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I'd like to start off by saying I have no idea who Jon Raymond is. The only reason I got the book was because Stassney and I were at Barnes and Noble to get her one of the Twilight books and while she went back to pick it up I browsed the New Fiction section, not really hoping to find anything but just to pass the time. I had no clue who Jon Raymond was and as I held the book in my hand I had the urge to put it back, but I didn't want to go to the counter buying a Twilight book alone so I took it with me out of necessity.
Jon Raymond's stories are simple. Two friends reconnecting on a road trip to the woods. A conflicted widower starting a relationship with an old friend. Two kids getting into a fight. Two kids getting trapped in a mall clothing store. A father taking his daughter to buy new shoes while he waits for an important business call.
There are nine stories in all and it's one of the few story collections I've read where I wasn't satisfied at the end because I wanted more. The characters are never perfect, but always in a way you sort of sympathize with. We've all had friends we have tried to reconnect with and realized that spark is no longer there. We've gone along with things, especially as kids, only to realize you're being played for a fool. They're all universal themes which have been written about over and over again but these stories are written in such a way that it never seems old, like it's the first time realizing these parts of humanity.
I highly suggest picking up this book. It seems Jon Raymond has also written a novel or two so I'm going to put them pretty high on my list of books to read. I can only hope his talent for storytelling can translate even better from short fiction into long form.
I wanted to like this book, I really did. Personally I love Rick Moody. I've read a handful of his short stories and they're very good. At least the ones I read. This one reads like more of a b-sides or rarities collection, the stories that should have been buried away never to see the light of day.
The first story starts off alright, a man who records all of his wives phone calls who eventually gets caught. It's a decent start but goes downhill so fast after that. There's a story that's one freakishly long sentence. It may have been about two people filming a MTV Real World style reality show or some sort of indie film. I have no clue what was happening because it was all going by so fast like it was written on speed. Look, Kerouac did write On the Road on what ended up being a single sheet of paper but he had the decency to go through afterward and turn it into sentences and paragraphs.
The stories fall even further after that. James Dean survives (well actually dies but...well, it's hard to explain when you don't understand it) his tragic car wreck and joins a garage band. Then there's the title story which has something to do with a guy who goes around to sex shops and peek shows, but all I know is it's like Rick went on to Google, typed in "Sex fetishes" and wrote out a long list of it and called it a story. I didn't even make it to the end of that one, and making it halfway through was a struggle.
There's only been one other book that I couldn't read all the way through. That was Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace. Every page just stank of pretentious bullshit. Not that it wasn't well written or anything, but it seems like David would have been the kind of person to brag about his extreme talent to everyone who had ears (All past tense because David hung himself last year).
Rick is a little different, and unlike Brief Interviews I didn't throw the book in a trash can. I still have a lot of respect for Rick and every author who publishes multiple books has their one book that falls pretty short. I have yet to read one of Rick's novels, but I bought two of them so when I'm done reading Livability by Jon Raymond (which is turning out to be a fantastic book, so far) I'm going to jump into one of his novels and hope for the best.
So in the end I do recommend Rick Moody. His short stories are mostly spot on, just avoid this book and you'll do just fine.
When I first came across Franny and Zooey I was doing theater in high school (It may have been during Romeo and Juliet, at least that's what I remember). One of our theater directors, the late Mark Collins, said before every performance to "Do it for the Fat Lady." I was always kind of puzzled by what that was supposed to mean and he said to read Franny and Zooey to find out. I read it in high school, fell in love with it. Then I moved on to The Catcher in the Rye and moved on to Nine Stories from there.
Franny was published in 1955, Zooey in 1957, and the two were finally collected in novella form in 1961.
Franny and Zooey focuses on Franny and Zooey Glass from the Glass family that Salinger visits in the majority of his stories. It starts with Franny meeting her boyfriend Lane for a cocktail party followed by a football game. What follows is a late lunch where Lane goes on about school and a paper that he wrote, and Franny starting to tear into him in a self-professed mean streak she can't seem to shake. Franny starts to light up when Lane finds a book in her purse, The Way of the Pilgrim. She explains the book is about a Russian Pilgrim who wants to find out the secret to 'praying without ceasing.' He goes around, meets a bunch of interesting people, meets with priest after priest until he finally finds one who unlocks the secret to praying without ceasing. Basically it's repeating the Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, until the prayer becomes as natural to you as breathing. I could go a lot more into it, basically she's fascinated by it and Lane just kind of brushes her off. Finally she faints in the restaurant and after fainting, when Lane goes to fetch her some water, she starts mouthing the words of the prayer.
End of story, cut to Zooey. Zooey is the older brother to Franny (There are seven Glass children in all) and we meet him in the bath reading and re-reading a four year old letter from his brother Buddy. We learn Zooey is a television actor by the fact that he also skims over a recent script he was handed. His mother, Bessie, interrupts him and they have a long discussion ranging from Franny's recent emotional collapse (While Zooey was published 2 years later it takes place only 2 days after her visit to Lane), his acting career, the other Glass children (We learn one of the older children, Seymour, commited suicide which is the subject of the short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish). They do a little verbal sparring and once he's out of the bath Zooey goes and talks with his sister.
Salinger's stories are pretty much 90% talk. It's a lot of inner monologue and conversation that just works superb. It's usually people with two different agendas going back and forth, sometimes completely ignorant of what the other person is saying, but it's always incredibly engaging. Everyone has their own distinct voice, no one sounds contrived, no one says anything that you think was put in there just to make a point in the conversation or to further the story. Everything just flows so well.
When Zooey talks to Franny who is having her emotional collapse in the living room it's a wonderful conversational dance where Zooey is going around the room from the desk to the piano to the window, going from attacking Franny, to attacking the Jesus Prayer, to finally explaining the Jesus Prayer (Also bringing up its close relation to Eastern religions) and basically enlightening her. Eastern religion is at the core of a lot of Salinger's work as he practiced numerous Eastern religions throughout his early life and injected them into his stories.
Franny and Zooey is wonderful for its perfect use of wordplay. Salinger always saw himself as a succesor to F. Scott Fitzgerald and it really shows. They both knew their way around dialogue and putting a lot of underlying meaning into their stories. They were (Okay, Salinger is still alive but he's been so secluded we can talk about him in the past tense) also wonderfully screwed up people but what writer isn't?
The Glass family is a wonder to read. After Franny and Zooey I suggest moving on to Nine Stories and Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Make sure to also spend some time with The Catcher in the Rye but don't go writing "This is my statement" in the cover and killing John Lennon, that's just tacky. If someone did that with one of my books I'd go into seclusion too.
Also it turns out Salinger has been writing, writing, writing for himself these past few decades and has what may turn out to be a great library of post-humous literature ahead of him. Not that I want him to hurry up the process because I want him to keep on writing as long as he can hold up a pen, but I'm really excited to see if he's been keeping up with the Glass family all of these years.
I said in my next post I would sing the praises of John Dufresne. On second thought go and buy Deep in the Shade of Paradise or Love Warps the Mind a Little. They're two of the greatest books I've ever read, hands down. I'll let John do the talking for me.
Stassney's birthday was this past Friday. She got a sewing machine (she wants to design wedding dresses), and among other things she got a Wii Fit. The Wii Fit is a strange tool as it's an exercise tool masquerading as a video game.
It told me my weight (high) my BMI (overweight), and my "Fit" age (21!). Of course there are a multitude of exercise activities ranging from the silly (hula hoop!) to yoga and bonafide strength training (rowing squats). While the actual validity of Wii Fit will always be disputed as it's been used in actual professional exercise trials all the way to "watch my girlfriend hula hoop in her underwear" Youtube videos, it remains that the Wii is aimed at casual gamers and the Wii Fit is perfect for "casual gamers" who have "casual gamer" bodies. So far I've stopped drinking caffeine and sodas all together, I've maintained my minimum of 20 minutes of exercise a day, and I've so far been losing weight.
See back in the day (pre-college) I did kickboxing for about four years at which I had a really nice, lean kickboxer body. Then I broke my ribs, both my pinkies, and managed to sprain both of my ankles to the point that the arthritis they suffered from just a little bit has turned into a lot. Then (college) I gained weight to the tune of 210 pounds or so and stayed that way due to various reasons. Then post college and a bad breakup later I was running every day at Shelby Farms and eating a lot less than normal bringing me to the 160 pounds I was when I met Stassney. Then I moved to Austin, started eating like a normal human being and playing way too much World of Warcraft to be concerned with trivial things like exercise and health. Now we both want to get back into our prime shape (She used to row, I used to overuse parentheses) and Wii Fit has actual got us back into our exercise minds where we watch what we eat and exercise on a regular basis. What other video game has had that affect on you?
On top of that I've started writing again and I've been more inclined to actually take pictures with my camera rather than using it as a paperweight.
Also I'm getting more used to the idea of furniture shopping and apartment hunting. Stassney's blog is a great place to catch up on how our furniture tastes differ and also to catch up on her pursuits in fashion design and how her sewing is coming along. She already sewed Veronica a lining for her cage and a bed for her to sleep on. So far she's taken to the lining but has rejected the bed. Then again we tried to have her sleep with a piece of my t-shirt in her house and she repeatedly drug it out of her house for a few days until she finally made it a part of her home so it's a matter of time before she takes to it.
On that note I have another bottle of Killian's waiting for me. Until next time.
