Lot: Stories, by Bryan Washington (Riverhead Books, 2019, 222 pages, $25)
If a book can be melodic,
this is it. “. . . talking, words bursting our of my nose, my ears, . . . . “
What is a Family?
A story of stories of
Houston, on first names with streets* and neighborhoods but now you see them in
a different light from different eyes (hookers, druggies, dealers, workers).
On first names with a
hurricane: before Harvey, after Rita. If you can afford to come back, if you
can afford to come back AND to rebuild. If not, . . . .”Rumors glide through
the complex like vines.” (p. 14)
A Different Houston
Author Bryan Washington
shows us a different Houston, a different life, peopled with disintegration and
a different set of ethics. Is it real? Just as one seems to be getting his life
together, he is shot down (or dies in a car accident) but there are those who
get out and get a PhD – how, is anyone’s guess: the survival of the fittest.
For the few, the very few.
“Gloria blew through our
lives on a Wednesday, and our mother told us to treat her like pottery, to not
ask questions, to creep around the house like ants before their queen. Our
mother, who returned grape bunches over single sourings; who’d shipped my
sister, Nikki, to Tech with a knife in her pillowcase; who’d slipped into this
country, this home, her life, on the whim of a fortune-teller, . . . . “ (p.
43)
Enigma
Lot is an
enigma, a puzzle that is not too hard to figure out but you will still be proud
of yourself that you can figure it out. Thanks for chapter titles rather than
chapter numbers (titles that can mostly be understood, being street names in Houston).
You can read each chapter as a stand-alone or in series (better in series, but
possible the other way around). Some chapters introduce a new character (Gloria) who is
never mentioned again but the chapter in question is all about them and how
that person fits into the family and what that person does to advance the story,
the break-up.
Lot is an
enigma that challenges you to place each chapter in the time dimension, e.g.,
what has transpired since the previous chapter ended is slowly made apparent
and the intervening time can be very long in time and space.
Lot is an
enigma in that author Bryan Washington writes a lot of dialogue but without
quotation marks – you have to remember who is speaking.
When Does a Family Die?
One by one, they leave. . .
.
--------------------------------------------------
*”They touched eyes taking
out the trash on MLK Boulevard.” (p. 7)
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