Sorry I Worried You : Stories

by Gary Fincke

In these twelve intelligent tales, seasoned poet and story writer Gary Fincke reconciles lost hope and quiet despair with small blessings and ultimate redemption. In his world, as easily as one man becomes a hero, another is riddled with failure. Fincke weaves together the large and small tragedies of daily life to create an inescapable, yet at times oddly comforting, reality. His characters inhabit a world of strip malls and fast-food joints, low-down jobs and physical ailments, lottery tickets and cheap beer. Here, everyone and everything is suspicious, and only the luck of the draw determines who, if anyone, will survive.

In the title story, Ben, a fifty-year-old bookstore clerk facing the possibility of prostate cancer, feels his life spiraling out of control as he endures his female doctor's examinations with childlike embarrassment on the one hand and struggles to conceal his age from his teenybopper coworkers on the other. Ben's only consolation is that "every day he heard about something a hundred times worse." In "Gatsby, Tender, Paradise," Bridgeford encounters a group of lightning strike and electrocution victims and feels lucky to have survived several light-switch shocks--the same type of shocks that have permanently disabled one man in the group. Such are the small but important blessings that ultimately rescue Fincke's characters from despair. Here at last is someone who can articulate both our constant, mortal desire to transcend ordinary experience and our simultaneous comfort in the unremarkable and familiar.

Genres: Short Stories

217 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dallas Mamoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorry I Worried You is unforgettable. Twelve unpredictable tales of both victory and tragedy in the ordinary and not so ordinary lives of wonderfully-written, carefully-created characters. Beautifully-detailed and suspensful, this book will be in your hands from the moment you turn the cover until you flip the last page.

I won't describe every word, but I'd say that my favorite chapter was number seven, "Wire's Wire until it's a Body". It's a story about a man and his wife who while driving home from a funeral hit a bump in the road and since then his wife developed a paranoia about dead things on the shoulder of the highway. I wouldn't want to spoil anything for you, in fact I can't think of any way to discribe it to you without doing so. in that case, I guess you'll just have to read it won't you?

Anyway, this series of short stories is probably unlike anything you'll read. It isn't as relatable as it is entertaining and the dialogue, at times, is difficult to follow but when you look into the lives of these characters, it makes you wonder what sort of strangers you might've crossed with what thoughts and emotions might drive them to live their everyday lives or what might hold them back. It is surprisingly realistic and uniquely humorous; a great read for anyone with a curiousity for common people in our strange world.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had trouble with the short story collection, it never really grabbed me and I was left feeling somehow dissatisfied. It's extremely well written and the stories are excellently crafted -- my only objection to the style was that occasionally the dialog was hard to follow and a couple statements can only be connected with a particular speaker by guessing. Still, it was depressing and I'm not sure for any good reason. I understand that people often lead small, mean, bitter lives, but I think I need more from a story than to see those lives under a magnifying glass.

[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid, well written collection. Not pedestrian at all. Yet I kept waiting for it to end so I could move on to something else.

But I believe it was just my mood.