The Expendables: Stories

Having read Female Trouble, I looked forward to reading another short-story collection by Antonya Nelson. The Expendables is as memorable as Female Trouble in the way Nelson delves into human relationships. Most of the stories here deal with marriage and the various aspects of the same. Ms. Nelson's stories are dark and profound and almost as good as Joyce Carol Oates's work. My favorite stories are "Mud Season," "Dog Problems," "Affair Life," and "The Expendables." Each story is full of prose, insight and thought-provoking messages. Antonya Nelson is now on my list of favorite short-story writers. I shall read more of her stuff in the future.

Antonya Nelson's stories dwell on relationships, and particular the day to day failure of relationships. The collection largely avoids reaching for trite conclusions, and also avoids the forced ambiguity that sinks many a creative writing professor trying to write about "normal" people. Almost every story is involving, only one or two descend into situations which seem too contrived. This collection is a pleasure to read--engaging, and by design somewhat small in focus.

Antonya Nelson's short stories are provocative and entertaining because they tell us a great deal about ourselves, both in terms of the way that her characters' actions and reactions mirror our own, as well as in how we respond to the situations and characters we encounter in her work. Her stories are populated by characters who seem damaged yet strong, whose actions and dialogue convey more to us than we may consciously realize. Antonya Nelson's gift is her ability to create realistic and compelling stories without the use of gimmicky or contrived hooks, and to keep her stories moving forward on the strength of her vividly drawn characters and their unique and all-too-human motivations. My personal favorites in this collection are "Dog Problems," in which a husband deals with the possibility that his wife loves her dog more than him, and the title story, "The Expendables," which remains with me the way that Flannery O'Connor's and Joyce Carol Oates's best short stories stay with me: like a haunting but pleasant refrain that won't stop replaying itself in my head. In this story we visit the scene of a wedding, and follow one of the the bride's brothers as he encounters his relatives, his future brother-in-law, and a gypsy family down the street in the midst of a funeral service. It is absolutely one of the best short stories of the 20th century, and helps to justify Antonya Nelson's selection by The New Yorker as one of the most important young writers in America today. I'm tempted to say that this is contemporary short fiction at its best, except that these stories would stand out regardless of when they were published -- which makes them not so much contemporary as timeless.