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Several Haslett short stories win, some lose
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Some books have an uncanny ability to stir up images in
readers’ heads.
As I read the melancholy You Are Not a Stranger Here, by Adam
Haslett, sandalwood incense seemed to sneak into my nostrils as the
lyrics of REM’s “Everybody Hurts” resonated in my
ears.
You Are Not a Stranger Here is not a book you would hand to a
jumper on the ledge. The plots of its nine short stories are all
somewhat depressing, if not downright heart-wrenching.
However, this book does an honorable job in attempting to unite
its readers through these types of shared sufferings, affirming the
fact that no one is a stranger to the “valley of the shadow
of death.”
Not all of these nine short stories are noteworthy. While
Haslett’s tales usually keep the reader guessing, a few of
them are groping for meaning.
When his stories fail, they resemble model airplanes –
gorgeously assembled, but lacking drive.
Haslett starts with a good idea in “My Father’s
Business,” but he forgets to advance his plot beyond
ramshackle, schizophrenic conversations.
“Reunion” is a story about a man writing letters to
his deceased father. Throughout the whole story, the reader is
grasping for some punchline, some clever turn of events to save
this story from its trite ending. That redeeming point, however,
never arrives.
Besides a few failed tales, most of Haslett’s plots are
genuinely intriguing.
The first, and best, story is “Notes to My
Biographer,” which relates the adventures of a mentally ill
man.
The first-person narrative is jarring, brazenly honest and
utterly random, effectively placing the reader into the old
man’s delusional mind.
As the story progresses, this elderly man pens his own memoir,
so that his eventual biographer will be sure to get it all
right.
From indefinitely “borrowing” his niece’s Saab
to his firm belief that the electric bread slicer was his idea,
this comic-tragedy keeps the reader laughing and thinking.
Another story, “The Good Doctor,” concerns an
empathetic physician on a routine house call. This young man, who
has always been drawn to pain and hurting, finds out he needs his
patient more than she needs his diagnosis.
Though a few stories in the book are incongruously poor, the
majority of Haslett’s work makes readers look forward to his
future endeavors.
As the saying goes, “Misery loves company,” and
there are few authors better than Haslett at throwing a shindig for
sorrow.
Matthew Webster, Daily Collegian (Penn State U.)