Absent Friends is a collection of short stories by Frederick Busch. Some were good; some weren't. There were, however, several sentences and/or thoughts worth comment.
1) One story, "Ralph the Duck," had an absolutely terrific opening sentence. "I woke up at 5:25 because the dog was vomiting." (page 66) That book I read on writing, Hooked, kept giving examples of first sentences. The author would then ask something along the lines of "who could read that and not read further?" I'd usually raise my hand or else say, "Me." But when I read the opening sentence of "Ralph the Duck," I knew what the Hooked author was talking about.
2) The narrator in "Ralph the Duck" is a college maintenance man. He likes the job, where one of the benefits is that he can take one free course per semester. He figures that in twenty or so years he'll have a college degree. At one point in the story there's a fierce winter storm that causes the college to close. "Everyone else had gone home except the students, and most of them were inside. The ones who weren't were drunk, and I kept on sending them in and telling them to act like grown-ups. A number of them said they were, and I really couldn't argue." (page 77) I like the idea of the person-in-charge actually understanding, even while correcting, the behavior of the students in his charge.
3) In "Naked" the narrator is talking about the troubled relationship between himself as a teenager and his father. At one point the narrator thinks, "I was the usual thirteen." (page 128) I was happy to read that sentence because I believe age thirteen is, for many (myself included), the worst year of a young person's life. Anyone else hold that belief? Just curious.
4) In a story titled "In foreign Tongues" several people are sitting around talking after they have completed a group session in a psychologist's office. The author writes, "Or all of those short stories where people just sort of talk very tersely and not a lot happens, but you know something's supposedly been said, something important, you know? And then the story's over and nobody knows what happened except self-control was exercised?" (Page 143) Truth be told, I pretty much felt that way about most of the stories in this collection, especially this one. Another book like this, and I'll delete short stories from my reading.
5) Question. Also in "In Foreign Tongues" a character talks about his father's absences from home. "I forget the name of his boat. I forget where the hell he sails in. Whatever they do in submarines—do they call it sailing?" (Page 148) What do they call traveling in a submarine? I have no idea.
6) In "One More Wave of Fear" the narrator tells of a time when his childhood home was overrun with squirrels in the attic. His father traps them, and he and his mother go to a nearby park to release them. After doing so, the squirrels race up into the trees' branches. The narrator describes his mother: "She diminished, staring up at them, like the pretty girl in a horror film who at last understands what has come for her." (Page 209) I like the sentence although I find equating being found out to have been a communist to the return of released squirrels pretty far-fetched. Maybe my own short stories don't sell because I keep aiming to amuse rather than confuse. I'm not real big on hidden meanings.
7) On poetry: "Of course, you could argue that while poetry comes from a natural impulse—to talk!—it either sounds natural, like us, or it doesn't." (Page 252) That might be why I don't like most poetry; it doesn't sound natural. But I love Robert Frost—and e. e. cummings. "anyone lived in a pretty how town"? Absolutely love it. Go figure.
Words
1) Spansule. "He (a doctor) ordered it by spansule." (page 181) According to dictionary.com: "a modified-release capsule of a drug." And now I know that capsules can be divided into types. Not sure why, but I figured a capsule was a capsule was a … And so on.
2) Pileated. "They forced me to stroll through Prospect Park while searching, say, for the pileated woodpecker." (Page 199) Woodpeckers come in types? Like capsules, I always figured a woodpecker was a woodpecker was a… I Pileated means crested, according to dictionary.com. Strange, I always thought all woodpeckers had crests. My gut feeling is that the writer was trying to sound knowledgeable.
3) Cataclysm. I have only known it as a religious term, so "Cataclysm was really all a kid had going for him until he was taller than his parents" (page 204) made no sense. OK, dictionary.com says, "any violent upheaval." Looking further, I did recognize various forms of the word. Ah, I figured it out. I was mixing it up with catechism. I never realized how similar those two words were.
So, do I recommend? Nah. Not unless you've got a WHOLE lot of time on your hands.
