Inventing the Abbotts

Indigo (1997)

Harper Perennial (1999)

I first became aware of this collection because of the film with the same name. Completely enamored by Liv Tyler at the time (I think this was her second role), I wanted to read where the movie came from....it was 1997.

I saw the book somewhere and picked it up--it had the movie poster tie-in cover even. I began reading the story and stopped. Then I lost the book. I found a copy of it the other day for $1.

There are eleven stories, I've managed to finish five.

"Inventing the Abbotts"
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The longest story in the collection (30+ pages) and the one that could've been expanded into a novella and or novel. But I'm not making any judgements here, I don't like to hear "this could be a novel" at the end of my own short stories.

It remains true to itself--keeping the same narrator throughout--Doug, the younger of the two Holt brothers. They grow up as outsiders in a small Midwestern town, poorer than the Abbott family. Of course the richest part of the Abbotts lies within the three daughters. They are enough to fill the two brothers lives for a very long time.

The story reminded me a bit of The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides--if only for the fascination of the sisters and the elm disease requiring most of the trees to be cut down.

"Slides"
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We get to read the intimate details of Georgia and David's former married life through the seven "dirty" pictures taken early in their life together. They fight for ownership of the slides after they divorce.

"While she made her argument, her hands were in constant motion; and David, lying on their expensive tweed sofa with a coffee mug resting on his chest, watched the sequence of familiar configurations, gestures she had made thousands of times before..."

Herein lies my favorite part of all of these stories. The little snapshots of relationships she seems to capture so well. Everyone knows the sequence of gestures made by someone they love. But I never really realized this until I read that passage.

"Calling"
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Before the advent of cell phones or Caller ID, there was a "secret" little way to check up on someone. The hangup. I mean, or so I've heard (have you read my *69 poem?)...

Two unnamed characters are in that stage of a relationship with "what happens now?" seems to be a looming question. An unanswered question. At first he calls just to hear her voice. Then he becomes a bit possessive and jealous and the calls become more frequent:

"He called her again and let it ring on and on. He lost track of how many times he called her, but them, finally he got a busy signal. The sharp sound startled him, made his heart beat strangely. He dialed again, and got the busy signal again."

Does anyone see the end of this one coming? Keep reading, because you know you want to. Honest, true, and embarrassing moments trump predictability almost every time.

"Expensive Gifts"
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This is hands down my favorite story (read) in the collection, but I can't really tell you why. There are so many details, both visual and auditory that it all jumps off the page and becomes a living, breathing thing.

The current man: "He was standing naked in silhouette, as slim as a stiletto in the light from the hall...the sight of him gave Kate no pleasure."

The ex-husband: "...with curly brown hair and thick, wire-rimmed glasses which he removed carefully before starting to make love. They left two purplish dents like bruises on the sides of his nose."

Her sleeping son: "His hands were curled into fists, and one thumb rested near his open mouth, connected to it by a slender, almost invisible cord of saliva."

The weather: "It had been a luminous soft gray earlier, and now thick flakes, a darker gray against its gentle glow, brushed silently against the panes."

Kate: "...was, in fact, a reflexive liar. She hated to be unpleasant or contradictory, but when she felt that way, a lie, fully formed almost before she began to think about it, fell from her lips."

The details are all too rich. Too expensive. And even though it's not the "gift" the title is referencing, it is one the author has absolutely given. A bonus.

~~J