Short Story Month - Mr. Rat by Jean Thompson

Jean Thompson has long been a favorite author of mine.  Well, that sounds silly when I think of the history of my reading her work - I loved her first collection, Gasoline Wars, which I found used in paperback, probably around 1990 or so.  It was one of a series from the University of Illinois Press - they'd publish four story collections each year.  It was similar to the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction award winners I mentioned in an earlier post - I scoured used stores, especially in the Chicago area, to find these collections.  While I loved this book, I only continued looking for new Thompson work in new bookstores, not in used stores, and completely missed a trio of titles, not becoming aware of more Thompson work until Who Do You Love? came out.  At that time I was blogging and reviewing and so, much more in tune with new titles.

Which gets us up to date and I've recently received an Advanced Reading Copy of Thompson's forthcoming collection, Do Not Deny Me, to be published by Simon and Schuster in June.  "Mr. Rat" comes from this collection and it represents, to me, what Thompson does at her finest - it captures the day to day life of her characters.  Nothing post-modern going on, no trying to be hip, or write in any way that isn't simply straightforward.  Thompson gives her readers characters, characters going through something - in this case, Matt (or Mr. Rat to his ex-girlfriend) has the combination of possibly seeing somebody having died (a construction worker on a new building across from where he works was knocked from a ladder from 4 or 5 stories off the ground, but Matt could not see the assumed landing area) along with the fact that he's an underskilled employee working for a company looking to tighten its proverbial belt.

Thompson perfectly captures his early casual attitude towards work, before the superiors begin to use the buzzwords of a company lookng to downsize, versus the ramping up of his determination to maintain his job once he's caught on to their intentions.  She also moves nicely within the male mindset when it comes to possibly hooking up, and it being with a co-worker that the male is not really all that interested in.  Add in some interesting plot points and biting wit and Thompson has given her readers an excellent story to enjoy.