I’ve had a hankering for more Chad Pelley since reading his two novels last year, Away From Everywhere and Every Little Thing. His short story collection, Four-Letter Words has been shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction for the 2017 Atlantic Book Awards. It’s up against two other collections I’ve read this year; Bad Things Happen by Kris Bertin and Willem De Kooning’s Paintbrush by Kerry Lee Powell. I thought all three collections were fantastic – the judges have a tough job.
In this collection of stories, Pelley’s characters are all “haunted by one four-letter word or another: love, hate, lust, or loss… Whether documenting the ways in which we become obsessed with our current situation or our fascination with the lives we could have lived, these stories, told in Pelley s decidedly contemporary style, form unique portraits of how we are led astray and how we often find ourselves at a crossroads, uncertain and entirely lost.”
There was not one story in this collection that I didn’t enjoy. Some were stranger than others, some were sadder than others, some more meaningful, but all were captivating. And every one of them managed to suck me in from the very first sentence or paragraph.
In Where To Look, a young boy believes his father’s recent death is just another one of his pranks; his best one yet.
My father isn’t dead. There was no overturned kayak. No bloated body dangling upside-down, with its limbs spinning around and around like a ceiling fan, into the sway of the sea. There was no salt in his eyes, no cold creaking in his bones. There were no fish biting at him as he hung like easy bait. He’s not dead, because a man like my father doesn’t drown. A man like my father grows gills in a survival situation. Or he grabs a whale and he uses it like a scuba tank, sucking the oxygen out of the blowhole. A man like my father would punch a hole in the ocean floor, and it would drain like bathwater.
In Burning the Night Black, a man thinks back on his long list of “what-ifs” that might have prevented the accident that killed his son and severely injured his wife.
Geoff had a drink the night of the accident. Just one. But still. He has a list of things that could have gone differently, and that tall glass of wine is on it. He could have stayed where he was a little longer – it was a family dinner, it was Easter Sunday, so what was the rush? Or he could have left a little sooner, caught the start of the game on his own couch at home. There was a truck, and it was going to tear through that intersection, at exactly 8:03, and he didn’t have to be there.
In Before I Was Me, one of my favourites, a man is writing to a girl he once knew; how he remembers her when they knew each other in High School, and what he thinks her life might have been like had she lived.
I saw your mother in the grocery store the other day, looking lost in the bakery aisle. She had a loaf of bread in her hand, holding it by the twist-tie end of the bag, so it was swaying back and forth like a pendulum, the way you must have been swaying when she walked into the shed that day, looking for a gardening tool or whatever. Thinking you were at school, finding missing angles in triangles, and passing notes to Jen B about boys, music, weekend plans.
You acted like we only get one wick in this life, and it should never get windy.
In other stories: A hitman falls in love with his target, a man clings desperately to a buoy while thinking about his wife and daughter, a man sends his daughter on “errands” so he can have private time with with Jimmy, a couple of con artists go too far and now one of them is trying to run away from her guilt, a boy tries to dig to China because his dead father told him it was possible, a Jewish woman tells us about the downfalls of playing Santa, and a man who is having problems with rowdy teenagers on his property finds out how quickly things can go tragically wrong.
A favourite line: It’s like he’d plugged himself into the world, and a hundred volts of its beauty and sadness coursed through his arteries instead of blood.
Consumed by Ink 
You’ve more than piqued my interest today, Naomi. But all your selections do! This one though, is shooting to the top of my ‘to read’ list.
I’m glad to have tempted you!
These sound extraordinarily powerful, Naomi, and that’s a stonking favourite line.
I really enjoyed it! And yes, great line, right?
These sound interesting.
They are! 🙂
I’ve not read any of this writer’s works but he’s firmly on my radar now! The quotes you’ve pulled have me completely convinced. Is it better to start with this or one of his novels?
You can start anywhere – if you prefer novels, start there. If you prefer short stories, start there. His novels have been out longer, so you might have more luck with them. Also, his first novel, “Away From Everywhere”, has recently been made into a film, so that one might be the easiest to find, although I think I like the second one a little bit more.
I really like that line about the father punching a hole in the floor and draining the water like a bathtub. It’s also sad because the kids describes his dad’s dead body so accurately that there’s no doubt in the reader that he’s dead.
It is sad! Like he must have read something describing his father’s death, or he has a good imagination. I love the image of the ocean draining like a tub. (Minus the pile of water-less animals left lying on the ocean floor.)
Oh, I forgot about them!! RIP fishies.
These all sound packed with emotion. The quotations you shared really got me in the feels! How wonderful that you enjoyed all the stories – so often collections are hit or miss.
I’m starting to feel like I know how to pick ’em! I better be careful – wouldn’t want to get too sure of myself. 😉
I’ve had a feeling that his short fiction would be terrific (his pacing in the novels is so remarkable, and the sense of a “quiet reveal” seems to lend itself to shorter forms) so I’m glad to hear that these were so satisfying. Nearly all of my short story reading has been Gallant-ish, so I’m having trouble fitting other stories into the mix, but hopefully soon! Does this mean you’re all up-to-date with your Atlantic Prize reading?
The strange thing is, for me, I’ve read all the short story nominees and none of the full length fiction (Advocate, Clay Girl, and Disposable Souls), although I do plan on reading both Advocate and Clay Girl at some point. I also read Flannery (children’s) and Notes From a Feminist Killjoy (non-fiction). The winner of the short stories is Kerry Lee Powell, btw. And the winner of the fiction is Advocate.
These stories sound good. Quite a few of them have death in them, must be some sad ones! I need to try out Chad Pelley this year! I will put him on my list, thanks for the reminder.
There’s death and loss, but he doesn’t get too deep into the sad. I would definitely recommend any of his books!
I loved your review, but I’m not at all sure what I’d think of the book. It sounds like it was emotional and beautifully written, but it also seems like it might be too dark or sad for me. I think you’re braver about reading dark books than I am 🙂
I do think I tend toward dark books. But I didn’t find this one as dark as the other two on the shortlist. I guess it’s all relative! 🙂