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3.0 out of 5 stars
Undisciplined Talent, Oct 7 2003
These are ambitious stories because they try and have a lot to say, and they say it in a way that is idiosyncratic. These two aspects are both the reason the collection has been well received by critics, and also the reason that they don't always succeed. The first story (Railroad Incident) serves to illustrate both the strengths and the shortcomings of the rest. A bereft husband (not only has his wife been killed in an auto accident, she'd also left him for his friend) who has also suffered a possible bankruptcy is walking the railroad tracks looking for solace. However, Mr. Means muddies the waters by telling us that her clothes are still in her wardrobe, her washing still in the hamper. In due course he is beaten up by a gang of youths who frequent the tracks. The point of view bobs and weaves from that of the man, those of the youths, an omniscient narrator who intrudes with reflections on, for example, the uprooted shuffling up dust that can be seen from passing jets. The overall effect, for this reader at least, is that these stories, in trying too hard to cram in all the observations and viewpoints, end up being nobody's stories. Furthermore, the sentences are often so convoluted (I suspect Mr. Means has been influenced here by Richard Ford, but without the latter's skill to make them work) that sense is frequently lost.
These stories have the potential for greatness, but they require a firm editor before they can achieve it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Violence...Conflagration...Death!, July 23 2003
"Assorted Fire Events" is an excellent debut collection of short stories. Means is at his best in powerful stories looking into the gritty, seamy world of the dispossessed, the destitute, the misfits, the disaffected, outsiders without a foothold in society - a world where violence and death are commonplace: outstanding are the extremely violent "Railroad Incident, August 1995", "Sleeping Bear Lament", "The Grip", "The Interruption" and the harrowing title story "Assorted Fire Events". Two full-blooded stories in particular, the first and last mentioned, deliver uncompromising, graphic descriptions of violence and death that some may find hard to stomach."Railroad Incident, August 1995" graphically describes the mindless violence inflicted on an injured man limping along railroad tracks - and left for dead across the rails - when he stumbles on "a bunch of rubbish", four beer swilling, dope smoking, wasted youths... In "Sleeping Bear Lament", the disappearance of a friend Rondo from their campsite, triggers the narrator's guilty conscience as his thoughts flash back to another time and the disappearance of Sam, a misfit in the eyes of others, who as a kid he had remorselessly mocked in public because he was "dirt poor", lived in a grotty house and only got one outdated Christmas present. During the depression years, hoboes travelled across the U.S.A. in, on top of, under or between the boxcars of freight trains in futile search of work and an unlikely offer of food, often slipping or falling to their death under the wheels from numbing cold, wind, weariness or drifting into sleep. Such is the predicament of the hobo in "The Grip", clinging precariously to a single handhold on the end of a boxcar as the train traverses the night desert... The dynamic for "The Interruption" derives from the pivotal moment in the story where two opposing worlds collide, the world of the destitute and the world of the affluent, when a hungry hobo intrudes into a flash wedding reception. "Assorted Fire Events", the title story, illustrates in blazing, graphic prose, the destructive power of fire in all its ferocity, in an assortment of conflagrations, some evil in intent, including an arsonist torching houses, a sadist setting fire to a dog, a suicidal woman incinerating herself in her car with a can of gasoline and a boy who liked "to touch a flame to things". Readers repulsed by this kind of gut wrenching experience may prefer less stringent stories such as "The Reaction"- as a neighbour's house is moved to a new lot, a doctor feels regret for the loss of his daughter... or "The Widow Predicament", where a widow involved in a new relationship, ponders what to do with the sexually explicit video tape she and her deceased husband made of themselves on honeymoon.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
New York Literary Stories, Dec 11 2002
David Means is a sharp writer, and "Assorted Fire Events" is nicely written. The stories have an educated feel, flowing with colorful description and philosophical tone. They focus on modern life, and the various tensions of our world. They depict clearly the differences between the sanctuary of life and horror of death, the conflict between the comfort of wealth and the unseemliness of poverty, or the players' ruminations over meaninglessness and spirituality, life and death.A critic could point to descriptive overemphasis (he uses the word "cool" too often, once being too often for this reviewer, and name-drops commercial brands and specific place names frequently), dwells on extraneous details in an attempt to impress the reader superficially with an air of distinction (he explains esoteric but irrelevent facts of a Brahms symphony, or describes the softness of the leather in the Italian shoes a character is wearing, apropos of nothing), and leaves philosophical themes underdeveloped, dwelling on home, family, love, life, and death like they were the themes for tableaux for commercial photographs in trendy magazines. An advocate of the work would say Means's style is sharp and witty, his decriptions true to life today, and his insights applicable to our modern existence. He is well educated, a teacher at Vassar, so these stories will probably find their best audience among educated arts professionals who think often of big-city living in or near Manhattan, or think often of smaller-town living in the snowy northern USA. He has written for "Harper's" and "Esquire", so regular readers of those publications will most probably enjoy these works as well.
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