“Ross Perot and China”
by Ben Lerner
from the May 27, 2019 issue of The New Yorker
It’s not that a title has to pull me in . . . I thought before seeing “Ross Perot and China” and thinking then and there that I’d never read this story. That was even before I saw that this was an excerpt of his forthcoming novel, The Topeka School. Does anyone else want to read a short story (that’s not a short story) called “Ross Perot and China”?
But it does have a catchy beginning:
They were drifting on her stepfather’s boat in the middle of an otherwise empty man-made lake encircled by large tract houses. It was early autumn and they were drinking Southern Comfort from the bottle. Adam was in the front of the boat watching a changeable blue light across the water that was probably a television seen through a window or a glass door. He heard the scrape of her lighter, then saw smoke float over him, unravel. For a long time he had been speaking.
When he turned to see what effect his speech had had, she was gone, jeans and sweater in a little pile with the pipe and lighter.
Still, I haven’t read the story yet, and I’m not sure I will. Perhaps some of you can help me see if I’m missing out.
On that note, I’ve read only a few short stories by Lerner. I’ve never read his two novels, Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04, which I know have been received positively. I’m also curious how those of you who have read them feel about the novels and this excerpt from The Topeka School.
When I saw it was an excerpt, I decided to skip it as well. I read the author interview to see if that might change my mind and while nothing there put me off it, there was nothing there to make me think I was missing much by skipping it. I decided to use the time to read the story in the June issue of Harper’s, one I had been meaning to get to for a while. It was only after I got to the end that I found out it is also a novel excerpt! It looks like I can’t avoid them today.
Maybe one short story by itself does not reward all the effort expended. The reader would be happy with a single Blue Moon while the writer has to sell a 24 count case. So many of these her(s) with nothing, no details, no quirks, no dialog, no interest. Dry washed out thin description that gets most of this kind of writing (unless the author’s agent is Svengali or well connected) thrown in the circular file. Or just not read. Interesting how many passes on this.
I haven’t read this story yet but I have read the Harpers one. It’s a real gem (the Harpers one I mean), and doesn’t read like an excerpt at all. I was quite surprised to learn that it’s an excerpt. The only slight giveaway in the writing of the Harpers story, to suggest its excerptness, is that the bizarre name of the hotel, “Hotel Neversink” is introduced abruptly, with no comment. I’d bet that the novel plays on that name in a way that the story doesn’t. In fact, I first thought that Hotel Neversink was a jokey reference to a home, and meant that the family never used the sink because the maid did all the housework. Anyway, please don’t be deterred from reading the Harpers one. And no, I’m not the author in disguise. And no, I don’t know the author, or work for Harpers etc.
Here is my opinion on this novel after reading. I’ve also posted it on my blog: https://www.wuxiangyue.com/new-yorker-fiction-review/ross-perot-and-china
The writer created a very meditative, pure fictional world for us in this short story. Everything went so smoothly and vividly that you may feel as being in a deep blue dream. It was a grown-up telling about his juvenile years back in the nineties, a fanciful period in history, as described by the writer in the interview.
In the earliest stage of reading, I felt confused at the suddenness of Amber’s disppearance. It is a radical rise action as the beginning of a short novel. It was not until the second reading did I found out why she did that. She deliberately slipped out of the boat because of her memory with her step-father, when he talked to her but not realizing she had already gone. That was a sign of his mental illness which shocked both her and her mother, from my perspective. And it also took our protagonist twenty years to figure out the analogy in the two events.
Later on the author described a feeling of being everywhere, when Adam found out that he was in the wrong house other than Amber’s. It is such a transcentental feeling that I thought it was fairly hard to develop this part without careful planning. I particularly sympathize with this excerpt.
Now let’s have a look at the interview on the New Yorker website of the author on this novel. First, he said that the setting went before the scenario in his mind. He wanted to depict the samenss of the tract houses, an alien atmosphere. Second, the collage of perspective which occurred when Adam found himself in the wrong house coincided with the characteristics of the narration, where there was a grown-up Adam looking through the eyes of a teenage one, while the latter, actually imagined being seen by the former. Third, the writer wrote Amber’s words without giving her a quotation mark because he didn’t want unmediated exposure of her conversation with Adam. The scene was in Adam’s memory and it had to be edited by his mind. Fourth, this story depicts the nineties in the memory of the writer, and he said that, “it’s definitely about a violent identity crisis among white men that was taking place at the same time as American Empire had supposedly brought history to a benevolent end.”
BTW, I love the title picture. It captured the image of the content perfectly.
Some good writing here. Doesn’t really work as a short story, though because the unnoticed disappearance and the entering-the-wrong-house are both too implausible. The events need more contextualising and was probably done in the novel. Wu Xiangyue’s thoughtful appreciation of the story is great to see. Out of all four commenters (including myself), I think Wu provides by far the best insights. I think Larry shortchanges it a bit. It’s a stronger-than-usual story for the New Yorker. BTW, the Harpers stories are far better (though perhaps it’s not fair to compare a weekly to a monthly).
Paul very clearly explains why the opening of “Ross Peirot and China,” being an excerpt and not part of a stand alone short story, maybe doesn’t invite a reader’s attention as much as it might have otherwise. I probably should have waited for his post to appear rather than comment at all, as his reservations about the story are similar to what I wanted to write but didn’t. Also, Paul mentioned a second novel excerpt in the monthly Harper’s that had a great example of an attention getter name for a hotel that grabbed reader attention by focussing on why that name and what it was doing in the narrative. The name has a range of possibilities which reach out to a reader. Wu Xiangyue’s excellent comment explained much of what may not have been initially apparent in the Ross Peirot story. It may be good writing of a particular type even if the story may or may not seem very compelling depending on what most interests a reader in this or any story. Flat or washed out description can communicate a protagonist’s point of view which can be a favorable indicator for some readers. The author seems to refer to it as his attempt to create or recreate an alien atmosphere, the sameness of tract homes and the nineties. I react quite negatively to flatliner description and perceive the 90’s very differently which caused me to maybe harshly overreact to what I was reading. To me an alien atmosphere is an indication of withdrawal or disconnection by a protagonist that can be communicated through flat description. To some readers, that is a reality they can either identify or sympathize with more readily maybe especially because it mirrors present time and demonstates an insidious devolution. It seems to me there are a lot of depressing stories that begin this way hence my harsh overreaction or shortchangedness. The best part of the weekly New Yorker short stories is that there is room for different kinds or different short story forms or structures so maybe it is best to let other readers enjoy a form they might relish and for me to let it be and look towards next week. Or maybe take a look at the Harper’s story Paul mentioned.
Enjoy the comments and explication from various viewpoints as usual. That I found the story quite mystifying and apparently an excerpt from a novel was no deterrent in my experience of it. I especially like Wu’s description above: “a feeling like a deep blue dream”. Nice!
Ordinarily I agree that a book excerpt is a cheat. However, this one was by Ben Lerner, so I read it. I’ve read two of his novels and I like his writing and his off-kilter voice. I was glad that I did.
David, you may want to read this excerpt despite your principles. Don’t let dogmatism deprive you of an enjoyable reading experience. I think this is better than many of the stories that we’ve gotten over the last few months.
Lerner’s narrative voice is firm and smooth, as well as ironic and slightly snarky. His descriptions are engaging. And he has a grasp of salient details. The scene in which Adam realizes he is in the wrong house is filled with small facts that tip him off.
Lerner’s scenes are creative: Amber disappearing out of the boat while Adam is professing his devotion; Adam going into the wrong house; Adam suddenly seeing Amber in his car headlights where she has been sitting on the porch; the scene Amber describes of her stepfather carrying on about Ross Perot and China (wonderful juxtaposition!); Amber oozing under the table like a snake as her stepdad talks.
I like the phrase “large tract houses”. He doesn’t have to say “Even rich and educated people can live in ticky-tacky boxes.” He shows it by how Adam goes into the wrong house, sees the wrong older brother and wrong young woman sleeping, and then gets lost looking for Amber’s house.
Setting the story in Topeka, the home of the Menninger Foundation and Clinic, is also a nice move. (This story has some autobiographical content: Lerner was born and grew up in Topeka and he was 17 in 1996, the year Bob Dole ran for president). Not only can well-off people live in cookie cutter houses, mental health professionals can be maladjusted, like Amber’s parents.
Lerner points out for us the similarity between Amber sliding away from her stepfather’s rant and her sliding out of the boat while Adam is going on about how they will stay together. I got the sense that Amber is her own woman and will do what she wants. I hope there is much more of her in the book.
Adam is clearly immature and insecure – witness how he worries about being seen as being worried about where Amber went, and about how kids at school think of him. He is very smart, but not hardworking, as we see from his depending on native smarts to do well in debate, while his female partner does the grind work. Also, he is not as aware as Amber; I imagine he has an acceptance letter from Harvard in his back pocket.
Adam is also self-absorbed. He is fascinated about his perceptions and thinks they are special He reminded me of the girl, Luisa, in the Fantasticks, who says: “I close my eyes and cry and cry till the tears come down and I can taste them. I love to taste my tears. I am special.” I also believe there is an implication that Adam’s self-absorption mirrors the techniques of psychoanalysis practiced in the Clinic.
All in all, a rich excerpt that I think qualifies as an actual story.
William,
Dogmatism: “The tendency to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true, without consideration of evidence or the opinions of others.”
Not even close to an accurate word to use.
I meant it in the colloquial or vernacular sense.
Years ago I remember some sort of urban legend about someone who came home drunk to their housing tract and ended up having sex with the neighbor’s wife before realizing what had happened. I thought this was quite good despite the excerpt-ish quality of it not really having much of a climax or even really an epiphany. It’s good because the writer not only writes flowingly and well but also is very interesting discussing how creative people often detach from situations and perhaps see things retrospectively or from another perspective which is exactly what is being done here as our older narrator looks back on younger days.
The novel is reviewed (extremely favourably) here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n23/joanna-biggs/cant-hear-speak-up