How (Ohio State Univ Prize in Short Fiction) by Geoff Wyss

by Geoff Wyss

If every story is born of a question—How did we get here? How do you make your arm do that?—the stories in Geoff Wyss’s How search for answers to the mysteries of an astonishing range of characters. The narrator of “How I Come to Be Here at the GasFast” explains why he hasn’t left a truck stop in the two days since he scratched a winning lottery ticket. In “How to Be a Winner,” a sports consultant browbeats a high school football team with his theory of history and a justification of his failed coaching career. Lost in the mazes they’ve made of themselves, Wyss’s characters search for exits on ground that shifts dizzyingly from humor to pathos, from cynicism to earnestness, from comedy to tragedy, often within the same sentence. Although propelled by a razor-sharp, contemporary voice, Wyss’s stories—many set in a New Orleans unknown to television and tourists—have more in common with Chekhov and O’Connor than with “Treme.”

Paperback

First published June 28, 2012

About the author

Geoff Wyss’s book of short stories, How, won the Ohio State Fiction Prize. His novel, Tiny Clubs, was published in 2007. Wyss's fiction has appeared in New Stories from the South 2006 and 2009, Tin House, Glimmer Train, Image, and many others. He lives in New Orleans and can be reached at geoffwyss@hotmail.com

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a fine read. Mr. Wyss writes with sparkling humor, insight, and compassion. He's not afraid to take stylistic risks and when he does, he does so wonderfully. His characters and situations are fully realized and live beautifully on the page. I've underlined some beautiful passages e.g. (from PROFESSION OF THE BODY) "Among the many skills I have learned in the last twenty years is the ability to balance an apology on the cusp of the moment so that it has no relation to the past or future, but teeters there long enough for everyone to get out of the room." and this ending to the story OR: "But I was a master of stupidity. I was a genius at its local forms, highly adapted in dumbness, and I employed it with the simple virtuosity of an athlete employing his limbs. the stupidity of athletes, often decried, is in fact the thing that makes them beautiful. They set their minds aside and achieve the dumb grace that's possible when you realize that your choices have already been made for you."

There's real beauty in these passages, of which I will only quote a few (from KIDS MAKE THEIR OWN HOUSES):"Helen's arm on the steering wheel is a firm and purposeful thing, given solidity by years of hefting teacher's editions and emphasizing her points on the board with stunts of chalk. I rooted through the junk drawer of my own heart for a sentiment to match as I watched her arm edge the wheel left, right." Then a bit further on "I succeeded in feeling for Helen the abandonment of self to the whimsical enterprise of another, and this abandonment didn't feel like a compromise, and it didn't rankle." And the final line: "As children yelled and ducked outside the glass, I imagined our hairy forebears in the prows of those proud vessels, those crafts of timber and hubris, daring the ocean swell in search of something they had never seen before."

And here is only one of the many great lines in his final story SAINTS AND MARTYRS: "The line of fridges up and down the block breathed its funk into the street like a row of bad teeth. But even the smell couldn't mask the fact that it was a gorgeous day."

Do yourselves a favor, treat yourself to this book, it's like sitting in the shade savoring your favorite Plumb Street snowball on a sweltering August afternoon - refreshingly New Orleans.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geoff Wyss has a unique writing voice. In a number of these stories, I was surprised at his feel for the way people use language. They almost cry to be read out loud. Some of the stories feature characters who are teachers and, as a teacher myself, I was impressed at his ability to catch the little nuances of who we are. In all of them, I thought he got to the essence of the characters, a rare ability in the short story form.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice contemporary collection of short stories.

[K.T. Sparks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories in this collection are fabulous and some are a little off. Worth reading though. Fans of George Saunders will appreciate this collection.