Customer Reviews

The Watch: Stories (Norton Paperback Fiction)

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The first story I ever read by Mr. Bass was "Fires", published in "The Quarterly", a now-defunct publication. Since then I've bought every published work he has put out. "The Watch" is a superb example of Mr. Bass' haunting and near-mythical prose about the lives of everyday people. His characters are larger than life and imbued with a strength of personality. "In Ruth's Country" is a beautiful, poignant story of modern-day star-crossed lovers. "Choteau" is a fine example of Bass' ability to create heroic figures out of ordinary people. "Mexico" grips one with such a strong sense of place that you can imagine yourself in any of the character's shoes. "Juggernaut" allowed me to return home to a simpler place and time that I'd almost forgotten over the years. Every story in this collection is as fine as any writer today is producing. Each character is true, and the prose is full of desperation and longing. If you liked this book, you will probably appreciate short story collections by Richard Ford ("Rock Springs" and "Wildlife") and "Borrowed Hearts" by Rick DeMarinis.

One of my favorite short story collections. The language is beautiful. The characters, settings, and actions are all so persuasive, and complement each other so well. Finally, the stories are MOVING--not just witty or clever or inventive. Bass' stories have it all!

i came to rick bass through the many stories he's had anthologized in the best american series, and each of those are more than memorable. the watch, his first collection, is simply amazing. lots of emotion and depth, and a structure that is often seeming-to-be loose, until it reaches a point where everything comes together. highly recommended.

There is something very unusual and interesting going on in these short stories. On the surface the stories are accessible, entertaining, amusing, and even (forgive me for using the word) poignant. Underneath something is going on that I've never encountered before, that I can't quite get my arms around, and that reminds me of Faulkner. I've read some of these stories five or six times and I've bought the book for numerous friends. "In Ruth's Country" is particularly good.

The stories in The Watch are both youthful and wise. Rick Bass is a master of the short story form and this collection is a wonderful representation of his earlier works of fiction. Highly recommended for someone looking to get into contemporary literary fiction. Back in '92, the book captured me.

The Watch was suggested to me by a friend who is a big Tom Franklin nutswinger, who in turn is a big Rick Bass nutswinger. After reading Franklin's collection of stories (Poachers) and loving it, I cracked open The Watch to find where Tommy got it from. I discovered similar themes and styles, and the influence of Bass on Franklin is obvious. However, the differences here are major.

While both writers set their stories in nature, Bass tends to create his stories around the overarching beauty and honesty of nature, making them inseparable, whereas Franklin makes nature a mere setting with a focus on the dark side. Bass possesses a real Southern charm as opposed to the more gritty style of story found in Poachers. Proof of that is found in a story like "Mexico" or "Redfish" and their slightly absurd characters and situations that aren't cheap quirks to make a character stand out, but, rather, defining traits of a real person and their life.

I got to the end of the story "Juggernaut" and realized that Rick Bass is a tricky guy. Like every other story in this collection, "Juggernaut" was written in a laid-back tone that managed to be both detailed and poetic without being too much of either. Also, like the other stories in this collection, "Juggernaut" felt like I was sort of going along for the ride, falling back on the prose and the beauty of the language, the charm and not the story.

But I got to the end and said "Holy s***, Rick Bass was telling the story the whole time, even when he wasn't. Aren't we all like the Juggernauts, both a real juggernaut and a member of the hockey team? Aren't we all just scrambling, trying to crush everything, fighting for glory and against reality, trying to make the glory and the fight the reality?"

The stories here aren't barebones or minimalistic at all. What these stories manage to do is contain description that is both relevant AND plentiful. This isn't "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" or anything from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: short, bleak stories that contain just enough to crush. Rick Bass can give us a grand long-form short story like "The Watch" and cram it full of detail and intertwined stories. A small thing like Jessie dumping out less and less of his Coke before drinking more and more mirror his obsession, but it also plays into Hollingsworth's tiny shop representing his obsession with his father, his obsession with loneliness and emptiness. They converge to bring back Buzbee, Hollingsworth's father, an old man who ran away for the sake of freedom, leaving Hollingsworth alone and worthless. Everyone's so obsessed in that story, yet we're not left to determine that by what isn't said.

The other stories in here range from the heartbreaking "In Ruth's Country" and "Wild Horses" to the uplifting "Redfish". Most of the time, however, Bass prefers to wander around in different stages of questioning, ending his stories with characters saying "What next?" not unlike the stories in Carver's Cathedral. The main difference, and one of Bass's greatest strengths, is that he doesn't imply or even hint at an upward hook of hope at the end of his stories. Rather, he leaves his characters wondering and underlining the questions with a smile on their face for some reason they might not even know.

"The Watch" is a long story placed third in the collection. It is a tale of loneliness. A man and an older man, his father, have a store that has almost no customers. An exception to the general trend is Jesse, a cyclist, who stops for cokes and comes to be an expected presence in the life of the younger man. Jesse is aware of the fact that he is expected and begins dimly to resent the fact. The older man runs off to the fever camps and the younger man and Jesse pursue him and finally manage to carry him home. Jesse feels guilty when the older man ends up being chained to the store to keep him from running off again.

A gallery of characters are featured in the stories. Along with the diverse characters, out of the way geographical places are described. Mostly the places are extremely to the south or to the north. There is the unpublished writer and teacher from Jackson State who feels annoyed with someone who attended Millsaps. The geometry teacher who teaches in a sort of frustration in Houston and tells stories of WallaWalla Washington is portrayed. The teacher drives a corvette. When he appears all bruised, he tells the students he fell out of his car and his wife drove away in it. Kirby, the narator, and Trish appear in several of the stories. Kirby and the narrator met in college. The style is laconic, indirect, artful.

THERE ARE TEN SHORT STORIES HERE. I REALLY ENJOYED
EIGHT OF THE TEN----THE OTHER TWO I THOUGHT WERE A
TAD ON THE BEEEZARRR SIDE, I COULDN'T FIND ""THE
POINT"". ONE OF THE TWO REMINDED ME OF THE SEINFELD
EPISODES ABOUT THE SITCOM ABOUT ""NOTHING"".
THAT SAID---THE OTHER STORIES WERE VERY, VERY WELL
WRITTEN AND ENJOYABLE---GOOD JOB!!