tl;dr

Dark, unsettling short fiction.

opening remarks

Pure Hollywood by Christine Schutt came in the mail as part of my And Other Stories subscription.  The collection is beautifully packaged, has my name in the back as one of the hundreds of supporters and features a quote from George Saunders.  What’s not to like?

knee-jerk observations

The opening story, which shares the title of the collection, is about Mimi and Stetson, a sister and brother, who have a special bond.  Their famous mother was an alcoholic who committed suicide, their renowned father – separated from their mother – wasn’t the most loving of men and so all they had was each other.  The story mostly focuses on Mimi, her marriage to a much older man – a famous comedian – his sudden death and then her search for the old house in the desert that she and her brother lived in with their mother. It’s a strange story, almost devoid of emotion and drama, except for one shocking incident when Mimi discovers her old home.  While the bulk of the piece is told from Mimi’s perspective, every so often there’s an unexpected shift, such as this one from the point of view of Arnie the famous, now dead, comedian:

‘The Hedges’ forebodes for all its worth.  The eponymous Hedges – Lolly and Dick (such American names) – are on holiday, at a resort, with their sickly son Jonathan.  We get the impression that there’s bad blood between the couple that goes beyond their son’s illness.  Schutt’s use of short, simple sentences only enhances the sensation of some awful incident just around the corner.  Just brilliant.

‘Species of Special’ is a very quiet and subtle story about a man who loves another man’s dying wife.

‘A Happy Rural Seat of Various View: Lucinda’s Garden” has a Shirley Jackson vibe to it.  A newlywed couple become caretakers of an estate called the cottage owned by Aunt Lucinda.  In town, they meet an old, potty-mouthed artist named Gordon who they befriend.  One day the young wife vanishes.  This is a story where the action happens between the lines, suggesting something dark and violent.

In ‘The Duchess of Albany’, an elderly woman reminisces about her many decades of marriage to Owen who recently passed away. It’s not remotely sentimental but it is beautiful, summed up by the line: “They had not had enough time, she and Owen.”

‘Where You Live? Where You Need Me?’ is a chilling vignette about the summer of 1984 “when little parts of little bodies turned up in KFC buckets in Dumpsters in the city”.  Could this be the work of the mysterious Ella, a woman of no fixed abode, who cared for the children?

‘Burst Pods, Gone-By, Tangled Aster’ is, as with a number of these pieces, an unsettling glimpse into suburban life.  This one deals with issues of mental illness and a family coming apart.

The Gist Of It

It’s John Ashbery who says it best (on the back cover of the collection): Christine Schutt’s Pure Hollywood is “pared down but rich”.  Schutt doesn’t waste a word; no lengthy character descriptions or long rambles about the taste of the air, the feel of the wind, the colour of the sky.  Only what’s relevant is depicted, creating an intimate, tight space for each of her protagonists.  And yet as Ashbery says the stories are rich.  In every piece there’s something left unsaid, a question that lingers – who did kill those children, what did happen to Pie, why did Lolly and Dick take their son to a resort ill-suited to children? – each one provoking discussion, a debate about Schutt’s intent (if such a thing exists). 

Schutt has delivered a slim collection of uncomfortable, dark pieces that often suggest, hint and sometimes describe a moment of danger and violence.  No-one ever seems safe in these stories, even when everyone survives, even when the piece is barely three pages long.

Highly recommended.