‘Stopping for Strangers’ by Daniel Griffin

Reviewed by Keith Cadieux

Really good short stories seem to be on their way to becoming the vinyl album of the literary world. They are no longer, but once were the dominantly popular form and still have followers who vehemently champion their strengths. They are hard-to-find boutique items now, sought out and appreciated by connoisseurs. And yet most audiences simply don’t see the appeal.

The short story is, in essence, very different from the novel or novella. There are more limitations and restrictions but also entirely different possibilities. The emotional resonance is usually elevated due to the extra work both the author and the reader have had to exert to get to it. Short stories, when they are done well, are among the most rewarding and illuminating forms of literature you can read.

Daniel Griffin’s first collection, Stopping for Strangers, is filled with this kind of short story. Ten of them, to be precise. There is no overarching theme or element that binds all the pieces together, each story having been published separately and most of them in more than one place. Some have already garnered considerable attention on their own, like “The Last Great Works of Alvin Cale,” which was a finalist for the Journey Prize in 2009. The collection is the end result of a decade’s worth of writing and careful revisions.

Griffin’s attention to detail and restraint are great strengths and all of the stories are precise, the language sparse and exact and made all the richer for it. The brevity and minimalist flavor of these stories is sure to remind many readers of Raymond Carver’s early stories and this isn’t the first review to draw such a comparison. Griffin is no copycat but he has certainly learned a lot from one of the masters of the form.

The opening story “Promise” is a confrontation between two brothers, Marshall who is hurt and stand-offish after a bad break up, and Doug, who is uncomfortable and wants to avoid the confrontation. When Doug discovers that Marshall has actually abused his ex, Doug steps in but only just enough to satisfy his conscience without actually having to confront what Marshall has done and who he is becoming. The end of the story is ambiguous, but certainly not happy.

“The Last Great Works of Alvin Cale” tells of a father and son, both artists who many years before were sexual rivals (not over the son’s mother, so no need to worry about any Oedipal messiness). Griffin mentions that “Pablo Picasso’s father, Jose Ruiz, was also an artist. He taught the young Picasso for years, but they had a falling out.” The story is seemingly modeled on the relationship between Picasso and his father but Skylar’s reaction to Alvin’s art is far more selfish. Yet the point is not to show us that Skylar is bad and though his actions are easily condemnable, there is just as much compassion for his struggle to deal with what’s happening to his son.

In “Cabbage Leaves,” Sam is a young man with a young wife and a very young daughter. Just when it seems that he is too immature to forge a family relationship out of this situation, Griffin instills the story with a quiet warmth. Sam returns home, “eventually he raised a hand, but instead of knocking, he just lay it softly on the door, rested it there, fingertips on the smooth paint. Inside it would be warm, his daughter asleep, Liz waiting.”

Griffin’s characters are not mean or vicious but people with their own motivations, flaws, and desires and who sometimes behave selfishly at just the wrong the moment, just as real human beings do. The stories focus on relationships, tending towards male/female couples but also brother/sister relationships. “X” (one of the strongest entries, along with “The Last Great Works of Alvin Cale”), “Cabbage Leaves,” and “Lucky Streak” focus on the strained relationships between couples who have been made parents too soon, or at least not when they’ve expected. There are brothers and sisters on unequal footing in terms of their dependence on each other in “Florida” and “The Leap.” The situations are not everyday, but they are relatable and resonate with personal experience.

These stories are not plot-driven vehicles. There are clues and mentions of the lives that exist outside of the brief moments we get but no happy endings or clear indications of where characters will eventually end up. Readers who keep turning the pages to find out what happens next will be frustrated. The stories need to be read one at a time. They need time to sink in and to be pondered over. But those who do read Stopping for Strangers and give the stories the time and attention they deserve will be handsomely rewarded. It’s like putting the needle to an exquisitely rare vintage LP.

Véhicule | 172 pages |  $18.95 | paper | ISBN #978-1550653205