Life and Writing in My Work and That of Three Contemporary Authors, an Introductory Essay; and Things Done and Left Undone, an Original Collection of Short Fiction.

Abstract

This thesis consists of two parts, an introductory essay and a collection of short fiction. The introductory essay, “Life and Writing in My Work and That of Three Contemporary Authors,” discusses the intersection of the personal and fiction in my work and as I observe it in the work of Raymond Carver, Gore Vidal, and Brad Gooch. It is an exploratory essay, looking at the how the one’s background may be seen to influence the work. In the case of Raymond Carver, the themes in fiction are consistent, but the work isn’t autobiographical; I examine closely two stories from the collection Cathedral, “The Bridle,” and “A Small, Good Thing.” Each exemplifies Carver’s themes of isolation and struggle, though the resolution in each is quite different from the other. Although both Carver’s often northwestern setting and alcohol abuse aren’t present in these works, they carry his themes of isolation, struggle, and inevitability. In the case of Gore Vidal, the personal can be seen as the basis for the fictional; I look at the parallels between his 1948 novel The City and the Pillar, and his own claims about his life and love as related to his boyhood friend Jimmie Trimble. I look at two works by Brad Gooch, The Golden Age of Promiscuity, a novel, and his later memoir, Smash Cut: a Memoir of Howard & Art & the ’70s & the ’80s; these works are clearly siblings, showing the collision of the personal and the fictional. In my own work, I look at the places where the personal makes contact with my writing. Each of the stories presented in “Things Done and Left Undone” has a basis in an event, either personal or observed, and that’s the point of ignition. The writing is fiction, and I come to the conclusion that of the three authors I examine, my own path most clearly aligns with that of Carver. Each of the five works looks at a pivotal moment in the protagonist’s life, and the resolution in each is quite different. I am a fan of the ambiguous, and hope the stories presented reflect a certain amount of that.