Book Review 2016-018
A Tree or a Person or a Wall by Matt Bell
2016 by Soho Press, 388 pages
(I received a galley from the publisher, as well as a final copy, and intend on buying about 5 copies between now and the holidays---I have to add a disclaimer. Matt and I have been friends for a few years (2/26/06 is the first time his email address appears in my inbox) and have worked together, had many meals together and spent many an hour together on the road over those years. Now that I'm done name-dropping, all that said, I liked Matt's work since before he emailed me to introduce himself.)
I'm going to start by saying that I'm a fan of Matt's two novels (In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, and Scrapper), as well as his non-fiction (Baldur's Gate) and the D&D novel he co-wrote under the name Matt Beard (The Last Garrison), but wholeheartedly believe that this is his best book to date. At the ripe old age of 36 years and 2 weeks old, Bell is basically publishing a New and Selected Stories without that subtitle on the cover. There are seventeen stories and novellas within this collection, with seven of them not having been published in book form prior to now (and this doesn't even include Bell's story that I believe has been published/anthologized most frequently, "Mario's Three Lives," nor his Million Writers Award winning story, "Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken"). As you might expect when a large portion of your book is being hand-picked from among your previously published story collections, there is nothing remotely close to filler within A Tree or a Person or a Wall.
The collection is broken into seven sections and if I had to try to determine why, I'd suggest that the four stories that are included in Section I deal more with the idea of storytelling, that Section II deals with loss, Section III with religion (though I'd probably make my sketchiest argument for this case), Section IV I think finds us dealing with loss again--I've yet to really determine the difference between the two, though the stories in this section are structured more experimentally, Section V has two longer stories that both feel like they are either from the past or the future, but not from the present, Section VI deals with parenthood, and Section VII deals with hope and coping and dealing.
Bell does something that I think could be considered putting a constraint upon himself with his writing--he rarely uses names for his characters, and even when he does, it's even more rare that these names are close to common. Only six of the seventeen works of fiction here have characters with names and when they do, the names are names like Punter, Speer, Cormack, Macrath, Gaab, and the like. I believe it's a lot easier for a reader to connect to a Steve, or Matt, or Julie, or Liz than it is to get caught up in "the boy," or "the mother," or "the man with rough hands." To me, Bell is starting off shorthanded when it comes to using all of his possible tools, but it's obviously intended based on the frequency. It's a tribute to his writing that we as readers still do get so caught up in the lives of his characters.
Matt Bell is also a thief--but only in the best ways. While I don't always think it's great to know much about the writer of work when I sit down to read, if you're reading this review than you've probably read hundreds of comments, posts, or reviews written by Matt and realize that he's as voracious a reader as there is, and one that studies what he's reading, unpacking what it is that makes those stories, and poems, and novels work for him. It appears that he's allowed himself to be affected by many writers, though doing so in wholly original ways. It's hard not to see some Brian Evenson in the names that Bell infrequently does give his characters, or some Peter Markus if you read any of Matt's sentences out loud, or Kate Bernheimer in his rewriting of fairy tales (and I think Robert Coover naturally jumps out for any that have read his "The Babysitter" and Matt Bell's "Wolf Parts," but while I know Matt's read a lot of Bernheimer, I'm not so sure how deeply his Coover reading has run). But again, NONE of Matt's stories read exactly like a story from any of these, or any other writers that I'm aware of, but instead have chiseled off small aspects of their writing and fused it with his own.
Bell's ideas seemingly come from everywhere, however, I don't think it's at all necessary that when a story might have some basis that the reader know of that basis. I remember reading the final story in the book, "A Long Walk with Only Chalk to Mark the Way," when it was originally published in the literary journal, Redivider and absolutely loving it. It wasn't until I saw an interview with Matt some time later that I found out there was basis for the story in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Not knowing this didn't harm my enjoyment of the story at all. I do think that those that are familiar though, in such cases, can find another level of enjoyment beyond that simple reading enjoyment. I think most are familiar with "Little Red Riding Hood," and so might find the work "Wolf Parts" to have another level or two upon reading it.
It's truly difficult to pick a favorite from this collection, but if I had to it would probably be "Cataclysm Baby." This novella was originally published in sections, one per letter of the alphabet (except for Z), in various literary journals, and then as a novella (including the final section) by Mud Luscious Press, and has been out of print for some time now. Each of the sections is a post-apocalyptic tale of parenthood, told from the father's point of view. Each has the juxtaposition of the parent(s) caring specifically about what they might be able to do to make things better for their offspring, or for themselves in defense from their offspring, while seemingly ignoring what is going on outside their doors and windows. It's not at all a crazy read, in my opinion, to see this as a worried look at our future. Knowing an aspect about Matt though, I can't help but read this section as a tribute to Ken Bell, Matt's father. I read each section seeing just how difficult being a father can be, let alone a great father, and from every story I've heard, or Facebook post I've read, Matt holds Ken up in as high regard as you can for his role as the Bell family father. It's one of those cases where again, I think maybe knowing an author fairly well isn't always the best thing when interpreting their work.
Much as I love "Cataclysm Baby," though, I honestly think you can randomly open this collection to any story within and sit down for a great read. If there's a negative, and it's a negative I think most story collection writers would like to have, it's that Matt Bell's stories are dense. There is always a lot going on within each tale and the writing itself, each sentence, and paragraph, are the type that you want to read a second or third time. It's a fantastic collection to read aloud to yourself--Bell writes with an eye toward the acoustics of the sentence, of the paragraph. In fact, reading the opening couple of paragraphs aloud for each story helped me find a rhythm that I was unaware of while reading silently--and it was a rhythm that stayed throughout the story each time. It's simply not a collection to just sit down and plow through five or six stories a few days in a row. It's going to take a good half month to a month to read. It had that effect on me and I'd read fifteen of the seventeen stories previously.
I have very little doubt that Matt Bell is going to write a novel or three that I find the equal of this collection--but for now, as much as I've enjoyed these stories over the years, and again the last month or two, I highly recommend the purchase and read of A Tree or a Person or a Wall.
5 stars
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