Castaways, third story from Drift by Victoria Patterson

Check this out: http://www.hulu.com/watch/55345/movie-trailers-500-days-of-summer

It has nothing to do with this book.

There are great moments in a readers life, everyone has a story, for me; I was in the South of France, (living/teaching for a year, that’s another story) and my father sent me a copy of Where I’m Calling From, by Raymond Carver. I hadn’t done much reading up to that point, unless it was for school, but suddenly I’m flying through these stories one after the other, really getting my ass kicked. From then on I’ve always looked for a story that connects with me, really, right down to my toenails, and I think with ‘Castaways’, from Drift, by Victoria Patterson, I might have found it.

Of course I’m older now (France was a bad acid trip…it seems like donkey years since I was there), not much wiser, but still…older, than I was when I first read Carver, and now I’m really identifying with men in the stories I read, whether it be in the New Yorker, or what ever I can get my hands on when it comes to contemporary fiction. I had a really hard time holding my emotions in check when I read this story, ‘Castaways’. Being a dad might have something do with it, having my dreams sometimes squashed by life, and when the main character Michael has a late night run in with his father in law/employer, I really connected with what the father in law says, “Disappointments…shape us.” Michael, the just divorced father at the center of this story is battling with being a good dad, realizing that it’s not his fault that his wife left him, and struggling with his drinking problem. When Michael takes his son to the park you won’t be able to hold it together, worse yet, when Michael talks to his sister on the phone and they both talk about their own father, you will mostly likely set the book down and need to compose yourself. Michael is a good father trying to make the bitter pill of divorce go down a little smoother for his son. ‘Castaways’ is just too damn good to be described.

A lot of people from the book business read this blog, (I think they do) so you need to ask your HMH rep for a galley of this stunning collection.

-JR