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A review by jamiereadthis
The Secret Goldfish: Stories by David Means
4.0
Now this is how to put together some short stories. Disastrously good, not a misstep in the book.
“It’s those eyes-- your father’s on the dock in Canada-- that you see in hers, when you meet on the pine swamp trail. The brown of a polished hickory gun butt, rubbed shiny with warm beeswax.”
(Counterparts)
“If you have to be named for a geographic region, this one is as fine as any, boring and nondescript in what most agree is the most mundane and utilitarian of states, a state that openheartedly loves blandness. (On hearing this, Ohioans gather themselves into a defensive hunch.) Thompson embraced Ohio. He embraced John Glenn as the state hero. What more starkly boring symbol than a man circling the earth in a capsule equipped with outmoded gear, leather strapping, already ancient at launch time, spinning in the silence of space only to plunge back and sponge upon that act for the rest of his life? Thompson and I both agree that it would be better to remain up there, to be slung by gravity’s twirl out into the void until radio contact faded out. Or better to return to earth, heat shield failing, in a blooming orchid of raw flame and burning metal, striking the Atlantic landing zone in a geyser of steam.”
(Elyria Man)
“It’s those eyes-- your father’s on the dock in Canada-- that you see in hers, when you meet on the pine swamp trail. The brown of a polished hickory gun butt, rubbed shiny with warm beeswax.”
(Counterparts)
“If you have to be named for a geographic region, this one is as fine as any, boring and nondescript in what most agree is the most mundane and utilitarian of states, a state that openheartedly loves blandness. (On hearing this, Ohioans gather themselves into a defensive hunch.) Thompson embraced Ohio. He embraced John Glenn as the state hero. What more starkly boring symbol than a man circling the earth in a capsule equipped with outmoded gear, leather strapping, already ancient at launch time, spinning in the silence of space only to plunge back and sponge upon that act for the rest of his life? Thompson and I both agree that it would be better to remain up there, to be slung by gravity’s twirl out into the void until radio contact faded out. Or better to return to earth, heat shield failing, in a blooming orchid of raw flame and burning metal, striking the Atlantic landing zone in a geyser of steam.”
(Elyria Man)