i picked up fortune smiles after seeing it on carrie brownstein's instagram and i am glad i did. it's a wonderful collection of short stories, all heartwrenching yet witty. i had never heard of johnson prior to this, even though he is a pulitzer winner. however, i now plan on reading his pulitzer-prize winning novel, the orphan master's son. this collection was that good.
johnson is an excellent storyteller, and though each story was enjoyable, my favorites were "interesting facts", "nirvana", and "dark meadows".
"interesting facts" was interesting because i wasn't sure if it was autobiographical. the novel opened with the narrator had a book reading and being obsessed with breast. initially, you assume he was some pervert, but it turns out she was a woman that had lost her breast to breast cancer. it is then revealed that the narrator's husband was a pulitzer prize winner for a novel about north korea, just like adam johnson! i had to google to see whether or not his wife battled cancer, it turned out she did. i also discovered that johnson explained in an interview that this story was a "violation of his family". and knowing that his wife had cancer made this story a little difficult to read. the reason being that it's a little sixth sense, in the way that you realize that the narrator was a ghost. if written by johnson's wife, it would be a sad yet beautiful story that demonstrates the stress and worries a mother has when her death comes earlier than expected in the form of a disease like cancer. however, written by johnson himself, it seems awkward for him to imagine her dead and then as a ghosts however, one can see it as an exercise in which he deals with the possibility of losing his wife and how he would move on yet still remain loyal to her. a beautifully written story and my favorite of the collection.
in "interesting facts", the wife was angry because her husband stole a character that he helped developed for her novel and turned him into the narrator for his own story, "dark meadows". "dark meadows" was another favorite of mine, disturbing yet intriguing. "dark meadows" was about mr. roses who reminded me of dexter. he was filled with knowledge of computers and child pornography. though he didn't out right destroy sexual predators, he did help a cop figure out a way to track down people that downloaded child pornography. he also helped protected his neighbors, two young girls, from a peeping tom, though he also had to safe them from himself. though creepy, at his very essence, mr. roses was not a bad guy, he too was a victim, raped as a child by his sea scouts leader. his child
pornography obsession fueled by the need to find photos that his rapist took of him. this story was disturbing yet hopeful, kind of like watching an episode of law and order: svu, you are exposed to sick and twisted crimes, yet are hopeful that these people will be stopped. mr. roses was a tragic character that i hope got help and started using his computer skills to help
stop child pornography.
in "dark meadows", there was this great moment when the girls sing themselves a lullaby, though mr. roses did not recognize it initially, i saw it was nirvana's "where did you sleep last night?" this was kurt's second appearance, in this collection, his first came in the story, "nirvana". in this story, a man's wife was suffering from guillain-barré syndrome, which left her bed ridden and immobile. the only comfort she found was listening to nirvana and smoking pot. the husband was plagued by a promise he made to help her commit suicide when it all got too much. to help him cope worn this, he created an app, he reconstructed a recently assassinated president that could converse with him and was a hologram via an iprojector. the hologram was able to talk via a library of speeches and interviews. he then decided to create one of kurt cobain for his wife. this technology seemed like the opening of pandora's box, though comforting, it would do more harm, in the long run. it's seems amazing to think that our love could live forever, but it's not really them, just the shell of the person they once were. we are currently a society obsessed with recording our lives, but the technology in this story is too extreme for me.
all in all, this collection of stories was great and i highly recommend it. and i definitely plan on reading more books recommended by carrie brownstein.
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