Biblio File

Book Notes From The Underground: January 2015, Part 2

Earlier this month, I focused on new literature in translation.  This time around I'll note a few short story collections that may interest you.

Refund: Stories by Karen E. Bender
A story collection that revolves around the valuation of money and family (especially children).  In “Anything For Money” a game show host who prods contestants to do crazy stunts for money discovers that his daughter needs a new heart.  What will he do for that?  In “Theft” an elderly scam artist meets a young woman who has just been jilted and their encounter changes them both.  Bender’s stories don’t always have neatly tied-up endings, but that’s what makes them so true to life.

Hall of Small Mammals: Stories by Thomas Pierce
A debut collection of absurd, slightly off-kilter stories (think George Saunders) that are simultaneously heartfelt and gently mocking.   When his girlfriend admits that she is happily married to another man in her dreams, the protagonist of “The Real Alan Gass” becomes insanely jealous.  In “Shirley Temple Three” a mother reluctantly agrees to hide her son’s cloned miniature wooly mammoth in the laundry room.  Although Pierce’s voice is almost always deadpan, his style and subject matter vary widely.

Almost Famous Women: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman
Bergman’s latest collection (Birds of a Lesser Paradise, 2012) focuses on the lives of real women who exist on the fringes of history.  Included are portraits of Joe Carstairs ("the fastest woman on water”), Allegra Byron (Lord Byron’s illegitimate daughter), Butterfly McQueen (an actress best known for her role in Gone With The Wind), and Violet and Daisy Hilton (conjoined twins).  Almost all of the stories deal with the question of how fame, near-fame, or even the loss of fame changed their lives.

The Business of Naming Things by Michael Coffey
Coffey name-drops some serious literary heavyweights in the pages of his stories.  Harold Brodkey, J.F. Powers, Henrik Ibsen and James Joyce all make an appearance.  But that doesn’t mean that these stories are only for “pointy-headed” literary types.  Coffey’s writing hearkens back to stylists of 40 or 50 years ago and his subject matter is “meat and potatoes” basic: the relationships between men and women and fathers and sons. 

Thus Were Their Faces: Stories by Silvana Ocampo
Better known as a poet, Ocampo also wrote dark fantastical fiction (Borges described them as "cruel."  He also described her as "the quintessential Argentine woman.")  New York Review Books has gathered a comprehensive collection of some of her best short stories and novellas.   In "Icera," a poor girl decides that she wants to grow no bigger than the tallest doll displayed at the local toy store.  In "The Clock House," a hunchbacked man is the guest of honor at a party, only to be victimized.  Poetry infuses the language of these stories, though it doesn't soften their vision.  In many ways, it makes them even harder.