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March 17, 2005
Book Bites #9
Amy Hempel’s new story collection The Dog of the Marriage is a book to read not twice, but four or five times—but at your peril. As Hempel fans would expect, these are slim, aching stories with the lean force of poetry. It’s hard for me to think of a more incisive and tersely telling first paragraph than that of “Beach Town,” which I’ve committed to memory:
“The house next door was rented to the summer to a couple who swore at missed croquet shots. Their music at night was loud, and I liked it; it was not music I knew. Mornings, I picked up the empties they had lobbed across the hedge, Coronas with the limes wedged inside, and pitched them back over. We had not introduced ourselves these three months.”
The trouble arises if you try to return to your own writing. Suddenly every sentence you type is hopelessly trivial. It’s a paralyzing effect, and I’m trying to shake it off even as I’m tempted to pick up “The Dog of the Marriage” again for one more read.
Posted by Rachel at March 17, 2005 09:02 AM
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