PUPPY Dysfunctional family has puppy that they need to get rid of. Mom places ad; family is coming over.
Description of family. Mom: husband changed from long-haired attractive to stooped old man. Husband: talks constantly of living on a farm and doing what needs to be done, though he never lived on a farm. Conversations together: Sell and move to Arizona, get hooked on phonics for kids, buying a car wash. . .wonderful randomness.
Straight-laced suburbanite comes to look at puppy. Seems like she will buy it, even though she is repelled by house. (Dog turds on carpet, filthy.) She is proud of how accepting she is until she looks out window and sees white trash's son tied by harness to a tree. Reader knows he is a menace to himself, darting across I-90, for example. Suburban mother beats hasty retreat, leaving dog to be (probably) drowned by dad who does what has to be done. Suburbanite remembers her own pathetic childhood and terrible parents, determines to call CPS.
This summary sounds sort of conventional "happy" ending, I realize, but the story isn't that way at all. Reader gets why the boy is tied up; suburbanite is hardly a heroine. Much messier . . . another terrific story.
STICKS Short, short story about a father who has a pole that he uses for his various moods, celebrations. Again, randomness, eccentricity, cruelty, disconnection. When he dies, house is sold, new owners but the flag/sticks out for the trash collection. Seems like a first sketch for a story more than a story in itself. Does remind me of some of the very short Kafka stories, though. In fact, thinking about it, Kafka is the closest writer that I can think of for Saunders so far.
Description of family. Mom: husband changed from long-haired attractive to stooped old man. Husband: talks constantly of living on a farm and doing what needs to be done, though he never lived on a farm. Conversations together: Sell and move to Arizona, get hooked on phonics for kids, buying a car wash. . .wonderful randomness.
Straight-laced suburbanite comes to look at puppy. Seems like she will buy it, even though she is repelled by house. (Dog turds on carpet, filthy.) She is proud of how accepting she is until she looks out window and sees white trash's son tied by harness to a tree. Reader knows he is a menace to himself, darting across I-90, for example. Suburban mother beats hasty retreat, leaving dog to be (probably) drowned by dad who does what has to be done. Suburbanite remembers her own pathetic childhood and terrible parents, determines to call CPS.
This summary sounds sort of conventional "happy" ending, I realize, but the story isn't that way at all. Reader gets why the boy is tied up; suburbanite is hardly a heroine. Much messier . . . another terrific story.
STICKS Short, short story about a father who has a pole that he uses for his various moods, celebrations. Again, randomness, eccentricity, cruelty, disconnection. When he dies, house is sold, new owners but the flag/sticks out for the trash collection. Seems like a first sketch for a story more than a story in itself. Does remind me of some of the very short Kafka stories, though. In fact, thinking about it, Kafka is the closest writer that I can think of for Saunders so far.
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