A review by scottjbaxter
The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck

Shattuck’s stories, at least in my memory, are all set in more rural parts of New England. The story “August in the Forest” I found quite memorable. The narrator, August, writes a story in which he expresses doubts about beginning a relationship with Elizabeth. He never shares those doubts with Elizabeth, and it takes a couple of years for the story to finally be published. August realizes that the story is going to be published in a high circulation magazine and Elizabeth will end up reading the story and seeing the doubts that August never articulated written down and printed for thousands to read.

“What would Elizabeth first say when he finished reading her the story? She wouldn’t be wrong to be angry. To be used in that way, drawn into a story that he only wanted to publish for the sake of—what? Some small bit of entertainment for a few dozen readers? Maybe he had betrayed her.”