Meyer

by Stephen Dixon

The twenty-seventh book of fiction by one of America’s leading avant gardists, the award-winning Baltimore writer Stephen Dixon, sets up a situation that the protagonist, Meyer—a prolific fiction writer from Baltimore—finds preposterous: writer’s block.

In a story rife with Dixon’s trademark zest and style, Meyer proceeds to rifle through all the possible aspects of his life that could make for good fiction, and to try whatever it takes to get himself writing again. Sometimes, sex with his wife works, so he tries that, but without luck (even after several tries, just to be sure). He wonders if he should try sex with one of the neighbors. He wonders if he should try writing about his parents’ death…again. He wonders about concocting awful things to happen to himself and his family. He wonders about concocting wonderful things to happen to himself and his family. He tries sex with his wife again…

Is there nothing in Meyer’s life worth writing about?

It is, in short, Stephen Dixon at his best: stylish, funny, moving, and relentless as ever in his pursuit of the small, meaningful, and ultimately powerful revelations of everyday life.

Genres: Fiction, American

266 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Stephen Dixon was a novelist and short story author who published hundreds of stories in an incredible list of literary journals. Dixon was nominated for the National Book Award twice--in 1991 for Frog and in 1995 for Interstate--and his writing also earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[Melville House Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In his 27th work of fiction, Guggenheim fellow, National Book Award finalist and Pushcart Prize–winner Dixon explores an affliction that neither he nor his protagonist would seem to know much about: writer's block. Meyer Ostrower is an aging, accomplished fiction writer living in Baltimore who one day finds himself at a loss for words. As he rummages through his past looking for material, the factual events of his existence morph into fiction. The novel is a set of themes and variations on major episodes of Meyer's life, many of them imagined: there is his death, his wife's death, his sister's death, his mother and father's deaths, all in various incarnations, side by side with childhood memories and sexual fantasies. He catalogues a lifetime of injuries (ranging from a stickball scar to a small white mark where his typewriter's line space lever went into his upper eyelid), worries in typical neurotic fashion about his arthritis and his heart, and reflects on the dwindling number of letters in his mailbox. Although writing about writer's block risks relying on a tired conceit, Dixon not only pulls it off, but puts together a series of quirky and powerful vignettes about aging." - Publishers Weekly

[Michael Seidel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed thoughts on this one. I was a huge Dixon fan in early college. I'm not sure if I've changed or he has. I think the former. This book is comprised basically of scenarios turning in on themselves, reversing, revising. You question which iteration is the truth. The momentum of the narrative (not much happens) is toward the grave. The last few pages throw a lump in your throat, guessing at the untold ending... With all that's said, there's actually more that is unsaid.

Maybe I'm just at the wrong point in my life to enjoy Dixon's style or just his style in Meyer or the style he's hitched onto leading up to and during and possibly after Meyer. Can you see what I'm doing here?

You may enjoy this more than I did.

[Karyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still reading it and will finish it but I find I am somewhat disaffected from the "author" from whose viewpoint the book is written. Perhaps this is because I am an aging female, not a male, and just don't have that perspective, so it's interesting to me in that regard. However, nothing much seems to be really happening plot-wise so that's a disappointment.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet, honest portrait of an aging writer with writer's block, and way more action-packed than it sounds. Think Seinfeld meets On Death and Dying. And if you're really curious: http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2007wi...

[Upstatemamma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not like this book at all. I mean at all. I found it a little strange but mostly boring. Nothing and I mean NOTHING happened. It just dragged and dragged and I really had to force myself to sit down and read it.

[Micah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very smooth book where a guy basically describes his life. Dixon is definitely one of those writers who makes you say I could write like that but really it's not easy at all.

[Warren · Rating 1 out of 5]

It must be art, I don't understand it.