We consider four American masters of the short story: Lucia Berlin (1936 - 2004), Mary Gaitskill (1954 - ), Denis Johnson (1949 - 2017), and Tobias Wolff (1945 - ). Their work has gained widespread acclaim. The movie This Boy's Life was adapted from a book by Wolff; it starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Ellen Barkin. The 2002 film Secretary, featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader, was inspired by one of Gaitskill's stories.
Stylistic mastery—the graceful velocity—characteristic of great short fiction that goes deeper than fashion is one focus of our SDG. Just as important as technique, however, is attention to thematic motifs. Sexuality, substance abuse, and day-to-day futility are at the core of the writing of Berlin and Johnson, not to mention Gaitskill. With an acute sensitivity to moral dilemmas posed by impassioned betrayal and conflicting loyalties, Wolff is not far behind. To paraphrase the indelicate Emily Dickinson, this is the stuff that breaks your heart and blows your head off.
Besides an emphasis on style and substance, a third goal of this SDG is to familiarize members of PLATO with "the unusual suspects"—with world-class literature that should be better known.
NOTE: Eleven sessions are listed, with page counts for each one. The SDG could easily be extended to 14 sessions. This depends on the coordinator.. The numeric reading load can be deceptive. Some will prefer to spend more time on fewer readings.
Similarly, the selection of readings can be tweaked. Whoever coordinates the SDG might have other favorite stories by the same autuors.
1. from Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories (2016)
“Angel’s Laundromat” 6 pp.
“Dr. D.H. Moynihan” 8 pp.
“A Manual for Cleaning Women” 9 pp.
“My Jockey” 13 pp.
2. “Point of View” 10 pp.
“Her First Detox” 5 pp.
“Tiger Bites” 9 pp.
“Emergency Room Notebook” 19 pp.
3. “Carpe Diem” 4 pp.
“Toda Luna, Todo Año” 25 pp.
“Friends” 6 pp.
“Electric Car, El Paso” 4 pp.
4. from Denis Johnson, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (2019)
“The Largesse of the Sea Maiden,” 40 pp.
“The Starlight on Idaho” 38 pp.
5. “Strangler Bob” 22 pp.
“Triumph over the Grave” 50 pp.
6. from Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior (1989)
“Secretary” 17 pp.
“Daisy’s Valentine” 22 pp.
7. “Something Nice” 21 pp.
“Connection” 20 pp.
8. from Mary Gaitskill, Because They Wanted To (1997)
“The Girl on the Plane” 16 pp.
“Kiss and Tell” 20 pp.
“Tiny, Smiling Daddy” 14 pp.
9. from Tobias Wolff, Our Story Begins: New & Selected Stories (Vintage, 2009)
“In the Garden of the North American Martyrs” 12 pp.
“The Liar” 18 pp.
“Awaiting Orders” 11 pp.
10. “The Rich Brother” 18 pp.
“Down to Bone” 9 pp.
“Two Boys and a Girl” 14 pp.
NOTE: Each of the 5 texts is available in Kindle and paperback versions, and the latter are widely available on eBay.
Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories (2016).
Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior (Vintage, 1989).
Mary Gaitskill, Because They Wanted To (Scribner, 1997).
Denis Johnson, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (Penguin, 2018).
Tobias Wolff, Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (Vintage, 2009).
NOTE: The following articles are reasonably accessible takes on (or, in the case of Wolff, by) the authors. They are helpful. But they are not indispensable.
Dwight Garner, "Lucia Berlin's Soul-Baring Stories," New York Times (August 18, 2015), 10 pp.
Joyce Carol Oates, "Unflinching about Women," [review of A Manual for Cleaning Women] New York Review of Books (March 10, 2016), 6 pp.
Susan Warren, "An Interview with Mary Gaitskill," narrative.com (August, 2007), 10 pp.
Alexandra Schwartz, "Uneasy Rider: Mary Gaitskill's Fictions of Mastery," New Yorker (November 9, 2015), 7 pp.
Rachel Kushner, "Earth Angel: Denis Johnson's Final Book of Fiction," BookForum (February-March, 2018), 7 pp.
Charles Baxter, "Shades of Death" [review of The Largesse of the Sea Maiden], New York Review of Books (April 19, 2018), 6 pp.
Tobias Wolff, "Reconsidering Paul Bowles," narrative.com, (n.d), 4 pp.