[reviews]
[masthead]
Jack Driscoll, Wanting Only to Be Heard
reviewed by David LeGault
Jack Driscoll has painted a dark, isolated landscape
that his readers can not help but become engulfed in. Throughout his 1991
award winning short story collection, Wanting Only to be Heard,
Driscoll manages to paint the desolate scene of northern Michigan, a region
with a harsh climate matched only by the reality of its inhabitants' lives.
Whether it is the cold and lonely winters or the intensity of baseball
season, Driscoll has shown us that northern Michigan life can be brutal,
although morbidly fascinating.
Wanting Only to be Heard primarily
deals with the tense relationships between fathers and sons. Although
this theme may seem limiting when you consider that there are eighteen
stories in the book, Driscoll manages to keep every scenario fresh and
poignant. In one story, Driscoll writes about a father's violent reaction
to being stood up on a date, his son witnessing the entire scene: "I
felt the whole house shake and thought then of passionate killing, my
father's phrase for the quick and merciful execution of what we had raised
in the sties and coops of the farm." Although the single parent and
child connection is very apparent in that story, the theme is better hidden
in some of the other stories—such as "The Wilderness State"—where
a community college professor who is frustrated with life chooses to sleep
with one of his students in the hope of getting fired. From early childhood
to midlife crisis, Driscoll captures the troubles of fatherhood brilliantly.
Although the collection is fixated upon the troubles
of single fatherhood, it subtly touches on many other recurring problems
of northern Michigan, particularly substance abuse. Driscoll does an excellent
job of capturing not only the sadness and desperation of alcoholism, but
also the informality—practically acceptance—of it in the Upper
Peninsula. In his story, "Wish Pennies," Driscoll writes: "'Slow
down,' Howard had his last beer between his legs, and he kept straddling
the broken white lines, drifting into the opposite lane." The narrator
is simply concerned with the car's speed—not the drinking—when
Howard drives them around, driving drunk because there's nothing better
to do. As a native of the region, I caught myself relating characters
like Howard to people from my own childhood: neighbors, drunk drivers
from the police bulletin in the newspaper, and classmates. As regrettable
as this behavior can be, it shows that Driscoll has made the alcohol in
his work—whether it be in drunk driving or parental indifference
to their children's experimentation—a believable and essential part
of the northern Michigan story.
Growing up in the region, I have always been
quick to dismiss Upper Michigan writing for its stereotypical portrayal
of our lifestyle as a natural wonderland full of simple minded hunters,
fishers, and miners. However, Jack Driscoll's work has captured everything
about the culture—the obsession with weather, the alcoholism, the
search for a better existence—in a way that was unique and, more
importantly, credible. He currently lives in northern Michigan himself,
and his experience with the region definitely comes out in this and his
other books. Even when he does touch on the commonly used themes of Upper
Michigan writing (such as hunting), as he does in "Flea to Jesus,"
he writes it in a way that shows us so much more, particularly poverty,
escapism, and parallels to a father's life that a son would never want
to follow: "'Spare none of them,' Angus McCoskey had said that first
evening, and I, a disbeliever in greed, had returned in the name of Money,
that newest god my father trusted would deliver me from the graceless
routines of this small town, its small minded teachings."
Finally, Driscoll's stylistic voice is spot-on
throughout the collection. Although he takes on many characters throughout
the collection, his balance of description and action makes for a perfectly
paced reading experience. Although there are some definite standouts—particularly
the short story for which the collection is named—the book as a
whole is joyously entertaining and painfully thought provoking. Whether
you're looking for a book on northern Michigan life or an in-depth look
into the pains of single parenthood and substance abuse, Wanting Only
to be Heard should be your answer.
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David LeGault is from Gladstone, Michigan, and is an undergraduate in the Writing Department at GVSU.
FEATURED:
An Interview with Peter Ho Davies