So, as instructed, my class had to pick a story that was not assigned to us in our collection of short stories and post an excerpt from the story. From there we're supposed to talk about the excerpt we posted in one of three ways. The three things we have to choose from are:
1) a great (or horrible) opening
2) good (or lame) dialogue
3) sharp (or weak) characterization.
The story I chose to talk about is Thom Jones's (I tried to find a good website to link to find more info about the writer, but Thom Jones isn't all over the internet. So, Wikipedia it is!) "The Pugilist At Rest." Here's the first paragraph from "The Pugilist At Rest":
Hey Baby got caught writing a letter to his girl when he was supposed to be taking notes on the specs of the M-14 rifle. We were sitting in a stifling hot Quonset hut during the first weeks of boot camp, August 1966, at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Sergeant Wright snatched the letter out of Hey Baby's hand, and later that night in the squad bay he read the letter to the Marine recruits of Platoon 263, his voice laden with sarcasm. "Hey, Baby!" he began, and then as he went into the body of the letter he worked himself into a state of outrage and disgust. It was a letter to Rosie Rottencrotch, he said at the end, and what really mattered, what was really at issue and what was of utter importance was not Rosie Rottencrotch and her steaming-hot panties but rather the muzzle velocity of the M-14 rifle.
I feel like this is a great story opening. From the opening paragraph I was hooked and wanted to know more about what was going on and who these people were. I don't really know what else to say about this. Post-Office by Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite books ever and this story kind of reminded me of it for whatever reason. I might have a new book to try to find next time I'm looking for a new book to read.
Poor Hey Baby. Good choice.
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