One Day the Wind Changed

by Tracy Daugherty

“I’ve been waiting for this book for a long it includes stories to explain West Texas to me. I don’t mean in the fabled ‘cowboy’ way, but in a more useful way, more honest, and certainly braver than all the books that hordes of cowboys with typewriters can generate.”— Cynthia Shearer

The sixteen stories in Tracy Daugherty’s fourth collection of short fiction explore American deserts—real geographical spaces as well as metaphorical areas of emptiness and possibility. The stories are mostly set in the desert Southwest, though the concluding novella, which features two Texas exiles, is set in New York City. Several of the stories deal with stars and astronomers; many feature architects and the built environment. Daugherty’s characters struggle with asthma, night fears, inertia, and the sense of being isolated in a world full of people.

In “Very Large Array,” a brief late-night encounter between a solitary New Mexico rancher and a visiting astronomer at the VLA radio telescope installation sparks a meditation on loneliness and isolation.

In “Magnitude,” the director of a failing planetarium in north Texas tries to cope with family losses in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, and with his commitments to his patrons--the needy and homeless who use the planetarium for shelter and the schoolchildren who come to the facility for inspiration.

In “Bern,” the longest of the stories, a transplanted Texan in New York, working as an architect post-9/11, considers public and private space, as well as unexpected desire, when he encounters a vital young woman on one of his evening walks.

“This is a powerful and engaging work by a wonderfully talented writer.”— Allen Wier , author of Tehano

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

197 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2010

Reviews

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He was thin, this fellow, but I could see after twenty, thirty years under crackling lights staring at screens was going to soften and settle him into something like a pudgy human anthill."

One Day the Wind Changed by Tracy Daugherty is a collection of short stories, some previously published in professional journals. Daugherty was born in Midland, Texas and is the author of three other collections of short stories, two biographies, a book of essays, and four novels. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Southern Review and many journals. Currently he is a Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at Oregon State University.

Short stories, for me, have been hit or miss. Most, unfortunately, are a miss. I tend to be overly optimistic about short story collections thinking they would be perfect to read at lunch, on the train, or when I have a few minutes. The optimism dies quickly as the stories soon sound like a casual acquaintance telling me how his day went. This collection was a bit different. Concentrating on the desert of the Southwest and my adopted home town of Dallas, Texas brought a bit of familiarity and mutual understanding. Oklahoma City and quick story in New York City are also included in this collection, although even the NYC story involves Texas. The historian in me enjoyed the Irish connection in the Texas stories. The immigrant Texan in me enjoyed the rather typical, “You're a Texan. What the hell does Ireland matter to us.”

Stories range from a Dallas Planetarium struggling to keep its funding, A Very Large Array (radio astronomy) in the desert, and an older man from Texas, now living in New York City. The wind changes in all our lives and that theme is carried through the book. The Murrah bombing is mentioned in a few stories and the changes that parallel in people's lives. Changes in New York City after 9/11 run parallel to changes a middle aged man is learning about himself. There are changes seen from leaving home and returning years later. Changes in relationships. The common theme through out is that change is constant but sometimes we have to take time and stop to see it.

Daugherty captures changes in people's lives in a variety of settings with the Southwest as a constant theme throughout the book. His use of Dallas in several stories caught my interest. From Southern Methodist University, Mockingbird Avenue, and the airports, Dallas seems to come to life. The use of the desert provides a stark contrast to the changes people experience in the stories. The desert is unchanging. Even rain cannot change the desert for more than a few moments. This collection of stories, tied together with common themes, is a hit. So few collections of short stories seem to work for me; this one does. An outstanding collection of short stories and a collection I will keep to read again.

[A · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Daughtery's biography of Joan Didion was totally engrossing, something about these short stories never grabbed me. The set ups, or the descriptions of the characters, I'm not sure what it wsa about the writing that did not engage me in the least.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took a chance on these short stories through NetGalley, having never heard of the (surprisingly prolific) author. My response was pretty much standard for a 2.5 or 3-star: I really enjoyed a few of the stories, but some of them – particularly the shorter ones – didn’t seem to have very much to them. The perspective alternates between the first and third person, and there are a few primary themes: Texas, astronomy, and how to cope with grief after major tragedies.

“Magnitude” is a particularly good combination of all three elements, with a school visit to a Texas observatory prompting the guide to reflect on nothingness and the ‘Big Bang,’ which in a more metaphorical sense brings to mind his father’s death in the Murrah building in Oklahoma. (“The Republic of Texas,” likewise, recalls the Oklahoma City bombing.)

“The Leaper” is another strong one, about a man returning to Texas for his brother’s funeral. “Texas demanded of its children firm allegiance to nation, state, family, church, and place – above all, place,” he thinks, but his devotion is divided between his home state and Ireland, the mother country. I also liked “The Inhalatorium,” about an asthmatic whose parents both died of lung ailments. Historically, ill people would come to the desert in search of better air – but they tended not to recover.

My favorite story, though, didn’t have anything to do with the Texas area. “Bern” is about a man by that name who works as an architect in New York City. As he chats with a girl many years his junior in a bar and contemplates whether platonic friendship is ever possible, the 9/11 memorial is a constant background presence. Grief may be always there, but there is an open future ahead. “Live lightly on the earth,” Bern thinks, “and leave all pages blank.”

I think I’d be unlikely to try anything else by Daugherty, but it’s always good to extend my familiarity with the contemporary short story scene.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

If You Like Your Literary Cocktails Dry

These are dry stories. Dry humor. Dry landscapes. Dry winds. Dried up lives and hopes. Dry. Dusty. But things that are dry can be crisp and sparkling. On a clear, dry day in the desert you can see forever, (although there may be "a whiff of faraway mountains ...a mixture of snowmelt and granite"). And that's what we have here.

Here's the thing about anthologies, and about attempts to review, describe or comment on anthologies - well intentioned blurbers and reviewers give you one sentence summaries of the most remarkable stories, or even of each story. Depending on whether they liked the collection or disliked the collection they can easily make each story sound fascinating or tedious and derivative. The summaries are helpful, of course, and can be tasty come-ons, but they don't tell the whole story. So, here's a bit more to consider.

This book, these stories, are so well written that it didn't matter to me what the plot or the point of any particular story was. This is reading to savor the writing. Every paragraph, and I mean that literally, has a word or a phrase or a sentence somewhere in it that just makes you pause and reflect, (like that brief phrase quoted above).

Despite what might be called an undertone of despair or melancholy there is a great deal of understated, (dry, or for a change of pace - droll or rueful or bemused), humor. In one story a "pudgy boy with unlaced sneakers" stands in a planetarium staring at a sign that points left for the "Star Room" and right for the Restrooms, "...as if unsure of his needs. Body or soul young man. Stir yourself."

This is fine, elegant stuff. This is reading for pleasure, and insight, and maybe for comfort. This is a marvelous find.

Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

[Kasey Cocoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endearing stories that will capture the readers heart and immerse them in vividly told stories. Each character, each location, is described with clarity as Daugherty paints the story into the readers mind. Readers are drawn in to the struggles and emotions in each story and find themselves rewarded for taking the time to pause, look, and feel before life slips us by.