Monkeybicycle Front to Back* - Part 1: Gum Gutter by Martha Clarkson

This is the first in a series of posts about Monkeybicycle 6, the most recent issue of the journal chosen by "My Dinner with Lydia Davis" contest winner Meg Pokrass as her prize.

++this post contains mild spoilers++

Martha Clarkson's "Gum Gutter" is an ingratiating story delivered in a relaxed, conversational voice. This story about a woman's Thanksgiving day encounter with a police officer who claims to be ticketing her for littering (but is in fact slipping her his phone number) at first appears to be as casual as an anecdote delivered over brunch. What makes it more than just an anecdote is the angst Clarkson layers beneath the surface -- alienation from family, romantic dissatisfaction and job loss. Almost as an afterthought, the narrator mentions she was canned from her post as a psychology prof after bedding a student, which contributes a nice bit of unreliability. But my favorite thing about this story is the subtle humour in the narrator's interaction with the police officer. Clarkson writes great dialogue filled with tiny absurdities, like when the narrator somewhat desperately accuses the trees of littering by dropping their leaves into the gutter, and the police officer responds to her completely earnestly. Or when the narrator, after having just moments before declared her dislike of the gum flavor she's being ticketed for spitting into the gutter, pops a new piece into her mouth and offers one to the officer, who accepts, then delivers my favorite line in the story - "that is not a flavor I would select." This is quality characterization, communicating a lot about both narrator and officer in a not a lot of words.


Buy Monkeybicycle 6 here.

*because "cover to cover" was already taken.