Book Review by Zinta Aistars
Paperback: 100 pages
Publisher: Mayapple Press, 2011
Price: $15.95
ISBN-10: 193641905X
ISBN-13: 978-1936419050
Nothing more? After reading the nine stories in this story collection
by Michigan author George Dila, I'm betting he has plenty more to tell! At
least, one hopes. Each story has a satisfying twist, an unflinching turn, and
more times than not, an element of surprise. Good reading.
Then again, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. After all, Dila's stories
are good reading because they are all so … real. These aren't the quests of
heroes. These are stories of the average Joe, the middle-class guy with
middling experiences and views, the guy next door with the door closed—until Dila
opens that door for us to get a closer look. Unflinchingly authentic, even as
one hopes that there are more heroes out there between these men that can often
be difficult to like.
Each of the nine stories is set in a Michigan city, large or small, and
they do have Michigan flavor, but could just as well be set anywhere. Main
characters are all men, with the exception of "Four Letters to Angelie
Jolie," which is just that, letters, written by a female maid who is
trying to pull a fast one on a celebrity in an attempt to get adopted along
with her children. Letters get nastier and baser as the only response received
is a photograph signed by Jolie, apparently no longer adopting.
First up in the collection is "Lessons My Father Taught Me."
The lead is a winner, instant hook:
"During the summer I was
fifteen, on a muggy July night with nothing much else to do, my father and I
began working together, stealing from our neighbors."
While this may not be the story of the guy(s) next door (hopefully), it
has the element of the average in these two characters, father and son. The tensions
in that relationship, the occasional power play, the coming apart and coming
together, the hidden skeletons that finally surface. As in reality, it can be
hard to know for whom to cheer. Life is never black and white, good and bad. Those
we think we know, including ourselves, are never completely knowable. Shadows
streak everywhere.
Title story, "Nothing More to Tell," is arguably the most
difficult to read yet deserves its title status. Middle-age men lusting after
teen girls is an increasing problem aligned with and encouraged by the rise of
Internet porn and the general objectification of women in ads and other media.
This story's character, Vincent, can't keep his eyes off two scantily-clad teen
girls walking along the road, and becomes so distracted while driving that he
hits and kills a small boy who runs out into the street. The story follows the
inner turmoil of Vincent, through to its stunning ending.
Other stories deal with aging, with family relationships including
divorce, with the prejudices many claim to not hold but nevertheless have, and
even—a janitor with a second life of being a hit man. "Pizza Pie" may
have been one of my favorites, as the hit man who always insists on last words
from his hits, to eventually have to say those words himself.
Dila hasn't reached bottom of this barrel. The ease of style in each
story indicates the barrel is still full of more stories, and I look forward to
their surfacing. While I couldn't like any of these main characters, hope not
to meet any of them even as I am sure I have met at least some of them, I am
intrigued by the author's sharp eye and willingness to tell that which makes us
uncomfortable. There's truth in that.
George Dila's stories and personal essays have appeared in North
American Review, Driftwood, Third Wednesday, Current, Traverse, Literal Latte,
Christian Science Monitor and other publications. A native Detroiter and
graduate of Wayne State University, George now lives with his wife Judith in
the Lake Michigan coastal town of Ludington, where he directs the activities of
Ludington Visiting Writers, a literary program he founded in 2001.
To hear my radio interview with George Dila, visit WMUK 102.1 FM,
Kalamazoo, Michigan's NPR affiliate, for a listen.
Zinta Aistars talks to author and founder of Ludington's Writers Program George Dila, August 20, 2012
Full Interview (17:02)
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