Year of the LitMag: One Story #156

[Note: this is the 4th installment in my Year of the LitMag series. If you would like to contribute to the series, leave a comment below or shoot me an email.]
OneStory #156 "The Quiet" by C. Joseph Jordan
By now, everyone knows about One Story, right? It's a little magazine that comes out every fewweeks and contains just one story. It's a cool concept and it's also availableon Kindle. (As soon as my print subscription expires, I'll switch to the Kindleversion, I think.) Lunch Hour Storiestried the same thing a few years ago, but it didn't last as long, and is nowgone.
This story by C. Joseph Jordan is a nice read about aVietnam vet who comes home to Oregon after two tours. It's been a tumultuous fewyears for him—his father died while he was in Vietnam; he fell in love while onR&R in Sydney, Australia; he killed a Vietnamese kid with a knife. And nowhe's finally home. But as we know from every war story we've ever heard orread, it's not that easy, and Sergeant Adlai Malick has some demons and secretshe has to deal with. So, upon arrival at his mother's house, where there is abig, noisy welcome home party waiting for him, he goes into the basement insearch of quiet. (Be sure to check out the editor'sinterview with the author.)
Although the story is thoroughly readable, and my sympathiesare with Sergeant Malick throughout, even when I fear he's going to explode,even when he behaves badly, it had a feeling of familiarity to it. Becausehaven't we read this story before? Beginning with "A Soldier's Home" by ErnestHemingway and followed by countless others, we've seen the difficulty a soldierhas in coming home from war. Malick is damaged by the war and he is going tohave to find a way to cope, or not, but I don't feel that the story takes usanywhere new. Am I asking too much? Isn't it enough that I haven't seen thisparticular veteran and his particular circumstances before? Maybe. Maybe we'reready for a new take on this subject. I just wish it had been a little moresurprising.