Jason Brown (1)

After having read and enjoyed Jason Brown’s previous collection of short stories, I was very glad to come across his latest collection. It must be tough being exclusively a short fiction writer in a publishing world whose favorite child is the novel. Kudos to Jason Brown for persevering for we are all the better for it..

A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed contain ten linked stories, all set, as in his previous collection, in the fictional coastal town of Vaughn, Maine, and also on the nearby Howland Island, inhabited only seasonally. The stories follow the modern descendants of the Mayflower passenger John Howland, who first came to Maine nearly 400 years ago. The book’s focus is generally the more recent end of the lineage, a family who is centuries away from their patriarch but still have some lingering patriarchal sense—some more than others. The stories are entertaining, often dryly comic, and bring to life an eclectic mix of characters who could show up at any of our family gatherings. I enjoyed all the stories, some more than others, of course. I’ll limit my mentions here to just three:

"Instructions of the Living from the Condition of the Dead" An elderly patriarch escapes a houseful of people on the day before Thanksgiving via a tricycle, and with a volume of Emily Dickinson in his hand, he’s off to visit an old girlfriend, all the while having an internal and occasional dialog with his dead wife. During the visit, the sight of a Franconian wine bottle triggers vivid memories of his experiences in WWII.

"The Last Voyage of the Alice B Toklas" is told by a teen staying with his grandparents on "Howland Island" for the summer. He has the job of seasonal mail carrier. The grandparents have rented out their guest cottage to a writer and much speculation goes on in the household as to what he is writing (although the teen is more interested in the writer’s Ray-Bans). In the quest for intel John, Sr. strikes up a conversation with the writer and regales him with stories of when John Updike stayed on the island and claimed the family has a pair Updike’s sneakers stored in the unused Aga stove (and that’s another story, too).

"Sarah Campbell’s Story" tells exactly that, but as told to her granddaughter Ada in 1803. Sarah was a Scottish immigrant who was shipwrecked with others off the Maine coast in 1741. This story tells how she survived and became a Howland. This is the last story and I somehow that
that a nice way to finish the book.

Jason Brown has thus far in my reading shown himself to be an excellent regionalist writer, and that is not a diminishing remark, but places him squarely in the company of Faulkner, Cather, Welty, Jewett, and terrific living writers such Jeffrey Lent and Ron Rash. His stories have all the elements and touches of that literature but also that wonderful wry comedy. If you like short stories in general, or perhaps a regional touch, or just linked stories… you may enjoy Jason Brown. This is his second collection I’ve read and I’ve recently chased down his first collection to add to my TBR pile.… (meer)