Stories V! by Scott McClanahan
(SEXY LADY ALERT!: there is a picture of a sexy lady on the cover of this book.)
I go to a lot of readings. There are good readings and there are bad readings. This is because there are good readers and there are bad readers. Bad readers are very, very hard to endure. Generally, if a writer has some kind of shtick or schlocky gimmick, they give terrible readings: a few names come to mind. When Scott McClanahan began to read, I thought he was going to be one of those writers.
He’s not! He was heavy on shtick, yes. He walked up to the microphone at Franklin Park (whose reading series I heartily endorse) looking like Vincent D’Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket, with a heavy Appalachian accent (real?) and a stilted cadence that made him sound like the autistic kid in Mercury Rising (totally fake). I was ready to hate whatever he was about to read. But it was very, very good. He even used props! If you have a chance to see McClanahan read, do it.
They were selling copies of this, his most recent collection of short stories at an Unnameable Books-sponsored table at the bar. All of his books are published on McClanahan’s own “Holler Presents” imprint, which he prefers to shopping his stories around because he says he can “sell a hundred out of the back of his truck for five dollars each.” I bought it. Then I chatted with him about West Virginia (where he lives, and which I had visited) and Maryland (Where I have lived, and which he has visited) and Interstate 70 (which I have driven on and which he has driven on) and he inscribed the following in my copy:
“Ben, thanks for coming. My great aunt lived in Glen Burnie. Scott McClanahan.”
The stories in this book are very shticky. One is “written” in “invisible ink.” One is a message to bloggers who may write negative reviews of his work. Many last only a few sentences. Some have alternate endings. Not all are good. But a few of them are great and the book is only five dollars, so, you know, I liked it.
