As great authors James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner portray the mind’s stream of consciousness, so Stephen Dixon captures the mind spinning.
Time to Go - a collection of eighteen vintage Stephen Dixon short stories where we as readers watch the mind spinning at top speed. After finishing this book, I can better appreciate literary critic Alan H. Friedman's take on Dixon's storytelling: "One doesn’t exactly read a story by Stephen Dixon; one submits to it. An unstoppable prose expands the arteries while an edgy, casual nervousness overpowers the will."
I had an opportunity to meet Stephen Dixon during a book reading he gave in Philadelphia in 1994. He said if he didn't write at least two or three hours in the morning, then things just wouldn't go right for the rest of the day. I can believe it. Stephen Dixon must qualify as one of the most compulsive writers on record. He told an interviewer he's racked up more than 150 stories rejected by the New Yorker, but, no matter, hundreds of his stories have been published by a long list of small magazines and literary presses.
Back on his time in Philadelphia. Stephen Dixon read Goodbye to Goodbye, a pivotal tale in Time to Go (the short stories in the book can be seen as forming a loosely interlinking novel). Wisely, the editors at Harry Holt also included Goodbye in The Stories of Stephen Dixon. I'll cast the spotlight on this ten-pager to serve as a prime example of a Stephen Dixon narrator's spinning mind in action.
GOODBYE TO GOODBYE
Many Stephen Dixon stories are set in a city apartment, either in the author's home city of New York or in Baltimore where he taught for years as part of the graduate writing program at Johns Hopkins University. And that's the case here, where our narrator is Jules Dorsey who shares a dramatic moment in his marriage, a time when he and his wife Arlene came to a deeper understanding of their relationship. But before Jules tells us what really happened, he cranks out four other melodramatic versions.
Story One - On the phone one afternoon, Jules tells Arlene he's coming over to give her a gift for her birthday. But when he arrives that evening, he can see a man sitting on the couch in the living room. "I have a friend here, I hope you don't mind," she said. ""Me? Mind? Don't be silly - but how good a friend?" "My business," she said, "do you mind?" "No, of course not, why should I? Because you're right, it is your business."
Two observations on the above: 1) terse dialogue compressed in one unending paragraph without indentations is signature Stephen Dixon, and 2) Stephen Dixon writes in everyday language with mostly nouns and verbs driving the story - very few adjectives or adverbs to get in the way and no need for a reader to consult the dictionary.
Anyway, Jules shakes hands with the guy who says his name is Mike. After a few words of greeting, we read: "Say, who the hell are you anyway and what the hell you doing here? I thought Arlene was still only seeing me," and I grabbed him off the couch. He was much bigger than I, but didn't protest. "Where's your coat and hat?" I said and he said, "I didn't come with a hat and my coat's over there, in the closet." "Then we're going to get it and you're going to leave with it."
A few more strokes of dialogue and Mike is out the door. Arlene enters the living room, drinks in hand. Action replaces words and the story ends with Arlene's renewed appreciation of Jules' love, a tender embrace, a passionate kiss and Jules beginning to undress.
Story Two - A variation of the first story with some violence thrown in. At the end of an argument over putting ice in a drink, Jules grabs Mike's neck with one hand. Mike takes a swing but misses. Jules lands a punch in Mike's stomach, then when Mike falls forward, Jules clips him in the back. Mike's lying face down on the floor. Jules turns Mike over and tells him he has to the count of ten to get the hell out. He's out the door by eight.
Arlene returns to the living room and says, "I hate when anyone does that to people, but I think deep inside I loved it when you did it to him." Again, Arlene has renewed appreciation for Jules the hunk. She musses his hair and begins to undress.
Story Three - This time Alene and Jules are husband and wife, married for three years with a nine-month-old son. Arlene tells Jules she loves someone else. Jules insists on the name of the guy. When he finally has both first and last name - Mike Spiniker - he scans the telephone director for the name and gives a call.
An outrageous, comical phone call ensues punctuated by Jules threatening to blow Mike's head off and slamming the phone down. Having listened in on the call in the bedroom, a highly emotional Arlene has a renewed appreciation for the depth of Jules' love. "I'm sorry, Jules. So sorry, I want to beat my brains in against this chair. If my saying I love you very much isn't enough, what else can I do to prove what I just said is true and that I never want to stop being married to you." Light fades as Jules and Arlene walk off stage - whoops - walk from living room to bedroom, for a heavenly round of lovemaking.
Story Four - Extreme violence, this time. Arlene tells Jules she's moving out since she no longer loves him; she loves Mike. When Mike comes to their apartment to help Arlene with her suitcases, Jules whacks him with a wrench. Mike sues and Jules is sentenced to five years in prison. Arlene visits. They end each visit with a luscious kiss. Arlene has since had a breakup with Mike and awaits the return of Jules the hero.
The Truth - The drama hardly resembles any of the previous stories. There is no Mike in Arlene's life. Nor do they have a nine-month-old son. Arlene no longer loves Jules and simply wants a divorce so she can move on. And Arlene doesn't need any help with her suitcases, thank you. Jules is left in his apartment alone.
How many times do you spin tales to remake those past dramatic moments in your life? No matter what the version, do you always emerge as the triumphant victor? I think Stephen Dixon hits the bull's-eye in understanding human psychology and human behavior.
If you are not familiar with Stephen Dixon's writing, my recommendation is to begin with one of his many short story collections. Once read, not forgotten easily, even if you try.
American author Stephen Dixon, born 1936
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