The Postmodern Story
The Pinch is an impressive southern-based print journal (University of Memphis) that includes contributors from around the country. The glossy stylized cover entices the reader to a lavish buffet of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry, as well as artwork and two interviews.
The 2009 Pinch Literary Awards were sponsored by the Hohenberg Foundation, and judged by Brian Evenson for Fiction and Robin Becker for poetry. The aesthetic, at least for this issue, is heavily postmodern. As the editors’ note states, The Pinch is committed “to publishing diverse voices that speak from the periphery as well as the center of contemporary written and artistic expression.”
“The Remaining 2%” by Dan Piepenbring won first place in fiction. As a pie chart at the opening of the story illustrates, 2% refers to Americans not repulsed by cannibalism. This postmodern piece blends literary fiction and true crime in a humorous and disturbing way. Piepenbring seems to be channeling T.C. Boyle’s “The Hit Man” in his detached tone and fragmented narrative. The tale of an unlikely friendship between photography buffs is braided with social satire on digital technology, gotcha journalism, and carnivores. But it is also the fresh language that keeps one reading to the end.
Second place fiction winner “Traps” by Mary Switalski, is narrated by Beau, the favorite grandson-in-law of Augusta, the dying matriarch to a family fortune. The witty, upper crust dialogue between Augusta and Beau is very authentic, as is the description of the old woman’s physical deterioration. There are point of view switches between story segments, and the narrator’s own complex emotional crisis is not initially revealed. Flashbacks to his childhood hunting days recall various types of entrapment, complete with detailed lush imagery of the natural world.
The third place prize in fiction went to A. Wolfe for “The Wolf Mother.” This heartbreaking story of Maggie, a young working class mother abandoned by her lover, shows what she does to survive. Again, there are many point of view switches between fragments. The plot is intertwined with encyclopedic information about the wolf. We learn about mythical stories of children raised by wolves, wolf packs, mating behavior and the realities of childrearing in the wild. “Wolves very seldom leave the pack, but at least one in every family will go.” This was a disturbing story about abandonment on many levels.
“The Apple and Paradise Too” by Erica Johnson Debeljak opened the fiction category and featured a lesbian couple having a child through artificial insemination. This charming tale of familial reconciliation was not one of the prizewinners, but might have been with a different judge.
“High School and the Mysteries of Everything Else” by David Borofka tells of Leanne, a social misfit awkwardly negotiating indignities at school and at home with her mother. Again, there is a segmented narrative form. Under the subhead, ”Mirror, Mirror,” we learn, “When she thinks of herself, she imagines a small girl with an imperfect smile, limp hair, and a mole on her neck the size of a goiter … Reflection is a delicious torture, one that she visits hundreds of times a day.” Borofka successfully writes across gender and captures teenage angst.
In “The Fat Man’s Daughter” by Traci O’Connor, there is a fabulist twist. A haunting. The Fat Man’s castle is built entirely of stone. With the tower, it is five stories tall, thirty-seven rooms: A Masterpiece of Its Time.…A Sicilian man--a butcher--fell from the tower and died. It is said, though the Fat Man cannot be sure and so chooses not to believe it, that the dead man’s brothers mixed his blood with the mortar and in this way, buried their brother’s body in the Fat Man’s walls. This does not foretell a happy ending, but it’s creepy fun.
The table of contents is organized by genre, and the creative nonfiction stories are led by “Of What Left is Holy,” Tom Fleischmann’s sensitively told memoir about a hotel fire and the narrator’s childhood, his hometown, and first homosexual relationship. There is a bittersweet quality to this well executed coming of age story.
“How to Build Your Own Labyrinth” by Joshua Schriftman is a less successful creative nonfiction piece utilizing a segmented structure, including illustrations and quotes from multiple sources. While I am much intrigued by the spatiality of the maze as a literary device, the writer’s obsessive weaving in of cross-cultural interpretations might be tiresome to some readers.
“Dinner with Jesus in the Ironbound Section of Newark” by Kerry Muir was a simple yet beautifully told story about a relationship between a world-weary young waitress and an older Portuguese cook, who communicates mostly in sign language. His daughter had been born deaf. This gritty but endearing story reinforces the importance of family.
You learned for her? I asked
Of course! He said back, proud.
She’s pretty?
