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Jeff Maehre

Goodreads Author

Born

in Battle Creek, The United States

Genre

Fiction

Influences

Charles Baxter, Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Rich ...more

Member Since

January 2016

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A friend once told me that my essence was in every word I wrote. Another once told me that a story I'd written was "lovingly-crafted." An instructor once told me a story I'd written was like nothing he'd ever read.
I think these things explain how I feel about writing and reading and what we can accomplish this way.

I kind of look at it like: write something that is naked and completely true to who you are. That way, when you find a reader who appreciates it, you've really found something.
I look at it that way as a reader, too.

I've worked as a cab driver, English instructor, librarian, and something I can't remember that makes me think of dirt at the bottom of a mop bucket.
My stories have appeared in STORY, Cutbank, the Northwest Review, P ...more

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Jeff Maehre’s books

Average rating: 4.6 · 5 ratings · 2 reviews · 2 distinct works

	As if It's Real: Stories by Jeff Maehre 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	As If It's Real: Stories By Jeff Maehre 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Jeff Maehre's Blog: As If It's Real

As If It's Real Excerpt: "Action"

This is the third story in the collection, narrated by Elliot's mom, Joan.

“There’s this guy named Arthur. For convenience’ sake, let’s call him a friend. So, basically he’s been putting up—OK, a while back I went busto—down to the rent money, no more bankroll. So, Arthur stepped in and put up some funds, and in exchange he got a third of my winnings. A sort of investment. So, I did all right for a Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 26, 2016 11:31

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Jeff is Currently Reading

Jeff Maehre is currently reading

The Story of Teddy and Eddie

by James Halat (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jeff Maehre said: " This coming-of-age/coming out novel made me muse about a lot of questions regarding narration. Are we always the main figure in our experiences? What does it mean for a person to think about life in terms of the others around him rather than himself, This coming-of-age/coming out novel made me muse about a lot of questions regarding narration. Are we always the main figure in our experiences? What does it mean for a person to think about life in terms of the others around him rather than himself, as our narrator, Nino sometimes does? How does one write with pure honesty and openness?
Teddy and Eddie are two lovers whom the narrator, Nino meets in college. They help him navigate his own emerging sexuality.
Nino is a striking narrator for a few reasons. First, there’s a sense in which he’s an observer narrator (think of the book’s title), yet he absolutely does narrate his own events outside of the eponymous characters. Anyway, Halat writes this recessed narrator with what appears to be considerable restraint. First off, the narration is straightforward, the events reported more than heavily worked upon by Nino. The book’s narration respects the other characters for what they are more than filtering them through the first-person-narrator character. And that’s true of events. Halat tends to narrate events in an unadorned fashioned—think of a distant third—then giving us Nino’s emotions afterwards in passages of exposition.
What results is an incredibly humble and earnest narrator. I have a sense of wonder at how Halat’s Nino is able to communicate such clear thought and feeling—his confessional style isn’t a creepy kind of confessional (which is usually an affectation)—but delivered via a delightful sense of self-awareness and an honest lack of ego and bluster.
Now, to tell the truth, my personal tastes interfere as always and cause me to wish some of the dramatic situations were engineered to greater effect. Likewise, the dialogue, while realistic and unaffected, could probably be less so to allow for a bit more style and oomph. Yet, I think that these traits facilitate the mission of the novel, a frank and intimate coming out story.
I would imagine that many readers will love the conversational and unaffected style, since it maximizes their ability to relate to the events and emotions and to feel as though they are communing with a kindred spirit. ...more "

May 07, 2017 09:29AM · see review