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A Tale of Pierrot and Other Stories
A Tale of Pierrot and Other Stories brings together the work done over the past twenty-five years of one of the lesser known but more admirable and daring literary artists of our time. Whether he is writing about the symbiotic relationship of a countryman and his dog or about a playwright whose fundamental images of our creaturely existence provoke audiences to chase him from the theater, or about a lowly group of factory oilers and sweepers whose steadfast ways take on a genuine spiritual aura, Dennison's fiction shines with a meditative not only what life is but what it means. The ordinary turns into the extraordinary most notably in "A Tale of Pierrot", the story of a prodigious high jumper who, defeated by the world's skepticism and envy, makes himself into a leading authority on the flight of birds.
- GenresShort Stories
287 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2018
Here is a collection of short stories from the 1980s by author George Dennison, who died of lung cancer the same year this book was published. Although he was better known for his factual account of child development/education, The Lives of Children: The Story of the First Street School, Dennison was an accomplished writer who also gave a good turn to fiction. These stories run the gamut from the strange title tale to the last story about a well-remembered and much-loved dog.
They're like dreams that have gotten away from the dreamer.
ON BEING A SON
Emotions and thoughts as a grown man learns about filial love and responsibility.
By so much was he still unweaned.
A TALE OF PIERROT
A friend narrates the evolution of a man who becomes a great leaper. More or less, it's a description of those who peak early while the plodders go on and enjoy their eventual rewards.
I believe that certain men know intuitively the master rhythms of their lives; they know the time of death quite accurately. Minot was husbanding time.
THE CARBON PAPER POET
A scholar produces great poetry while enamoured with a mysterious woman.
During all these weeks the mysterious poems kept arriving, though never at his bidding.
OILERS AND SWEEPERS
The laughter and songs and sayings of a group of workers during their workaday world.
Bosun spoke to the sun through a megaphone and commanded it to rise.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR OF CARYATIDS
A playwright goes through his most despised play, one which has drawn audience anger.
I had become, in effect, the Unconscious of them all, submerged out of sight, yet troubling the world with my unseen presence.
THE SUFFICIENCY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Life in New York as seen by a writer trying to help minority kids with a creative project.
Often he wondered what he might accomplish under the pressure of need - except that he had come to believe that need itself was a creative act.
SHAWNO
My favourite of the book. A slow but wonderful recollection of a man's dog and all of their daily adventures.
And, as sometimes happens in such early-morning solitudes, there came over me a sense of the briefness of life, and of my kinship with all these other creatures who would soon be dead, and I almost spoke aloud to my dog: how much it matters to be alive together!
This is a good book for a park bench or a sheltered seat under a big Palo Verde tree, where time won't miss you as you make your way through the pages. A good remembrance for a little known author.
Book Season = Spring (just-risen suns)
They're like dreams that have gotten away from the dreamer.
ON BEING A SON
Emotions and thoughts as a grown man learns about filial love and responsibility.
By so much was he still unweaned.
A TALE OF PIERROT
A friend narrates the evolution of a man who becomes a great leaper. More or less, it's a description of those who peak early while the plodders go on and enjoy their eventual rewards.
I believe that certain men know intuitively the master rhythms of their lives; they know the time of death quite accurately. Minot was husbanding time.
THE CARBON PAPER POET
A scholar produces great poetry while enamoured with a mysterious woman.
During all these weeks the mysterious poems kept arriving, though never at his bidding.
OILERS AND SWEEPERS
The laughter and songs and sayings of a group of workers during their workaday world.
Bosun spoke to the sun through a megaphone and commanded it to rise.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR OF CARYATIDS
A playwright goes through his most despised play, one which has drawn audience anger.
I had become, in effect, the Unconscious of them all, submerged out of sight, yet troubling the world with my unseen presence.
THE SUFFICIENCY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Life in New York as seen by a writer trying to help minority kids with a creative project.
Often he wondered what he might accomplish under the pressure of need - except that he had come to believe that need itself was a creative act.
SHAWNO
My favourite of the book. A slow but wonderful recollection of a man's dog and all of their daily adventures.
And, as sometimes happens in such early-morning solitudes, there came over me a sense of the briefness of life, and of my kinship with all these other creatures who would soon be dead, and I almost spoke aloud to my dog: how much it matters to be alive together!
This is a good book for a park bench or a sheltered seat under a big Palo Verde tree, where time won't miss you as you make your way through the pages. A good remembrance for a little known author.
Book Season = Spring (just-risen suns)
April 16, 2023
"Interview with the Author of Caryatids," about a play which reveals such deep truths that it impels the audience to attempt bodily harm on the playwright whenever it is performed, is a story I've been thinking about for decades since I first read it.
"Shawno"'s narrator is a writer who has lived for several years in a village in rural Maine, observing in precise and loving detail both the natural world and the life of his friends and neighbors. The title character is the narrator's dog, who moves through these same landscapes on a parallel agenda. After a spring snowfall, man and dog walk along a trail together, the dog making small sorties in different directions, tracking scents hidden under the snow cover, reminding the narrator that, notwithstanding their emotional bond, Shawno's ground-level perspective is one which a nose-blind, upright walker can never really enter into. Love and difference, then, are the themes of this beautiful novella.
The five other stories in this collection are all worth reading, but these two are the standouts, for me.
"Shawno"'s narrator is a writer who has lived for several years in a village in rural Maine, observing in precise and loving detail both the natural world and the life of his friends and neighbors. The title character is the narrator's dog, who moves through these same landscapes on a parallel agenda. After a spring snowfall, man and dog walk along a trail together, the dog making small sorties in different directions, tracking scents hidden under the snow cover, reminding the narrator that, notwithstanding their emotional bond, Shawno's ground-level perspective is one which a nose-blind, upright walker can never really enter into. Love and difference, then, are the themes of this beautiful novella.
The five other stories in this collection are all worth reading, but these two are the standouts, for me.
January 1, 2012
Interesting stories from a generation ago. We;; worth revisiting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews