The Dog by Jack Livings
My rating: 5/5 cats
also we are best friends now
PAY ATTENTION!!!
this is one of the finest short story collections i have ever read.
there are only eight stories total, but what they lack in quantity they more than make up for by being delivered in this consistently perfect, strong voice detailing the frequently frustrating struggles of the citizens of modern china and their conflicts between collective and personal will and the sacrifice of private desires to the necessary public facade.
in the crystal sarcophagus, which is the longest piece in the collection, there is a nearly absurdist tone as workers who are commissioned to build a crystal coffin for chairman mao come up against insurmountable obstacles:
The vice mayor continued. Casting and fabrication teams would be housed at the 505. The Academy of the Arts would prepare an array of designs, and Office Nine would select the most suitable. “Ten months,” he said again.
Zhou Yuqing, ever earnest, perhaps the only one by temperament unafraid of Li Quan, spoke up. “Comrade Vice Mayor, I mean no disrespect, but this task will be very difficult to complete in fewer than three years.” There were some noises of assent in the room. What he’d mean by very difficult was impossible. They’d all done the math in their heads.
The annealing process could not be rushed. Crystal pulled too soon from the cooling furnace would have the tensile strength of rock salt. And for slabs of the size required by Task One, proper annealing would take at least three years.
Li Quan spoke over the tops of their heads, addressing the back wall. “When completion of a task requires conditions that do not exist, create proper conditions!” He punctuated the words by slapping his palm onto the desk. Professor Emeritus Hong Li jumped in his chair.
“Comrade Vice Mayor,” Zhou said, “we’re just humble workers, and we can’t defeat physical laws. There will be serious difficulties building the coffin if we don’t have at least three years.”
“You must be prepared to overcome all difficulties with an indomitable will and in a planned way!” Li Quan said. “No delays.”
Zhou Yuqing resigned his challenge. Vice Mayor Li was powerful, and could have had him labeled a reactionary element and locked up. But more importantly, there was no sense in arguing with the Party. The Party outranked physical laws, scientific fact, logic. This knowledge was as essential to those in the room as the marrow in their bones. The Party was their water, their food, their thoughts.
it would be funny if it weren’t also so heartbreaking in its dogged futility
In this manner Comrade Zhou Yuqing was made secretary of the team. His reluctance to accept the post was more than a standard show of deference. There was one thing of which he was certain: Task One was destined to fail. The impossibility of success was lost on no one, yet there was no doubt they would attack blindly, with full red hearts, like a cavalry riding directly into enemy cannons. Zhou would head the charge, and he would be the first to fall.
each story is perfectly encapsulated, and ends firmly, without any of that wishy-washy trailing off that some short stories like to pass off as an ending. if i hadn’t already been converted over to the cult of the short story, this collection would have done it for me.
here is a link where you can read the titular story for yourself:
http://www.theparisreview.org/fiction…
and look who else liked it!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/31/boo…
