Chabon edits “˜McSweeney’s’ with mixed results

Michael Chabon, serving as the guest editor of Dave
Eggers’ literary journal “McSweeney’s,”
transformed the journal throughout.

Abandoning the familiar shape, font and overall style of
previous issues, the 10th installment of the journal is
Chabon’s personal brainchild. Released as both a
McSweeney’s publication and a Vintage paperback, the
journal’s character successfully recalls the once ubiquitous
pulp publications.

Illustrator Howard Chaykin provides entertaining and
realistically dated drawings to accompany each story. The effect
draws the reader back in time, which satisfies Chabon’s aim
to “revive the lost genres of short fiction,” which he
asserts disappeared sometime around 1950.

In rescuing the art of genre fiction, Chabon has selected
writers from both sides of the literary debate, including Stephen
King, Nick Hornby, Harlan Ellison and Rick Moody. In mixing the
“literary” and the “genre-driven,” Chabon
hopes to illustrate his belief that there is no real division in
genuinely good writing between well-made plots and well-crafted
prose. This is an ambitious quest, and his writers sometimes fail
him.

Unfortunately, the contributions from bestselling giants Stephen
King and Michael Crichton stand out because of their overall poor
storytelling. King offers a new addition to his ever expanding
(four volumes and running) epic, “The Dark Tower.” Even
for readers already familiar with the mythology of that world,
however, the story falls flat. Too interested in its own obvious
and uninspired allusions (an incidental maid named Marian appears),
its plot is lost, like an abandoned fossil bone dependent on the
whole skeleton to make sense of its place.

That said, there is plenty of inspired work that takes advantage
of the forum. Elmore Leonard, for instance, shows in his story,
“How Carlos Webster Changed His Name To Carl And Became A
Famous Oklahoma Lawman” why he is considered a true master of
dialogue and plot. Woven within this slyly tweaked version of the
Western tale is Leonard’s own subtle look at race, identity
and celebrity. The story is smooth and unpretentious, while
examining issues beyond the shallow sex and violence of
Crichton’s sleazy investigator.

Not surprisingly, Chabon himself offers the most complete
fusion, and actually succeeds in providing a work of genre fiction,
reminiscent of King’s “gunslinger,” but much more
skillfully crafted. Openly playing with the genres of
science-fiction and the Western without drifting into parody,
Chabon shows the reader that stories can join plot and style in a
happy unity. Editing this collection, Chabon has shown that there
is potential for literary genre fiction, but he is one of the few
who seems comfortable composing it.

– Tom McEnaney