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A review by moonsequel
Facing the Music by Larry Brown
2.0
Was put onto Larry Brown by an interview with MJ Lenderman, the greatest living rock and roll artist. His songs paint grim portraits of failed lives and laughable masculinity to the tune of (mostly) upbeat Americana. Lenderman took to reading in order to improve his songwriting and mentioned Brown, so had to read some of him.
Right up my alley, hypothetically. Gritty, bleak countrified short stories, vignettes of sad people in the American South. Compare closely to [b:Burning Bright|6646042|Burning Bright|Ron Rash|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595825341l/6646042._SY75_.jpg|6840560] and [b:Jesus’ Son|608287|Jesus’ Son|Denis Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1702372714l/608287._SY75_.jpg|1033961], both outstanding examples of the enduring southern gothic tradition in the modern age. But Larry Brown's literary debut fell far short for me.
First, let me say, the titular story in this collection is actually amazing. Alcoholic husband turns to drink to cope with loss of attraction to his wife (it is heavily hinted that she underwent a mastectomy.) While his wife dolls herself up at the vanity, he is laying in bed thinking of an unfaithful tryst he recently had and how he yearns for novel love. Also boobs. Randy Brown loves boobs. All these stories talk about boobs, this guy was perhaps the biggest boob guy of all time.
I was pretty psyched for the rest of the collection after that first story, but was let down repeatedly. Weird choices of experimental story telling. Weird, unrealistic stories. One story reads like Benjy Compson's inner monologue from [b:The Sound and the Fury|10975|The Sound and the Fury|William Faulkner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433089995l/10975._SY75_.jpg|1168289] except way less interesting. It does not feel purposeful or indicative of the narrator's character attributions, it just seems like Brown wrote the story and then scrambled all the sentences into different positions. Then there is a story written in very short and simple sentences about a kid who enacts revenge on a driver for hitting his dog by throwing a brick at his head, causing him to crash and his car to explode. High school creative writing class material .
Speaking of high school creative writing class, here is an actual excerpt from the final story in the collection :
"I knew it was coming. We’d had a bad afternoon out at the lake. Her old boyfriend had been out there, and he’d tried to put the make on her. I and seven of my friends had ripped his swim trunks off of him, lashed him to the front of her car, and driven him around blindfolded but with his name written on a large piece of beer carton taped to his chest for thirty-seven minutes, in front of domestic couples, moms and dads, family reunions, and church groups. She hadn’t thought it was funny. We, we laughed our asses off."
I think he has a decent writing style, though it does come off like he is trying way too hard. Which is understandable in one's first foray into writing. But his unpracticed voice combined with the goofy stories did not do it for me. I have [b:Joe|377993|Joe|Larry Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404580690l/377993._SY75_.jpg|527314] on my to-read list but I am by no means excited to read it after Facing the Music.
Right up my alley, hypothetically. Gritty, bleak countrified short stories, vignettes of sad people in the American South. Compare closely to [b:Burning Bright|6646042|Burning Bright|Ron Rash|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595825341l/6646042._SY75_.jpg|6840560] and [b:Jesus’ Son|608287|Jesus’ Son|Denis Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1702372714l/608287._SY75_.jpg|1033961], both outstanding examples of the enduring southern gothic tradition in the modern age. But Larry Brown's literary debut fell far short for me.
First, let me say, the titular story in this collection is actually amazing. Alcoholic husband turns to drink to cope with loss of attraction to his wife (it is heavily hinted that she underwent a mastectomy.) While his wife dolls herself up at the vanity, he is laying in bed thinking of an unfaithful tryst he recently had and how he yearns for novel love. Also boobs. Randy Brown loves boobs. All these stories talk about boobs, this guy was perhaps the biggest boob guy of all time.
I was pretty psyched for the rest of the collection after that first story, but was let down repeatedly. Weird choices of experimental story telling. Weird, unrealistic stories. One story reads like Benjy Compson's inner monologue from [b:The Sound and the Fury|10975|The Sound and the Fury|William Faulkner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433089995l/10975._SY75_.jpg|1168289] except way less interesting. It does not feel purposeful or indicative of the narrator's character attributions, it just seems like Brown wrote the story and then scrambled all the sentences into different positions. Then there is a story written in very short and simple sentences about a kid who enacts revenge on a driver for hitting his dog by throwing a brick at his head, causing him to crash and his car to explode. High school creative writing class material .
Speaking of high school creative writing class, here is an actual excerpt from the final story in the collection :
"I knew it was coming. We’d had a bad afternoon out at the lake. Her old boyfriend had been out there, and he’d tried to put the make on her. I and seven of my friends had ripped his swim trunks off of him, lashed him to the front of her car, and driven him around blindfolded but with his name written on a large piece of beer carton taped to his chest for thirty-seven minutes, in front of domestic couples, moms and dads, family reunions, and church groups. She hadn’t thought it was funny. We, we laughed our asses off."
I think he has a decent writing style, though it does come off like he is trying way too hard. Which is understandable in one's first foray into writing. But his unpracticed voice combined with the goofy stories did not do it for me. I have [b:Joe|377993|Joe|Larry Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404580690l/377993._SY75_.jpg|527314] on my to-read list but I am by no means excited to read it after Facing the Music.