When authors write short stories rarely are they writing actual "stories" that anyone would want to say or listen to. Usually, they're writing a short mood, character, or theme. In my experience, "literary" short stories might read like creative writing exercises taken too seriously. Or genre fiction short stories can get really plot-heavy and too far-removed from reality. This doesn't mean those stories are bad, most are fun to read and full of intellectual vigor! But, hardly anybody writes stories like a good story your friend could tell you.
Except Scott McClanahan. He possesses the most effortless writing voice in print. I don't mean lazy, of course, (he released two books and a rock album this year), but rather, McClanahan's voice is so honest, engaged, and precise, you can almost hear a person telling you the words as you read them. David Sedaris' stories achieve a similar affect; perhaps-not-coincidentally, both writers hail from the south. But whereas Sedaris describes the disfunction of a baby boomer suburb families, McClanahan writes Rainelle West Virginia as a strange place of surreal proportions. He's only a little older than I am, so his Virgina is set in the 80s up through today. Another note of comparison: the real seperation between the two is that nobody talks like David Sedaris (except David Sedaris); I reckon McClanahan's style is more raw. Both are quite funny though, and I'd imagine people who like one would enjoy the other.
McClanahan's stories are quiet, but captivating. Subjects of interest include things that happened to him, local legends, stories about his parents, or sometimes just made up stuff. But with a voice is so compellingly honest, it's hard to tell which is which. This makes McClanahan's stories satisfying for re-reading or casual page-thumbing. You might read the book in one sitting (it's only 130 pgs), but you'll probably read it again a few sittings later.
The Collected Works Vol 1, from Lazy Facist Press, collects the chap-books Stories II and Stories V. Each short story is about 4 pages, none over 8. Most yarns are narrated by the main character, Scott, who is not exactly the book's author, but is pretty darn close. It's hard to seperate the author from the character, the Scott from the McClanahan. Especially since most stories start so colloquially, some start mid-sentence or with an introductory phrase like "So I was...". You know, like a regular story. That's what makes it hard to think of the real McClanahan as anything but an extension of his stories. He writes in clean, perhaps plain, prose. Rarely does a particular passage stand out from the rest of the story. What makes the stories interesting is what actually happens in them. The characters are well-observed, but the narrative is what allows you to see each person more clearly. For lack of a better word, there's a lot of weirdos in West Virginia, Rainelle especially, and the reserved, but ethically centered, voice of Scott is the perfect recorder.
Scott shares local wivestales, like the life of Randy Doogan, the meth using divorcee who borrows money to buy decongestant medicine. It's funny that McClanahan picked this story as the first in the volume, since his yearning to do good in life is mocked pretty astutely. If you enable an addict, it's pretty hard to write your actions off as simply "good" It's kind of hard to label anything as good, I guess. But it's easy to label things as bad: like when Johnny the logger gets his hand cut off in a logging machine after years of bullying leads to a prank gone too far. These legends are good stories unto themselves but they also reveal the setting of the Rainelle. It's a real place where almost-unreal things happen. Maybe that describes any place--but this place is also in the impoverished rural South, which is not true of all places.
Most of the stories are firsthand experiences. Scott records the times he sees a car crashes, or the embarrassing details of an encounter with a homeless man while he's out with his girlfriend and her mom. These Scotts try to be good people, but often end up looking like an assholes--whether or not the realize it. However, in the book's two best, and longest, stories, our Scotts just seem like nice people being hurt by the broken system of the world. In "The Prisoners", Scott volunteers at a local prison to teach writing. He meets prisoner he thinks is a good person, but finds out he might just be a phony. Then he meets a guard who claims to be a good person, but he's a huge phony. Scott wonders what prison really is and what it does to the people on each side of the buildings walls, prisoners, workers, and citizens alike. He writes,
"...I lay me down to sleep and sometimes I dream this strange dream. I dream that we're all back at the federal prison except we're outside the prison walls now. We're all there, all the people I've ever known and all the people in the world are there. And you're there too. We're all cold and scared and shivering...They're arguing over this life and what our actions are guided by. No one can figure it out. No one can figure out who the prisoners are and who the prison guards are, and who even the guilty are. And so we're all standing outside the prison walls and we're arguing over this. It's night. And there's lightning--a black and white night..."Scott oft wonders why bad things happen and why nobody cares. In "Suicide Notes" he tries to pry at the contagiousness of suicide. How when you hear about one person who kills themselves, your ears perk up whenever you hear about more. And how the sadness of it all starts to compound and then it's hard to say exactly why someone might kill themselves or why they might not but really why are you choosing the choice you choose, do you think? It's a story better left read.
McClanahan also writes in detail about this parents. Scott's dad seems like a loving hardass. He works in the produce department of a grocery store and he probably isn't happy with his life but then again who is? Scott's dad sees a man and his daughter get turned away from a restaurant without doing anything, but finds the family walking home to make up for it. Every day, he the same conversation with Rex, the mentally handicapped bagger, during his smoke break ("What time is it?" "11:15."). Every day it's the same conversation. McClanahan's mom seems kind, loving, and superstitious. It is clear that Scott loves her very much. Her roots and origin seem to inform most how Scott relates to the world. McClanahan can communicate the deep knowing of a person in only a handful of pages. It's very impressive.
Finally, there's strange stories. These are almost definitely madeup, but they're still good. Like Scott finding out he can predict the future. Or, my favorite in the collection, a little boy who dresses like a beautiful baby doll, a little girl. He is shunned by his friends and mocked by his teacher, but as a beautiful baby doll he feels more comfortable than he ever felt before. I think this was my favorite story just because it made me feel strange.
I really can't recommend this book, or any Scott McClanahan enough. It's a quick read, but very re-readable. If you want firsthand proof of how great McClanahan's stories are, check out this one published by The Fan Zine. It's about Scott's girlfriend and her experiences as a nurse. It's quite funny, starts by recording the experience of nurses but turns into a meditation on what it means to be sick or crazy. I'll read and write about Scott's new book sometime in the future.
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