Norris's very affecting short-short story is the first one I read out of the Sudden Fiction collection. I have to admit, outside of the odd short-short, here and there, I'd not read much of the stuff, because of an uneasy feeling about them and their apparent "slickness," for lack of a better word. Often times, they seem long on cleverness and short on heart. But "Blackberries" is fantastic. It's a story with a lot of heart, real depth, and it "feels" as complete as a full short story.
Like all good writing, "Blackberries" is about many things. It's a story about first experiences, about a boy navigating his way through an "adult" world, and, most poignantly, a child's becoming aware of himself as a person separate from his parents. This awareness is handled deftly in the stories last line:
"And the child began to understand that they were different people; his father, his mother, himself, and that he must learn sometimes to be alone."
This story is also about legacy. In the story there is the transmission of a certain sensibility and a connection to geography through three generations of melancholic working-class males.
"On Sunday," says the boy's father, "we'll go for a walk. Just you and I. We'll be men together." They go berry picking, and they bring home more than blackberries. A small gesture of kindness backfires and underscores the underlying disappointment and resentment in their home, and the story ends with the boy's first disillusionment.
You know, as I read Kris' blog post, he reminded me that we find meaning in the effect the stories have on us. It is not so much that the plot overwhelms us, etc., but that in such a short work, we are moved in some way by it. We don't get the full character development, or an overly intricate plot, or pages of Zane Grey-esque setting descriptions, but we do get some kind of movement. An emotional connection, a thought-provoking issue. Something.
ReplyDeleteClint, yeah. We sort of fill in the blanks with our own stuff, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI read this story as well this week. It is so true as readers we tend to fill in the blanks. This story really had three major stories taking place in a short amount of time. Like you said, the boys first experience with a hair cut, the wife and husband fighting over money, and the boy realizing a tough reality of life.
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