Going: in Thirteen Sittings by Gordon Lish

 

 

Gordon Lish wrote these short stories when pushing eighty. So, the question is: can the old boy still fire off his five to ten page instantly recognizable blasters?

I can assure you, the old boy, which is to say, Gordon, can. And Gordon does. And he does it quite well, does it with dash, spunk and sparkle in Goings: In Thirteen Sittings.

These short skippers possess an edginess and guts one rarely finds in modern fiction. I suspect the reason has to do with the fact the narrator, who always refers to himself as Gordon or Gordon Lish, is hefting his aged bones around from sunup to sundown and might be breathing his final breath that very evening. And maybe that's why he, the narrator, appears to be frequently shocked or at least brought to attention whenever he says his own name - thus we're given: Gordon, (Gordon!).

Back in the 1980s, Gordon told an interviewer he aims to enshroud a reader in the ambience of his voice, thus giving a reader a certain buzzy feeling. With this in mind, I offer two suggestions when it comes to Gordon's fiction: first, read a piece or two or three from this collection aloud from beginning to end several times, enough times to feel the buzz of the words down to your toes. Second, listen to the audio book available via audible read by Joe Barrett. Joe does a superb job with Gordon's language and special rhythms. One of the best audio books I've come across.

And since Gordon Lish is all about grabbing a reader and forcing their face down on the page, I'll knock off the generalities and turn to the specific pages of a trio of these Gordon poppers. Here goes, by gum:

AVANT LA LETTRE
One prime Gordon Lish hot button: preoccupation with language, as in the first paragraph of this snappy snapper snapping:

"The title, pay it no mind. It does not apply. It does not appertain. I appended it strictly for pretention's sake - also, for alliteration's or is it assonance's? You would think, that for that sake, or, anyway, for those, I'd mooch on over to the dictionary to look to see what it's all about, but I have aged past the stage when willing to submit myself to the care of the lexicographical community. Moreover (don't you love it, moreover), I, Gordon (Gordon!), don't know shit of the lingo the title is empedestaled in. So where, then, did I, Gordon (Gordon!) get the thing from?"

Right off the bat (more on clichés below), all those "app" words, one leading to another, then fanning out to a pair of highfalutin literary "a" words, strung together as if Gordon (Gordon!) can't spin a story without continually being sidetracked, and I do mean continually, by the sound of words, the feel of words, the aesthetic (ah, such a big artsy word!) of his words forming sentences and then his sentences following one another on the page as if those snappy Lish-ish sentences are playing follow the leader.

Did you notice the phrase, "I have aged past the stage"? Whoa, Gordon, such double barrel action: a little internal rhyme coupled with letting us know that you, Gordon (Gordon!) are no longer, shall we say, a spring chicken.

And did your eyes catch those SAT words - lexicographical and empedestaled? Gordon might be an old geezer but he makes sure we know he can still sling words, even slung ironically or humorously, with the best of today's young wordslingers.

Buried in this Gordon (Gordon!) seven-page popper is the mystery of a vanishing sidewalk vendor down the street from his apartment building. Along the way to solving said mystery, you'll be treated to more language treats, as in - "the creation of the succession of elaborations, for the concatenation of the falsifications, for the accruing of the exhausting collocations." Crackle that canting cracker three times fast!

END OF THE WORLD
"So the editor of this publication, the man phones me and he says to me, "Give me something. Can you give me something?" I says, "Sure, I can give you something. You want writing, right? I mean what you want from me to give you, it's writing you want, right?" "Right the fellow says.""

So begins the briefest of the stories but a beginning underscoring two important points Gordon makes about his writing.

Number one: Gordon told that interviewer, "My first sentence is "the story" and everything thereafter is a kind of dilation of that first sentence, expanding and evolving that first sentence until it becomes a global event."

Our first sentence here features an editor phoning to ask if he, Gordon, will give him something. That's all Gordon needs and he's off. Gordon not only answers the editor about giving him something (some writing) but linking the editor's request to a trauma he, Gordon, suffered as a kid, "scare the life out of a six-year-old now seventy-nine and just as insanely still counting." Oh, yes, indeed, Gordon's first sentence acts like a fuse set off leading to a bomb's colossal KABOOM!

Number two: Gordon says his stories are not like your regular stories happening out there in the world; no, his stories happen in the moment, in one place. For End of the World, all we need do is look at the following sentence:

"I says, "Sure, I can give you something."

That one word, "says," says it all - we're in the present tense, right there in the moment as Gordon speaks to the editor on the phone. Similar to his other stories: happening in the now, all in one place.

AFTERWARD
Following the thirteen stories, the thirteen sittings in Goings: in Thirteen Sittings, Gordon serves up an Afterward which is, in fact, story number fourteen.

I'm tickled that he did. Afterward is among my personal favorites since Gordon is speaking directly to me as both reader and potential reviewer. Also because he uses two vintage Gordon Lish language tools: cliché and repetition, language that for Gordon acts as shamanic incantation and magic.

I urge you to pick up a copy of this book and feel the magical buzz. Meanwhile, I'll let Gordon have the last words, these words the beginning words from the opening sentence of Afterward, a sentence that goes on for five pages:

"Oh no you don't, just hold your horses, sweetness, because, no, N-O, you're definitely not getting rid of me as readily as that, because oh no no, don't you worry, there's plenty which has been going on here which hasn't even come close yet to covering the ground between us, because, I, Gordon, have been sitting here anticipating you and your every thought. . . "