Jeffrey Ford's The Drowned Life
The second best reason to celebrate 11/4/08 was that it marked the release of Jeff Ford’s latest short story collection, The Drowned Life. This is Ford’s third collection and it may be his best yet.
The title story that kicks things off is a minor miracle, a surrealistic adventure that’s equally heartbreaking, harrowing, and funny. And I mean honestly, laugh out loud three or four times, funny.
In the story, Ford’s everyman, Hatch, finds that his financial woes (along with the dark specter of world events and working a soul sapping job) have manifested as a growing tide that he must continuously bail himself out of. When he finally loses the will to keep bailing, he finds himself in “Drowned Town,” an underwater city populated by everyone who has “gone under.”
One of the risks of surrealism, it seems to me, is that once the reader has entered a dreamscape, the consequences for the characters can lose weight. One of the most impressive things Ford does in “The Drowned Life” (and elsewhere) is retain every bit of gravitas even given the absurdity of the milieu. When Hatch calls home to apologize to his wife for going under, the pathos is genuine. When Hatch tries to navigate through Drowned Town to rescue his son from a rowdy party, his desperation is palpable.
The title story sets the bar incredibly high for whatever follows, yet Ford manages to almost reach that level several more times - particularly in the mobius strip plots of “Under the Bottom of the Lake” and “The Dismantled Invention of Fate,” the Bradbury-esque “The Night Whiskey,” and the inspired premise of “The Scribble Mind” (you’ll never look at a two-year-old’s artwork the same way again after reading this one).
Critics are quick to proclaim a writer as having an “original voice.” Ford’s an original, to be sure, but to describe his voice, the adjective that first comes to my mind is appealing. I know of no writer who employs such bullshit-free prose, yet still manages to be downright poetic so often. The Drowned Life is a perfect introduction to Ford’s style and, once you’re done, you’ll want to read everything else he’s written. Take my word for it.