Customer Reviews

Women with Men

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think this is one of Richard Ford's best along with Wildlife, Rock Springs, and The Ultimate Good Luck. The subject matter and setting are quite different from the Americana we've come to expect from him, yet the depth of insight is there in maybe even more intensity than in any other works. I rank the first story, The Womanizer, up there with more obvious and less subtle works by Camus concerning "the human condition" While some reviwers found the protagonist lacking direction and substance, I felt that this was precisely WHY this story was so good. Ford has managed to portray a character who is non-commital and self-deceptive to the point of ridiculousness. He is an onion skin of lies and apathy floating back and forth between Paris and the US under the illusion that he is having an affair with a woman that he really doesn't care about. There are so many great scenes in here from the one where he imagines himself in court with his wife to when he presents the little boy with a gift. Ford undermines him with irony from start to finish and presents us with incredible detail and insight a character who is fundementally vague and doesn't even know himself let alone others. A classic of the short novel which should be ranked with the best of Peter Handke in this genre. There is a little of this protagonist in all of us. Well done.

Richard Ford's Women with Men is a collection of three short stories. The first and third seem closely related. They focus on two men from the Midwest, both entering middle age, and both profoundly confused and clueless. The city of Paris features prominently in both stories. The third, story, much shorter and sandwiched between the Paris tales is a sort of coming of age tale of a teenage boy in Montana. It seems somewhat out of place.

In the first story, "The Womanizer", Martin Austin a supposedly happily married man, has traveled to Paris for a business trip where he finds himself intrigued by a somber, enigmatic woman undergoing a painful divorce. The story chronicles what happens when Austin becomes unaccountably obsessed with her. In the other Paris story, "Occidentals", Charley Matthews, whose wife has recently abandoned him, is visiting Paris on business, accompanied by his lover, Helen. I found both stories painful and dreary but was struck by how congruent Ford's writing style was with the psyche of the characters. Both the characters and the writing are ponderous, and humorless and grim. The result is an unusually intense portrayal of unconscious grief, depression, and delusion and quiet despair among men (and the women in their lives) who are groping for meaning and purpose in a soul-dead existence, and who are floundering for human connection without the slightest capacity for autheticity or intimacy.

There is the selection of stories itself that is interesting. Two are primarily set in Paris, the book ends for one set in Montana. Meaningful design, or whimsy?

In both the stories set in Paris, there is a strong element of American "innocents abroad," traveling out of their depth, with an inchoate sense that Paris will solve the problems of their shallow lives. In the first story, "The Womanizer," the American protagonist, Martin Austin, is nominally a happily married, yet is pulled to a certain "je ne sais quoi" that seems to envelop French women. Ford has a remarkable ability to portray what is Austin's mind, while at the same time depicting the reality that he is oblivious to. At one point Austin sees, sitting in a café, "a man with soiled lapels, in need of a shave and short of cash, scribbling his miserable thoughts into a tiny spiral notebook like all the other morons he's seen who'd thrown their lives away," which is a haunting foreshadowing of the inevitable, tragic denouement of Austin's odyssey - certainly far more tragic than my limited imagination could have predicted.

In the third story, "Occidentals," a "retired" white English professor, who through a fluke, had become a black studies specialist, has taken one of his former students, who is eight years older than him, for their first trip to Paris. She has cancer, and a classic checklist of sights that must be seen. At one point she meets former friends, the true "Ugly Americans" abroad, and they have dinner. They scene is a painful read, for regrettably it is not crude caricature, but an accurate depiction of those who are uncomfortable out of their own narrow cultural norms. Likewise, there is another tragic denouement.

Then, the middle story, "Jealous," would easily fit into his stories entitled "Rock Springs." It is that hard-scrabble existence, along the upper continental divide that is portrayed. A boy is coming of age, his parents are divorced; he is leaving his father, on good terms, to spend time with his mother on the West Coast, and is accompanied by his aunt. The physical and spiritual poverty of their lives is deftly described in classic Ford style.

I used to think this was Ford's finest work, but after the re-read have reduced it to parity with his other classics, Independence Day, etc. I disagree with other reviewers who think these stories are cast-offs from abandoned novels; each is wonderfully complete in itself. I also disagree with another reviewer who thinks these stories are not appropriately set in Paris - it seems to me that they could ONLY occur in Paris. Ford is never a "fun read," and so much the better for it, and at least for this reader, induces anxiety as one sees parts of oneself in these sad tales.

WOMEN WITH MEN may take its title from an exchange between Beatrice and Helen, who are characters, in "Occidentals", the third and final story in this collection. "That was a different era," Beatrice said solemnly. "It was long before I came on the scene." "I don't believe in eras," Helen said. "I believe it's all continuous. Now and then. Women and men."

Continuous? Well, maybe, since the first ("The Womanizer) and third ("Occidentals") story in this collection examine narrators in Paris who are alert to the city's sophisticated culture, blind to the lives of their in-Paris women, and sense the possibility of a new beginning. In contrast, the second story, "Jealous", is narrated by Larry, an immature high school senior who gets a first glimpse at the "real world" as he travels to visit his mother. This means, I suppose, that an alternative and better name for collection might be BLINDNESS. Or is that taken?

Of the three stories, my favorite is "Jealous." In this, Ford does a wonderful job capturing a sly and charming interaction between small-town adults, which becomes edgy after a few drinks. The story also contains lots of faux-folksy wisdom--"There's more order in life than seems to be"--funny bar-stool philosophical debate, and a great scene where Larry sees the police in action.

In contrast, the Paris-based stories seem less successful. In "The Womanizer", Ford shows a highly articulate and discerning Martin Austin completely blind to the true dynamic of the Paris he visits. Meanwhile, "Occidentals" seems to chase after its ending, with Ford adding developments (the changing status of Helen) and characters (a former lover) as Charley Matthews tries to make sense of his experiences. While "Occidentals" has a great coda, the story doesn't develop from within.

In an unprecedented action, I also deduct one star for the pompous dedication, where Ford thanks Bill Buford, Charles McGrath, and Gary Fisketjon for their "indispensable editorial advice." Here, I speak for the world's nobodies, who would rather just read the book, thanks, without implicitly learning that the author is a big shot.

This collection of stories extends a major theme in Ford's work: women sans men do just fine. Drop a male or two into the picture, and the problems start to pile up. This collection throws this thematic cream pie in your face. It's not a subtle message; the title's obvious poke at Hemingway gives it away before Page One. Fortunately, its thematic constructs do not overshadow the absolute quality of the work. Ford is a premier American writer, and this volume upholds his lofty standing, although it may not raise it to the next level (whatever that may be). Still, there are nits to pick. To the well initiated, these stories may well read like highly developed drafts of finer works to come. While the characters are true and well-developed, they lack a certain depth of those in other Ford works. And the internal dialogs, for which Ford is famous, sometimes border on whining, particularly in the third story, Occidentals. If you're not a Ford fan, these shortcomings may leave you searching for a more engaging read. Still, anyone interested in serious American literature, should check out Women with Men.

It is perhaps odd that two stories set in Paris involving middle-aged American men with marital woes bookend a story set in Montana that follows a journey by seventeen-year-old Larry and his aunt Doris in a winter storm. But there actually is a great deal of commonality in these three stories.

In much of Ford's work men struggle to understand life, especially the subtleties of relating to women. The author really does not question that men need and like women; however, things often get complicated when more than one woman is included in a man's life. Ford invariably lets the reader in on the thinking of the male perspective, yet forces such thought to be adjusted when countered by sharp dialog. Even with all of the thinking and talking, full appreciation of situations is not necessarily achieved and disconnects and misunderstandings remain.

Also in Ford's world, things go wrong or situations are messy: transportation connections go awry; people get lost and are late; it rains or snows and someone gets sick; something is spilled or someone gets dirty; or even unexpected deaths occur.

All of the stories contain aspects of the aforementioned characteristics. The pace of the stories is good, not due to any great amount of action, but more because the introspection, dialog, and insights are well-crafted and entirely relevant to life's predicaments. Ford is sympathetic towards the characters in these stories, but they are sufficiently flawed as to bring into doubt their ability to overcome their delusions, obsessions, miscalculations, and despair. Also, Ford's Paris is not the idyllic spot some would suggest. A visit to the glorious Eiffel Tower results in nausea due to the effects of wind. The streets are confusing; tourists overrun facilities; and there is a great deal of indifference exhibited. Overall, these are three brief, though insightful, looks at the human condition.

Way before the Pulitzer, back in the work shirt and jeans days before Sportswriter, I developed a real hunger for every word being published by Richard Ford. It was a great satisfaction for me when significant recognition arrived for him. As a deep fan I seized Women With Men as soon as it came out. But I'm sad to say the book disappointed me.

In the Paris stories, gloomy and forlorn are perfectly acceptable, but insufficient. A good dose of Paris would help, but Paris just isn't there the way Oaxaca was there in The Ultimate Good Luck, or the way New Jersey and New York State were there in Sportswriter and Independence Day. Except for some cliched Left Bank geographical references, Womanizer and Occidentals could both be set in Binghamton, and would be better stories as real Binghamton than fake Paris.

The Paris stories seem like a couple of false-start fragments of a novel which never got off the ground. Kind of strange that in each of them the narrator is surprised to note that Paris is in the North, and not the middle.

Jealous is an old-fashioned Ford story which feels like a remnant of the material from which Wildlife was sculpted. Perhaps I'm blind or dense, but I can't figure out why Jealous is stuck in there between Womanizer and Occidentals. Of course if this were an absolutely random selection of three prime quality Ford stories, I probably wouldn't even wonder or care if they hung together as a collection.

Is it too cynical to imagine that Knopf wanted a quick package to ride the Pulitzer tide, and scooped together Women With Men out of old stuff Ford had lying around?

All of the above notwithstanding, I have no doubt that Richard Ford's very best writing is in the future, not the past.

I very much enjoyed the author's writing style. It was very expressive and involving. The characters were well-developed and very interesting. The stories within this book are not quick reads, but if you have the time, you should enjoy them.

It was an incredible experience to read this book. Even if you're not interested in shoot out in depot bar in Wyoming or the toy sailboats in the Jardins of Paris you'll be awed by the force and elegance of Ford's style.