Breaks in voice

As I make my way through the collection of short stories based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's ideas, I'm struck by how different the writers' voices are.

True, Miriam Toews' contribution is a one act play (and a very Canadian piece of drama at that), but even with the other short stories there's a definite difference between them despite the goal of the collection being writing the stories that FSF could have written.

John Beckman's "Clear Channel" and Tom Lombardi's "The Bear" standout from this latest bunch.

Beckman's story is liable to catch the attention of anyone interested in the perspective of an allegedly crazy person. His is also the least FSF-like that's been read yet. There's no real concern with social class, there's nothing to do about the bohemian/the buttoned down, and no one is heading for any roaring parties. Instead it's just a girl who can tune into radio channels in her brain and her alleged uncle driving to some sort of place where all of the nation's radio waves converge.

Possible influences of Marian Engel's Bear abound in Lombardi's piece. About a bear who is strangely attracted (sexually?) to a woman camping with her boyfriend, this bear is also able to speak to humans. It also, allegedly, knows what it means for two humans to love each other and claims that Gary (the boyfriend) bears no love to Lois (the girlfriend). Its ending is strange and open-ended, much as the ending of "Returned" is.

Breaking the magnets' hold

Seven years after its release, the 2006 collection of prose and poetry from McSweeney's (McSweeney's Three Books Held Within by Magnets) is under my nose and in my sights. The idea for the first part of this collection is almost relevant again, as Baz Luhrman's adaptation of The Great Gatsby is just leaving theatres. Yes, it's the collection of short stories based on ideas from one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's notebooks.

So far the stories have ranged from a beast fable about god and understanding the world, to a modern take on the dramatic monologue based on the final moments of the man 'who kept the idea of tanks out of England.' The most outstanding entry to this point though, is Salvador Plascencia's Returned, based on the snippet "***** ***** running away from it all and finding that the new ménage is just the same."

Plascencia takes the premise into a surrealist world where a woman, seeking to escape the sea and the tragic memories of a brother lost within it, moves in land only to fatally find that she has brought the sea with her. His writing is direct and simple, but that voice belies a tale as intricate to watch unfold as seeing the Fibonacci sequence matched to various plant patterns.

With a story from Canada's own Miriam Toews up next, expectations are high.