Official Website of A. S. Peterson
Faith’n'Fiction Roundtable
Mar - 27 - 2010
The Quirky Redhead
My Friend Amy
Strange Culture
Stuck-In-A-Book
Rebelling Against Indifference
Wordlily
I hope you’ll read along and join in the conversation.
RC: Amy, I'm surprised "An Episode in the Life of Professor Brooke" was a favorite of yours. I liked the resolution that came from the church pew images in the end, but of many of the stories, I felt like this story was kind of "typical." What made this story great in my mind, like many of the others, was the way that Tobias Wolff did such an exceptional job creating real and believable characters in just a matter of a few sentences.
Amy: RC--I guess thematically I liked the story and appreciated the humor. I've been thinking about it today even, what it says about the story we create our lives to be and the actual story that our lives are. Professor Brooke thought he had created a decent fiction to live in for his wife, but really she knew the truth, because the truth is always there.
Kate: When I first got the book, I read the first two stories and hated them. Murder and abuse. So I put it down and didn’t read any more until last night. At this point, I have read all but the last two stories. Here is my opinion so far.
I feel that part of “An Episode in the Life of Professor Brooke” actually describes it best.
“Life,” Brooke said, “is not always uplifting.”
“I know all about it,” Ruth said, “believe me. But why should I rub my nose in it? I like to read about lovers. I like to read about how beautiful the mountains are, and the stars and so on. I like to read about people taking care of injured animals and setting them free again.”
To me, this collection of short stories rubbed my nose in the depressing side of life. The stories seemed to end without hope. I guess that is what I kept looking for: the hope. I don’t mind stories about the harder parts of life because that is real. But I want some kind of resolution or change at the end to keep me believing that it is possible in real life.
Amy: I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the book but I'm glad that you don't regret reading it. You actually bring up another thing I liked about that story (quickly becoming one of my favorite short stories, ha!) which is the different kinds of art. Clearly Wolff doesn't necessarily value that kind of writing because as you point out, this collection is not on the "uplifting" side, but I think rather that it's writing that reflects reality even when reality is uncomfortable and dark. In my estimation, he doesn't reach for any easy answers or obvious conclusions as has been pointed out. But what was so interesting in that particular story was that while Brooke didn't have a taste for that sort of poetry, he had actually created a fiction of what his life was that more resembled that kind of art. The man who doesn't tell his wife he was unfaithful because it would hurt her to know the truth more (or because dealing with the reality of it would fracture the image of himself he had created, as a man who does what he thinks is the right thing even when it's hard)
In any case, though, I certainly appreciate where you're coming from.
RC: I have to say something else about "Hunters in the Snow" (apparently my favorite) is that it touched on one of my biggest frustrations, is that sometimes people would rather say "you have problems, I have problems, so let's all have problems together" as opposed to dealing with things, whether that's the big things in the world or the smaller issues in our lives. I know some of you read these stories back to back, but after I read one, I felt the need to pause, because frankly some of them said some profound things, that were also kind of depressing.
And this story ("Hunters in the Snow") seems to me deals with what so many of the stories dealt with...secrets beneath the surface.
This is true for your favorite Amy, Professor Brooke's and his fellow professor had their secrets, the main character in "Smokers" had his secrets, as did many of the others.
Included in this is Mary in the collections title story. Mary's secret were not necessarily profound or forbidden, rather just opinions she kept defined, controlled and unknown. Yet it wasn't until she new she was safe did she release these secrets. Had she not known she was safe she would have plagiarized and replaced her own thoughts with the thoughts of her college in the lecture. Amazing how she could turn so quickly from safe to wildly reckless when the veil was lifted.
Kate: RC, I think you are right. These stories would be much better if given time in between reading them. I read them back to back and was struck with the depressing nature of all of them. But the further out I get from them, the more I can notice things other than the seeming futility of the stories.
Since this was part of the Faith ’n Fiction roundtable, I kept expecting there to be some light amidst all of Wolfe’s darkness. I felt a pinprick of light in “Poaching” when Wharton felt like they were almost home as they watched the beaver swim around in circles.
Question for everyone:
Do you think I was wrong to look for the light? I will always keep looking for it. Just wondering about your expectations when reading.
And do you think the light was there, but I just missed it?
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