are on. But now, it is so much more than that. It is a testament to my childhood, my family, and - though I almost never say it - my home.

Her idea of American salvage runs throughout the book. It is an actual place. It is people. It is a metaphor. So, while AS may not touch you like it has me, I encourage you to go out and find literature - even short stories - which embody your history.

They say literature is an escape, but is sometimes also a home.

"Men didn't understand that you couldn't let yourself be consumed with passion when there were so many people needing your attention, when there was so much work to do. Men didn't understand that there was nothing big enough to exempt you from your obligations..."
Bonnie Jo Campbell

THIS is what writing should be

A month or two ago, I read Ellen Gilchrist's In the Land of Dreamy Dreams...and loved it. Now that I have finished another collection of her short stories (Victory Over Japan), I will repeat myself: I have not read such an adept and amazing short story writer since reading Alice Munro.

A lot of what I come across in my reading travels seems cliche and worn out (in a bad way), in an amateur way (the difference between writers and people who like to write). This is opposed to reading a passage that describes something known that we can all picture, but in an interesting and so simply it was right in front of our faces why didn't we think of it kind of way. For example, here is Gilchrist describing an earthquake:

"At first she thought a cat had walked across the bed. Then she thought the world had come to an end. Then the lights went on."

So simple. It doesn't do more than it needs to. It isn't presumptuous or patronizing. It is real.

My absolute favorite part of Victory Over Japan was a revisit to a story from In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. I saw it and was all, yes(!) Nora Jane! In Dreamy Dreams, Nora Jane fell in love with a boy. This boy turned NJ into his accomplice and they robbed banks. The boy left NJ, but promised to bring her to California when he could. NJ took her life into her own hands, dressed up as a nun and robbed a bar. But now we get to see what happens after a woman follows a boy...

As it is a continuation, there was the added treat of an introduction from Gilchrist:

"When the story ended Nora Jane had successfully completed the robbery and was on her way to California. I wish I could say that Sandy was waiting at the airport when she got there, sleepless and excited and true. I wish that dreams came true, that courage and tenderness were rewarded in the world as they should be. I wish I could tell you that Nora Jane and Sandy lived happily ever after in Sunny California. Alas, that is not the way it happened."

I wish...

"Nora Jane was only practical about love most of the time. Part of the time she was just as dumb about it as everybody else in the world."
Ellen Gilchrist

THE LONG AWAITED BOOK POST

O.M.G. I am actually going to marinate on some books I have been reading. Amazing.


First up, I just finished M.C. Beaton's Death of a Gentle Lady (A Hamish Macbeth Mystery). It is fair to say that I super love Hamish Macbeth. When I'm not on my death bed, I finish these books in one sitting. They are like delicious dessert reading. Some might think they are fluffy, but I keep coming back and always look forward to the next time. Hamish is a local bobby in the Highlands of Scotland. He is amazingly adept at solving the large about of murders which seem to pervade his rural area, however has no inclination to move up the police ladder. Hilarity ensues in the form of disaster every time he has to come up with a plan to stay is his demoted, but loved position. Oh yeah, and he loves two women. And might I say that both he and the ladies are worthy of all the love and miscommunication swirling around. I highly recommend the entire series.
Next, is a book which shows what happens when one browses at the Merlo Library. I have made it known that I only ever pick up held materials at Merlo. However, lately I have started to feel guilty. Like maybe if I gave the books a chance...I did this with Elizabeth Berg's The Handmaid and the Carpenter. I know Berg's name, and I thought I had read her...but looking back, I haven't...tricky Berg, tricky. And reading the title I thought, hmmm, something historical maybe? Historical indeed. Try Joseph, Mary and JESUS. I don't know how I didn't anticipate it, but I didn't. Historical fiction is one thing (that I love), but when you are messing around with the Jesus story? There are just so many ways to mess it up.


Next up: Ellen Gilchrist's In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. I will disclose that these are short stories, however, characters meander in an out. I loved loved loved the stories. Obviously, the motif of dreams, reality and the thin line between works its way in to the majority. It was kind of like when I read Alice Munroe (also short stories). I came away both times with immense respect for the author. Kind of like how I write my blog and it is fine and good, but these women are writing stories. Real stories. If you usually stay away from short stories because perhaps you finish the story wanting more of the characters, don't worry, Gilchrist has written other books of short stories with these same characters (Victory Over Japan). Also, the majority take place in the South.


P.S. read Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind. Face lent it to me from his library and it is an amazing page turner about growing up, love, loss, family, wealth, power...everything. Let's just say this: any book that makes me almost miss my bus stop because I am so engrossed gets my stamp of approval.

Happy reading!

"A stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are."
Carlos Ruiz Zafon