After finishing Ben Shattuck’s excellent collection of short stories, The History of Sound, I did something I hadn’t done in over 20 years: I started re-reading it from the beginning.
I read A History of Sound twice, because while each of the twelve stories is highly enjoyable on its own, the stories form a larger whole, with characters and events from one story reappearing in another in a completely different context, and then again in another. Structure-wise, you wouldn’t mistake A History of Sound for a novel, but taken as a whole, it’s a highly immersive world. Building on my first experience, I was eager to journey through it again and understand these connections more fully.
The collection begins with the title story, narrated by Lionel in the twilight of his life. During a break from his vocal studies at the Conservatory, Lionel recounts his adventures in the years immediately following World War I. He meets David in a bar near the Conservatory campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Lionel sings a folk song that his father used to sing in his native Kentucky. Lionel is intrigued by the young man’s knowledge of the music of his homeland.
Lionel sings for David, and an irresistible attraction develops between the two. David disappears after one night, but returns a few years later, inviting Lionel on a summer adventure: a trip through rural Maine to record regional folk songs onto a wax cylinder. The experience is strange and intense, and marks the defining weeks of Lionel’s life. The wax cylinder recently turned up unexpectedly on his doorstep. Now in his 80s, he wonders what it might have to say.
The final story in the collection, “Origin Stories,” brings further closure to Lionel’s life, and after experiencing numerous adventures along the way, we finally come to the conclusion of the story. The stories are all set along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Maine, and span the 1800s to present day. Each story tends to lead directly into the next, such as “August in the Woods,” set in the present day, where the characters visit the site of an old logging camp where a mysterious massacre occurred, and “The Diary of Thomas Thurber,” a tense horror piece where the story of the massacre is told from the perspective of one of the participants.
These connections are fun and thematically rich, but they’re really just add-ons to the individual stories themselves, each of which is perfectly executed. Shattuck manages to work in a variety of formats, including “Radiolab: Singularity,” a clever interstitial story told in the form of a script from a popular public radio show, expertly mimicking the show’s particular (and, for me, sometimes annoying) quirks.
This is one of those weeks where I’m frustrated by the limited space available in this column, because I could say hundreds more about how great this book is. Shattuck’s connection to the community he writes about comes through clearly on the pages. The emotions, primarily arising from the difficulty of finding meaningful connections with others, come through with a combination of great power and quiet tenderness.
Some readers may be hesitant to invest themselves in a short story because the relationships are so fleeting compared to a full-length novel, but “The History of Sound” is worth your time.
You might even read it twice.
John Warner is the author of Why They Can’t Write: The Abolition of the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Essentials.
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Book Recommendations from Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Prophet’s Song” by Paul Lynch
2. “Nobody’s Fool” by Richard Russo
3. “Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout
4. ‘Absolution’ by Alice McDermott
5. The Eyeless Man of Gaza by Aldous Huxley
— Sandra P., Lake Forest
I’m looking for a work that combines detailed character portrayal with an interesting atmosphere: Graham Greene’s “The Quiet American.”
1. “Trust” by Hernán Díaz
2. Wellness by Nathan Hill
3. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
4. “Lincoln in the Bird” by George Saunders
5. “If Cats Disappeared from the World” by Genki Kawamura
— Ann W., DeKalb
It’s been a while since I recommended this novel, but The Known World by Edward P. Jones is truly a timeless book that will last for many years.
1. “The North Woods” by Daniel Mason
2. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
3. The Star Giver by Jojo Moyes
4. ‘Erasure’ by Percival Everett
5. “Horses” by Geraldine Brooks
— Nancy A., Normal
“Want” by Lynn Steger Strong is one of the best novels I’ve read that explores the difficulties of modern life, and I think it’s perfect for Nancy.
Reading from the Bibliographical
Send us a list of the last five books you read and where you came from at biblioracle@gmail.com.
