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16 Categories of Desire
by Douglas Glover
Goose Lane Editions, 2000
Reviewed by Michael Bryson
One of the definitions of good writing is that it demands good criticism. Easy
praise is rarely earned, nor is easy dismissal usually fully justified. Douglas
Glover's latest short story collection, 16 Categories of Desire, is a case in
point. Against most standards it is an excellent, highly readable, complex construction
of literary craftsmanship. And yet, what value do those accolades have without
being attached to a critical examination of the metaphorical patterns which
repeat with seismic regularity throughout Glover's 11 stories? Surely, little
(or not enough).
And so, off we go in pursuit of a deeper criticism. The word "desire"
in the title is a large clue, and a good place to start. A clue about what?
The author's intentions? Perhaps, though we can move to a broader plane if we
follow Barthes and kill the author. What patterns repeat in the stories? Patterns
of desire. More specifically, patterns of desire which conjure adjectives like
"dark", "Gothic", and "destructive." Mary Shelley
is only one of Glover's obvious precursors. Margaret Atwood might be another,
though Atwood's lovelorn tales nearly always smack of the overt subtext of
contemporary sexual politics, a current less strained in Glover, though not wholly absent.
The extent of Glover capital-R Romanticism - and the vein is deep - makes
16 Categories of Desire a
collection with a potentially lasting impact. It is, for example, eminently
teachable. It is veritably awash with essay questions.
- Compare and contrast Glover's depiction of a released mental patient ("Bad
News of the Heart") with the monster in Shelley's Frakenstein (or with
Wordsworth's madmen, for that matter);
- Why do Glover's characters repeatedly say things like: "My entire life
has been a struggle to liberate myself from love" ("Lunar Sensitivities")?;
- Compare the emotional lives of Glover's characters with the one Goethe provides
for his Young Werter.
- Contrast the post-French Revolution politics of early-19th century England
with the disillusionment of Glover's PR hack made rich by stock market fraud
("The Indonesian Client").
In short, Glover's 16 Categories of Desire is a good book because it tells
compelling stories in clear, accessible language. It is an excellent book because
it contains a recognizable rhythm of metaphor, imagery, and rhetorical purpose.
It relates to a tradition of writing - and a tradition of thinking and feeling
- which many people have absorbed and repeat without conceiving a single iota
of consent or intent (often with self-destructive consequences).
It would be naive to believe that in Glover's view of the world we are all
as doomed as his protagonists. We are not. We can choose to see Glover's tales
as predictive, or we can see them as a warning about the dark currents of desire.
Or we can just see them as stories, good stories. Stories that feed the heart,
and the mind, and fill all sorts of cracks in between.
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