Globecord - Disorderly Conduct: VLS Reader (1991)- Edited by M. Mark

Another book review?! Whattsa Goin On?

Actually this isn’t so much a book as a collection of short stories but it still qualifies for my 2010 resolution to read one book a week. Disorderly Conduct is January’s third book and now that I’m caught up on reviews, expect to receive a posting as regularly as the Flower Clock. Perhaps not always as exciting.

This collection of short stories is sort of a ‘best of’ from a monthly magazine The Voice Literary Supplement. The supplement was created as an offshoot from The Village Voice, a New York based variety magazine. Whether the supplement still exists, I have no idea but the book was given to me by my friend, Jonathan, who has an uncanny ability to pick out literary mavericks.

Disorderly Conduct was an…..er….interesting read. There were 25 stories and let’s just say, I’m glad some of them were short. In general, I have a problem with the fact that most short stories don’t have closure. For example, the protagonist has an abusive spouse. The protagonist ponders all the good times they had. The protagonist wonders what to do..,ends up doing nothing, cut to the last paragraph where they walk home through a corn field. I suspect unresolved conflict is supposed to make the story appear more literary. Instead of resolution the author stuffs in more alliteration but personally I think this is a cop-out.

Out of 25 stories, only one was particularly memorable. Not that I claim to be a literary expert, but this is, after all, my review and I can be as bitchy as I want. The other stories were well written, had creative story lines but only one had a unique voice, “Country Cooking from Central France” by Harry Mathews. Most of the story is an instruction on how to make farce double, a stuffed shoulder of lamb. In between his directives, he throws in an anecdote…basting the story like you would the lamb. Very well done indeed.