What He's Poised to Do, Stories by Ben Greenman

I don’t know why I did it, but I sent Ben Greenman a story recently, and in return, someone from Harper Collins sent me his collection ( I had no idea this collection even existed, and I’m supposed to know about this stuff…right?). Perhaps I’m being told something without actually seeing the person who is telling me? I’ve heard of Mr. Greenman, and he works at The New Yorker, which has been in the news lately, it’s 20 under 40 list rippling out through a ravaged industry, bringing hope to a legion of wanna be writers everywhere. So yes, I sent an unsolicited story to that ivory tower, I wasn’t the first wanna-be.

I love the package, What He’s Poised to Do, and I love the first story, I mean I want to climb inside of it and lay down there and sleep, I want to get away from everything and be in this story. But instead I’m with the narrator, a man, father, who leaves his wife and son to go on a business trip. This man sleeps with a woman who works at a hotel he’s staying at, and it’s like some sort of release, like playing a golf course you’ve never played before, and you don’t know the lay out all that well, but you know how to swing the club, so you play with blindness. There is a disconnection that Mr. Greenman captures, and it’s not easy to do, especiallly for men, married or not, and when it’s pulled off, like it is here, you want to hold the story even closer, as it becomes all too real. The narrator rolls in and out of bed, and the woman he sleeps with writes him postcards, and then she leaves while he is sleeping, once she returns to his bed after a shower, and it’s odd, these feelings, as it must be strange to sleep with a woman who is not your wife, while your still married, and not at that moment sleeping with your wife. The disconnection I speak of isn’t unique, Don Draper does it well, as does Paul Thomas Anderson. Are the emotions of being a father and husband too much to bear? Do we shut out the real world to protect ourselves? Does the narrator of this story try to run away from things, just because where he’s going to go is uncertain? And the unknown is better than the obvious? Mr. Greenman frees not only his narrator but everyone who reads this story, gives them an excuse to escape, I guess that’s what it’s all about. I’m just getting started with this gem, but for an affordable slice of realism, you need to buy this, hold it, and keep it with you.