An Ambulance Is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble

by Jonathan Wilson

On the heels of his highly praised novel A Palestine Affair, Jonathan Wilson returns to his first love——the short story——to give us these sharp, bittersweet, often uproariously funny tales of middle-aged American men in hot water with women, with their sweet and savvy kids, with their own consciences. The slacker husband of the title story spends his day running household errands, chatting up the local soccer moms, and drinking most of the wine he was instructed to buy for his wife’s women’s-group meeting that evening; another husband calls an old girlfriend while waiting in the cardiologist’s office for news about his heart; a good Jewish son is torn between the caustic wit of his powerful, very Jewish mother and the fertility urges of his very not-Jewish girlfriend; a divorced dad nearly loses his teenage boy on a Jamaican adventure.

Each of these cases is touched by Wilson’s sympathy and affection for male foibles. Taken together, they give us a nuanced picture of the American husband and well-meaning but caught out, horny but physically gone to pot, adrift on dreams and fancies and the desire for a little bit of a break. These are men who, finally, can’t quite suppress their feelings about love, family, and the fundamentals——humdrum, rich, and increasingly precious, these days——of middle-class life.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 2005

About the author

Jonathan Wilson is a British-born writer and professor who lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Jonathan Wilson is the author of seven books: the novels The Hiding Room and A Palestine Affair, a finalist for the 2004 National Jewish Book Award, two collections of short stories Schoom and An Ambulance is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble, two critical works on the fiction of Saul Bellow and most recently a biography, Marc Chagall, runner-up for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Best American Short Stories, among other publications, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts University.

Wilson also writes a column on soccer for the Internet Newspaper, The Faster Times.

Reviews

[kjclatanoff]

Excellent!

[Megalion]

What a disappointing book! The subtitle is what made it sound interesting but it lives up to it about as well as an Olympian who receives a 0.0 score.

I've read several of the so-called stories. Not only do they lack any humor, they also lack a story. Each seems to be a ramble that just stops.

Gonna try to read some more. Maybe he saved the "best" ones for last?

Post: ok clearly I interpreted the subtitle wrong (the jacket blurb didn't help either). This is not a book of men getting themselves into trouble via funny shenanigans. This is a book of men struggling thru a part of their lives. The answer to the eternal "what is he thinking" question that plagues women (and other men?) when a man is troubled but does not talk about it.

The stories subsequent to my realization read much better. I still don't find them as funny as the inner jacket claimed but at least I knew the "story" now. It's implied by the subtitle, not set up in the stories.

I was going to one star this book based on my initial reactions. Now I would at least give it a two star but I'm rather neutral on the book now. And there's no star rating to reflect that. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that if I hadn't been so disappointed at the beginning, I would have "liked" the book.

[Martin Fletcher]

Jonathan, who I must disclose is a friend, is a wonderful writer, gracious, tender, and above all insightful and very very funny. This collection, especially when he transparently projects his own middle-aged woes and anxieties, is hilarious. His depictions of his mother as the archetypal meddling, obtuse and tone-deaf blue-rinsed matriarch, bullying her long-suffering husband and mortally embarrassed son, set a very high bar of cringiness. A lovely quick read. My only criticism would be that the final couple of stories are of such different subject-matter that they seem taked on, as if there weren't enough stories to flesh out the book. But as they are great reads too, it hardly matters.

[Christina (Boupie)]

I really did not like this book. The last story was the only one I found even remotely interesting. The rest just were middle-aged men (all Jewish I think) compplaining about their medical problems and how hard life is. Oh and apparently how horrible their families were to each other during the Holocaust. I don't think the story telling was very provacative nor the setting (the subrubs of the east coast) something I found very interesting. I hope our next book club book is much better. This might be interesting to a middle-aged man... and really interesting to a middle-aged Jewish man.

[Jess Saunders]

I don't know what possessed me to pick this book up at the library. The first story cracked me up-- it takes place in Newton, partly on Rt. 9 by the Chestnut Hill Mall (in traffic, of course!). The rest was just... very, very odd. It was basically the male version of "chick-lit." An interesting read?

[Kelly]

This collection was more disappointing than anything else. The short story should connect with you and leave you thinking. Most of these failed on both fronts.

[David Vanness]

Enjoyed most of the shorts with one exception.