false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171130753m/88247.jpg 88247 4 Dan Chaon opens his new collection of stories with an epigraph from Raymond Carver: "Whatever this was all about, it was not a vain attempt--journey." This is pretty opaque stuff from Carver, a writer not much given to mystification. But it strikes just the right note for Chaon's assembly of characters, a group vaguely unsettled by life, trying to make the best of it. First and foremost, this is a book beset by moms. You get the feeling that the characters in <I>Among the Missing</I> never really had a chance to figure out the world, with these cryptic, uncommunicative women to care for them. In the title story, for example, a car is discovered at the bottom of a local lake, with an entire family drowned inside. The college-age narrator, however, is preoccupied by the more mundane puzzle of his parents' relationship. "Somehow," he recounts, "they'd stayed married for twenty years, and then, abruptly, somehow they'd decided to give up. It didn't quite make sense, and I looked at them, for a minute aware of the other mystery in my life. 'Do you want some soup?' my mother asked, as if I were a customer."<p> That's about as much as you'll ever get out of one of Chaon's mothers: soup. When not fielding their aging parents' passivity, these characters seem to spend a lot of time grappling with ghosts. The "missing" of the title story are, literally, gone. In "Safety Man," a widow comes to rely on one of those inflatable dolls meant to intimidate intruders. In "Prosthesis," a young wife and mother falls for a stranger with a missing arm; meanwhile, she watches her son grow up and away from her, "disappearing into his own thoughts and feelings." In the end, Chaon is the rare writer who deserves comparison to Carver: both write an affectless prose that takes on a surprisingly emotional life of its own. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 1197375 2001 Among the Missing (Ballantine Reader's Circle) total:370|5:140|4:170|3:46|2:10|1:4| 370 1542 536 50 2 0 false false Thu Mar 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 06:37:32 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 06:45:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 19:58:31 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 08:31:04 -0700 2009
I recommend this book for anyone who is a lover of short stories. Chaon creates brilliant characters and i...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 11:55:28 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 26 10:49:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Sat Mar 24 08:55:18 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 11 11:55:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 02 17:03:14 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 17:04:07 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Oct 30 22:00:07 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 22:05:25 -0700 2007
Here's a bit from "Safety Man":
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For short stories, these are pretty good. I don't know, I think that I've been having a hard time as of late finding a good book to read. While I enjoyed 60% of the short stories, and I'd recommend this ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jan 21 19:24:30 -0800 2009 Thu Sep 03 12:33:04 -0700 2009 I found them to be surprisingly affecting- maybe it's the place in life I'm in right now, but the stories resonated with me strongly ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Nov 10 10:42:55 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 10:42:55 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 10:33:20 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 13 10:47:04 -0700 2007 ]]> 4 0 false false Thu Apr 24 15:55:05 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 05 11:32:24 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 24 15:54:21 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=88247