Johnny Too Bad: Stories

Johnny Too Bad is a collection of several of the most interesting and darkest short stories I have read in a while. The characters are three-dimensional and have a great deal of humor, earnestness and an overall compelling voice that enthralled me from beginning to end. All of the eighteen stories in this collection were magnificent, but my favorites were, "Arlis and Ivy," "Congratulations, You May Already Be," "Based on a True Story," "Close By Me Forever," and "Who Are They Who Are Like Clouds?" The titles are definitely quirky, and they hook you in before you even begin to read the actual story. John Dufresne is a very interesting author and I look forward to reading more of his stuff in the future. In the meantime, I recommend this gem.

Dufresne is a master storyteller. It only takes a few pages to set the theme for this collection and to establish the author's credentials in "Lemonade and Paris Buns", as four memorable children disappear into a system that has no memory of them. This author has an extraordinary imagination, a whole world peopled by those who look like us, often verbalizing what we are unable to say, both the beauty and the dark heart of humanity: "Sometimes we`re better when we write." Generously scattered among his characters, a number of animals inhabit this landscape, especially the inimitable Spot, reminding those around them about unconditional love. Dufresne mines his fertile imagination for ordinary citizens, old friends, murdering sociopaths, general miscreants and the hind-hearted folks who care deeply for their animals. But even here, there are aberrations, the man who puts his cancer-riddled dog down himself, the man who shoots his dog for disobeying. This is the territory of ordinary lives, where every day is filled with personal intimacies and dealings with strangers, every conversation an opportunity for another story, extrapolating on a theme, adding the details that ring true. The quirky, the odd, the unusual all mix with the mundane elements of life, the small moments that are memorable for their honesty and compassion. From the wealth of their experiences, Dufresne's characters make unexpected observations, reacting to the changing conditions of their lives, ambiguous and boring for some, taken from others through random events, like Richard, "a person whose dreams are real but his hopes are not." Cancer is real and so is death; but then there are poignant introspections, islands of clarity in an often confusing world. The title story of the collection, "Johnny Too Bad", is by far the longest and most thought-provoking, a confusion of wants, needs and possibilities, where the protagonist questions his own motives in playing "the game of undermining my own emotional prosperity". There is continuity to these stories, a thread of connectedness that makes them all of a whole, Johnny, Spot and Annick showing up periodically to struggle with their relationship and the direction of their lives. All of a piece, the disparate tales form whole cloth, an examination of the foibles and heartbreaks that define humanity and the quest for happiness, or at least contentment. Luan Gaines/2005.

John Dufresne's new book of stories is much like my box of Valentine's Godiva chocolates: I want it to last Forever. I try desperately to restrain my indulgence. But the complex textures, the bite of the bittersweet, the soothing of the lush soft centers, the discordant scrape of nut against tooth like an unwelcome truth, even the crinkle of the thin slips of foil that sounds like whispers of kisses; forgotten, remembered. I put the shiny red heart box on top of the refrigerator - I put Johnny Too Bad on my nightstand. From opposite ends of the hallway they tease me. I keep responding, and I'm not sorry in the least about giving in to either. I thank all that is holy for the tiny assaults of grief and the lingering embraces of grace that John Dufresne's characters and tales weave into my life (Lemonade and Paris Buns, Lefty). They fill me up, they change me, they make me better. My prayer is that John Dufresne will give birth to more and more stories; and Soon. I'll be waiting.