Macauley's Thumb

by Lex Williford

Lex Williford's seriously eccentric characters find that traveling down life's highway leads to the breakdown lane as quickly as it leads to the fast lane. Their quirky philosophy can best be summed up by Bucklin Rudd, who just lost his business and his wife after losing the last bit of his good sense: "Nothing like working half your life for something just to find out you think you're pretty damn sure you don't want it." The ten stories in Macauley's Thumb - set variously in Texas, Old and New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, and Illinois explore the complicated lives of disenchanted characters who find ways to express their grief at the losses they face under impossible circumstances, losses so large and so small that no one - not even Smiling Joe's Insurance - can cover them. A husband and wife, unable to speak to each other without arguing, face the dissolution of their marriage when they smuggle his mother's body out of Mexico. Two boys, confronting abandonment by their father, go to the Texas State Fair and stumble upon a way to get their mother out of bed. Thomas "Hoot" Ponder and his nephew find common ground in whiskey and storytelling amid the comedy surrounding death and dying. A chiropractor who loves science fiction movies struggles with his sexual fantasies about one of his patients, a Wal-Mart cashier who can't stop talking about her pain. In the powerful title story, Cal Macauley - driven mad by his wife's horrible death - faces mourning, regret, and the inevitability of forgetting by striking out against himself and the rattlesnakes on his mountain. Inarticulate until overwhelmed by trouble, then wise beyond belief, Lex Williford's characters achieve a dignified fatalism combined with a generous dose of fast-paced humor.

Genres: Short Stories

158 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Lex Williford]

Hey, I think it was all right, but I wrote it.

[Linda DiMeo Lowman]

One of the best short story collections I've read. These are not your mother's stories. The characters are quirky, alcoholic, morose, down on their luck, emotionally damaged, and/or unique. They take place in poor or lower-middle class locations many of which are isolated. Williford's writing is superb. These stories will take you places you've never been. What could be better?

[elderfoil...the whatever champion]

I've been reading a lot of "top" American (primarily Southern) "small-town" short story writers (Burke, Singleton, Saunders, Rash) in the last several months, and I've been growing increasingly frustrated. Of the authors mentioned above, I've found Rash to be the most promising, but each one has left me feeling in one way or another that they are enslaved to stereotypes, hyperbole (or shouting), and/or downright easy entertainment.

Almost instantly I sensed that Williford has gotten beyond these prevalent weaknesses and delivered more down-to-earth and humanistic storytelling. At his best, the personalities of his creations are far more vivid and accurate, and his stories move away from the predictable while remaining grounded. Williford's subtlety makes his humor more incisive, and he lets colors grow through the characters' triumphant dialogue. He doesn't tell the same story or use the same gimmick until I'm sick and is at home in both Southern waters and "Tex-Mex." Memorable characters tickle our collars, yet warm us despite their foibles and stupidity. Favorite stories are "A Discussion of Property," "Taking Nonie Home," and "Hoot's Last Bubble Bath," in that order.