SOUNDTRACK: NOW,NOW-“Dead Oaks” (2012).
How do you make a song that I want to listen to over and over again? Easy chord changes? Sure. Add instruments as the song goes on? Absolutely. Have a simple chorus that’s easy to sing along to? Indeed. Bring in a harmony vocal to repeat the chorus? Definitely. But the best way? Do all of those thing and make your song 90 seconds long.
Holy cow. This song starts with simple acoustic guitars and a charming girly voice (not unlike Juliana Hatfield). At 40 seconds the drums kick in for the chorus. After one run through, a harmony vocal comes in with all of the “oh oh ohs” that make this chorus so irresistible. And just as the song shifts back to the guitars for the verses…it ends.
And I had to listen to it again and again. As will you.
[READ: March 27, 2012] “Appreciation”
The first thing I thought when I read this story was that it was like David Foster Wallace. Superficially because it opens with a lengthy segment about finances and taxes and the IRS (which was the subject of his unfinished novel The Pale King). But once the story started going, it had mannerisms that were similar to DFW’s occasional style–a kind of detached narrator (no names are given in the story) coupled with a very formal style and excessive detail (repeating information, including which “she” the pronoun refers to in parentheses after the pronoun, etc)..
None of this is to say that the story is bad or a rip off of DFW’s style. Just that I noticed it immediately. In the Q&A that accompanies the story, no mention is made of DFW. So perhaps that style has simply been assimilated. Which is cool.
But beyond style, there’s a lot to like about this story. The title is a clever play on words. The story is about a mother and a daughter. The mother has paid for a lot of the daughter’s expenses in her life, including buying her a house which was worth much more when they sold it. And so, with the title we have two meanings of the word “appreciate.”
And the story is about both meanings. The mother has always taught the daughter that a woman should be financially independent. And she tried to do this for her by keeping her free from debt. Although later she considers that perhaps she discouraged her daughter from financial independence by not making her earn her own money.
But it is that money, the money that they earned from the selling of the house in New York City that has caused a rift between them. The mother doesn’t want the daughter to have access to it. Specifically, because the daughter has left her husband and the mother thinks they should get back together. The daughter wants the money to buy a new house for herself.
Because of her confusing financial situation–which is cleverly explained in the opening paragraph in a way that seems so cold and yet turns out to be the heart of the story–she cannot get a mortgage for herself.
The story is very clever. There’ s a very good balancing act between the mother and the daughter–whom to root for, who is right, who is making smart decisions or impacting too heavily on the other. And at the heart is that beast called money.
For a story that started out in such an odd fashion:
Gross income for the daughter in 2007 was $18,150. Gross income for the mother in 2007 was $68,742. Gross income for the daughter in 2008 was $23,450; in 2009, it was $232, 476; in 2010, $140,702; and in 2011 $37,853.
It really proved to be wonderfully told.
Incidentally, I typically write about New Yorker stories before Karen at A Just Recompense. But for this one, she beat me to it. And her review is great. She highlights a line that I also thought was really powerful and which I wish I had included in my post before I read hers. But I’m going to include it anyway. Karen’s right that context is important for the full effect, but it’s still impactful:
The daughter said, All you care about is money and weight, and you give me all this advice; but I’m thinner than you and I make more money than you.
It’s accurate and mean and totally in character for a mother/daughter relationship built on money and disappointment. For that scene alone, I’m going to find more stories by Galchen.
I just took her book (“Atmospheric Disturbances”) out from the library; I’m very excited to start reading it — next on my list.
It’s on my list too, but not for a while. Let me know if it’s good!