Everything That Rises
Ann Packer's The Dive from Clausen's Pier was
one of last year's breakout novels. Making the cover
of The New York Times Book Review and enjoying
seemingly unanimous critical acclaim, the book sealed
its author's place in the industry as a vital addition
to contemporary fiction. Responding to the phenomenal
success of the book, Packer's publishers have reissued
her first, Mendocino and Other Stories, almost
10 years after its initial release. A collection of
tales of suburban life in and around the San
Francisco area, Mendocino features the same
astute refining of character and setting displayed in
The Dive from Clausen's Pier, not to mention a
keen sense of the modern woman.
Coupled with the elegance of her first novel,
Mendocino suggests Packer is a writer in it for
the words, for the back-breaking, up-all-night,
screaming-through-the-blocks love of storytelling
(hardly surprising that it took Packer 10 years to
write and rewrite Clausen's Pier, including, at
one point, a shift from third to first person). As a
short story writer, she easily steps into the shoes of
Flannery O'Connor, Alice Hoffman, Ann Beattie and
Joyce Carol Oates with this collection, telling
stories set at no particular time, reaffirming that
throughout generations, concepts of humanity and
demonstrations of emotion and conscience rarely
change. The same things affect us all in different
ways and with contrasting results, but ultimately each
of us desire compassion and understanding.
Exemplifying the author's own sentiment, that "there
is a story in every apparently mundane life," the
stories in Mendocino lack flash; they're
subtle exercises in personal growth and individual
perspective. Each of Packer's central characters
encounter moments in their lives which may seem
unimportant at first glance, but which slowly reveal
themselves as crucial. Telling stories from varying points of view,
Packer proves herself as able to comment on the
importance of white gloves to a teenager trying out
for the cheerleading squad, as she is on the effects a
mother's affairs have on her homosexual son.
Packer's importance couldn't be more evident as 2003
comes to a close with the ever-spreading Chick-Lit
Disease threatening women's literature. Packer
shatters the simplistic notion generated by authors
like Candace Bushnell and Laura Zigman that all a
woman needs is the love of a good, rich, hot bloke to make
her life complete. She repeatedly steers clear of
stereotypical depictions of women regardless of the
familiarity of their circumstances. Her story,
"Lightening," for example, is about a couple getting
to know the pregnant young woman whose child they will
adopt. There's nothing particularly new here, but it's
the treatment of the young woman who desperately wants
a baby and the images Packer conjures to express her
desperation that give the story its freshness.
Packer uses a few, sparse words to create characters who are
well-rounded and engrossing; they strive for
self-confidence and self-commitment, sometimes
succeeding,sometimes not, holding ideas and passions far beyond
what they see in the mirror. They may doubt themselves
and they may cry, but these are women shaped by
circumstance and by their own needs, not by what
society dictates.
— 19 November 2003
