Friday, February 7, 2014
"Bigfoot Stole My Wife" by Ron Carlson
Ron Carlson, you are very funny. You remind me of Barry Hannah--a little bit--and that's a good thing...to remind someone of Barry Hannah. I make this comparison because you write interesting sentences, and are one of the best first-person writers I think I've ever read. This particular story is a kind of tall tale, right? Bigfoot's in it, so it can't be true. The guy's wife left him. Bigfoot, who does not exist, didn't take her. She took the dog and the Toyota Celica and split, was tired of being married to a guy who earns his living at the tracks. The narrator is telling himself an elaborate lie, because he cannot bare the truth of his situation. He believes it. He has "gotta believe it." But, I gotta say, this story is almost too long to be a short-short story, isn't it? Almost six pages. I know that there's no limit or mandatory length, or whatever, but the story does seem to strain against the limits of the form. But, the subject is Bigfoot, so maybe that has something to do with it.
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