November 10th, 2008 / 6:20 pm
Author Spotlight

Wells Tower

Next March, Wells Tower will publish a book of short stories wuth FSG. So I will talk about Wells Tower now before it is too late.

I really like Wells Tower. I have come across maybe four short stories by Tower in the last five years. Fence. McSweeeney’s. A Public Space. This. His work seems to be leaking out very slowly.

Whenever a new New Yorker comes out, I open it up and check halway down the table of contents to see who wrote the story in the issue. Often it is Alice Munro. Quite often, really.

When that happens, I am just a little let down. Not because I dislike Alice Munro. Alice Munro is fine. Good, in fact. I eventually get around to reading the Alice Munro story, and often enjoy it. And now and again, I really enjoy it.

Sometimes it Yiyun Li, and that’s fine as well. Or Roddy Doyle. Or William Trevor. Or Stuart Dybek.

Lovely, one and all. But still, my heart sinks just a little.

This is why: I like short fiction because I like reading a lot of different people over shorter periods of time. I want more voices.

But, hell. Who am I to tell The New Yorker how to pick their fiction.

Hey! Last issue, Wells Tower. Go read it. Great stuff. (And then find “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.” It’s in that Ben Marcus Anchor Anthology.)

Here’s something to admire about the story: he manages the second person (a narrator who refers to “you” instead of “I” or “he”). A lot of people fuck that narrator up because they figure “you” means “you” instead of “you” means “me trying not to talk about me by pretending to talk about you.”

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26 Comments

  1. pr

      I was so excited to see Wells Tower in the New Yorker because I loved his stories in A Public Space and I forget where else- Zoetrope, Noon? But then I saw it was second person and shortish and so – uh, hesitated- and now I don’t know where I put it. I had every intention of reading it regardless- thats how good he is, because I reeeeeally have issues with second person. Not because it’s not “I” inverted well, but just cause- fuckin use “I”, you know? “You” sounds cute and I don’t really like cute. (and peeps have done it- didn’t tim o’brien do it well? always, always the exceptions…)I can get over anything if something is good enough and my money is that he is good enough.

      Also, Matthew, I read Bottomless Bellybutton and really enjoyed it. Thanks again for the post about it. But then I made a connection – thankfully after reading it and liking it so much- that he was the same Dash Snow that there was a big piece in New York magazine (i was at the dentist? or shrink? I never read that ass-wipe rag unless i’m in a doc’s office) and that bummed me out. The New York piece made a big stain in my mind about him. Anyway, I really liked his book. I also think that New York magazine’s whole reason for existance is to leave shit stains on the minds of humans, so maybe it wasn’t that Dash Snow is all bad, but that he got written about in New York. Regardless, I am super happy I didn’t make the connection til after reading it. Phew.

  2. pr

      I was so excited to see Wells Tower in the New Yorker because I loved his stories in A Public Space and I forget where else- Zoetrope, Noon? But then I saw it was second person and shortish and so – uh, hesitated- and now I don’t know where I put it. I had every intention of reading it regardless- thats how good he is, because I reeeeeally have issues with second person. Not because it’s not “I” inverted well, but just cause- fuckin use “I”, you know? “You” sounds cute and I don’t really like cute. (and peeps have done it- didn’t tim o’brien do it well? always, always the exceptions…)I can get over anything if something is good enough and my money is that he is good enough.

      Also, Matthew, I read Bottomless Bellybutton and really enjoyed it. Thanks again for the post about it. But then I made a connection – thankfully after reading it and liking it so much- that he was the same Dash Snow that there was a big piece in New York magazine (i was at the dentist? or shrink? I never read that ass-wipe rag unless i’m in a doc’s office) and that bummed me out. The New York piece made a big stain in my mind about him. Anyway, I really liked his book. I also think that New York magazine’s whole reason for existance is to leave shit stains on the minds of humans, so maybe it wasn’t that Dash Snow is all bad, but that he got written about in New York. Regardless, I am super happy I didn’t make the connection til after reading it. Phew.

  3. Matthew Simmons

      Hah! I’m glad Dash was redeemed.

      I agree that most second person experiments come off as cutesy or too clever for their own good, and I can understand your hesitation. For “you” to work for me, it needs to be pretty clear that “you” is a stand-in for “I.”

      But why do that? Why not I? Well…distance, I think. I read a story with “you” instead of “I” and get a sense of it as a kind of meditation. An individual recaping, but using “you” to become a character in her or his own life. To pretend what happened didn’t happen to them.

      An odd coincidence: I was just walking on the floor of the bookstore where I work and I saw—let’s call him Bill. “Bill” is developmentally disabled. He walks around talking to himself. Not muttering, too. You can understand everything he says. He talks constantly to “Bill.” He says: “Okay, Bill, I want you to go out and catch your bus now, and then you can go home and relax for a little while. Bill I think it would be best if you caught the next bus and not the one that comes after that because I think you need to do some stuff when you get home.”

      It always sounds like he is trying to reassure himself, too. He seems to always be saying things to “Bill” to reassure him/self. When “you” works for me in a story, it does that.

  4. Matthew Simmons

      Hah! I’m glad Dash was redeemed.

      I agree that most second person experiments come off as cutesy or too clever for their own good, and I can understand your hesitation. For “you” to work for me, it needs to be pretty clear that “you” is a stand-in for “I.”

      But why do that? Why not I? Well…distance, I think. I read a story with “you” instead of “I” and get a sense of it as a kind of meditation. An individual recaping, but using “you” to become a character in her or his own life. To pretend what happened didn’t happen to them.

      An odd coincidence: I was just walking on the floor of the bookstore where I work and I saw—let’s call him Bill. “Bill” is developmentally disabled. He walks around talking to himself. Not muttering, too. You can understand everything he says. He talks constantly to “Bill.” He says: “Okay, Bill, I want you to go out and catch your bus now, and then you can go home and relax for a little while. Bill I think it would be best if you caught the next bus and not the one that comes after that because I think you need to do some stuff when you get home.”

      It always sounds like he is trying to reassure himself, too. He seems to always be saying things to “Bill” to reassure him/self. When “you” works for me in a story, it does that.

  5. pr

      I understand it is a distancing tecnique but I think what often happens is – yes clever- and also you just get the distance when I prefer my work hardcore “i ripped my heart out to deliver this”. Now, the whole idea of a distancing tec is to ENABLE more exposure. But more often than not, it just makes for distance. That’s cause most people are pussies. But Wells Tower- he’s no pussy. And if my brain wasn’t as mushed as it is, I could think up other examples. I remember liking – sorta- a book by McInerney? Where he kept up the 2nd person for the whole book? Honestly, I don’t think I’d like that book now. I used to be a different person. But, yeah, I’ll read it. Tower put a spike in my head with the- i think two- stories I read. He’s the real deal.

      Great story about Bill. Great comparison. Yes, and reassurance, of course. I like that.

  6. pr

      I understand it is a distancing tecnique but I think what often happens is – yes clever- and also you just get the distance when I prefer my work hardcore “i ripped my heart out to deliver this”. Now, the whole idea of a distancing tec is to ENABLE more exposure. But more often than not, it just makes for distance. That’s cause most people are pussies. But Wells Tower- he’s no pussy. And if my brain wasn’t as mushed as it is, I could think up other examples. I remember liking – sorta- a book by McInerney? Where he kept up the 2nd person for the whole book? Honestly, I don’t think I’d like that book now. I used to be a different person. But, yeah, I’ll read it. Tower put a spike in my head with the- i think two- stories I read. He’s the real deal.

      Great story about Bill. Great comparison. Yes, and reassurance, of course. I like that.

  7. Matthew Simmons

      Lorrie Moore is sort of the patron saint of second person stuff because of Self-Help. She’s also sort of the villain of second person in that she was so good at it, everyone decided to have a go, and almost everyone else fucked it up.

      Heck, i wrote a long short story/short novella in it a while back, and I’m not sure if I managed to make it anything other than clever. I even sent it a couple of places. Huh…I never did hear back from one of them…

      Thanks for bringing up your objection to second person, pr. Like I said, Wells pulls it off. But it’s a risky choice.

  8. Matthew Simmons

      Lorrie Moore is sort of the patron saint of second person stuff because of Self-Help. She’s also sort of the villain of second person in that she was so good at it, everyone decided to have a go, and almost everyone else fucked it up.

      Heck, i wrote a long short story/short novella in it a while back, and I’m not sure if I managed to make it anything other than clever. I even sent it a couple of places. Huh…I never did hear back from one of them…

      Thanks for bringing up your objection to second person, pr. Like I said, Wells pulls it off. But it’s a risky choice.

  9. pr

      I’m one of the only people on the planet that has mixed feeling about the patron saint that is Lorrie Moore. I do not deny enjoying many of her short stories but actually, here on html giant, I mentioned that I thought her one novel Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? was truly a significantly bad book. And I don’t really like her second person stories, in general, either. Nor do I like the really angry bitter turn she’s taken in her recent New Yorker story. Nor do I feel very positive about her non-fiction for the new york review of books. Truthfully, I think she’s written a few really great stories. And that is something I can only dream of doing. It really is against my principals to focus on the “bad” when she has written so much good. I think with me it is- some real primal envy that twists my ability to be objective in any way. I envy her place in “letters” (but I envy others? so why her, why this emotion about her?) and also feel that if we took, like, half of her work? And threw out the good half? It would be some of the most seriously overrated stuff out there.

  10. pr

      I’m one of the only people on the planet that has mixed feeling about the patron saint that is Lorrie Moore. I do not deny enjoying many of her short stories but actually, here on html giant, I mentioned that I thought her one novel Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? was truly a significantly bad book. And I don’t really like her second person stories, in general, either. Nor do I like the really angry bitter turn she’s taken in her recent New Yorker story. Nor do I feel very positive about her non-fiction for the new york review of books. Truthfully, I think she’s written a few really great stories. And that is something I can only dream of doing. It really is against my principals to focus on the “bad” when she has written so much good. I think with me it is- some real primal envy that twists my ability to be objective in any way. I envy her place in “letters” (but I envy others? so why her, why this emotion about her?) and also feel that if we took, like, half of her work? And threw out the good half? It would be some of the most seriously overrated stuff out there.

  11. Ryan Call

      I taught a ‘war writing’ lit course last spring, and my students really liked everything ravaged, everything burned. and they also liked to say the names of the characters really loudly. gnut! etc.

  12. Ryan Call

      I taught a ‘war writing’ lit course last spring, and my students really liked everything ravaged, everything burned. and they also liked to say the names of the characters really loudly. gnut! etc.

  13. Ryan Call

      are you talking about ‘debarking’ in the newyorker by lorrie moore?

  14. Ryan Call

      are you talking about ‘debarking’ in the newyorker by lorrie moore?

  15. pr

      is that the one about a divorce? and how her husband was all mean? then yes.

  16. pr

      is that the one about a divorce? and how her husband was all mean? then yes.

  17. Ryan Call

      well it is divorce, but it is about a man, not a woman – guys name is ira, takes place during the iraq war

  18. Ryan Call

      well it is divorce, but it is about a man, not a woman – guys name is ira, takes place during the iraq war

  19. pr

      no, i don’t think thats it but my brain sucks right now. i think the one i am thinkin about is about a woman who hates her ass husband and they are in wisconsin. i think. it was a while ago. they have kids. it just is more rant than story to me. and -well, i envy her career. not many people make a career that huge just from stories. munro does, but she’s almost never anything but brilliant in my mind. moore can be not so good, so i i think.

      she’s good. i’m just full of envy. and there is something about her non fiction writing that rubbed me wrong in the nyrb. i don’t know. she’s good.

  20. pr

      no, i don’t think thats it but my brain sucks right now. i think the one i am thinkin about is about a woman who hates her ass husband and they are in wisconsin. i think. it was a while ago. they have kids. it just is more rant than story to me. and -well, i envy her career. not many people make a career that huge just from stories. munro does, but she’s almost never anything but brilliant in my mind. moore can be not so good, so i i think.

      she’s good. i’m just full of envy. and there is something about her non fiction writing that rubbed me wrong in the nyrb. i don’t know. she’s good.

  21. Catherine Lacey

      And to top it all off, he’s a swell guy too. I met Wells briefly a few months ago and he was sharp and gracious and pleasant. Good to see the New Yorker gave Munro the week off.

  22. Catherine Lacey

      And to top it all off, he’s a swell guy too. I met Wells briefly a few months ago and he was sharp and gracious and pleasant. Good to see the New Yorker gave Munro the week off.

  23. Ryan Call

      that is good – i am glad his book is finally coming out

  24. Ryan Call

      that is good – i am glad his book is finally coming out

  25. KevinS

      Wells Tower sticks out like a sore thumb on the literary landscape. That’s why I like him.

  26. KevinS

      Wells Tower sticks out like a sore thumb on the literary landscape. That’s why I like him.