My Life in Heavy Metal

If anyone’s looking for a good short story collection, I can wholeheartedly endorse Steve Almond’s My Life in Heavy Metal. Most often, short story collections are like records: there’s one or two hit singles and lots of snoozers. But hardly a story falls short of fantastic in Almond’s first book. His taut prose crackles with energy, tremendous heart, and lots and lots of sex. But what saves it from bawdiness or gratuitousness is the exploration of what lies beyond the physical, the uncomfortable interior of emotion. In this interior, Almond deals heavily in human error and takes an interesting look at his characters’ flawed, humanistic propensities.

Most notable in the collection is the trifecta of David stories: the titular “My Life in Heavy Metal,” “Run Away, My Pale Love,” and “The Body in Extremis.” In each, David, a retrospective first-person narrator, recalls how his physical desires caused him to stumble into “tender ruin.” But rather than being a man who is ruled by carnality, he’s ruled by desperation for energy and reverberating contact. And the endings, for which sex is the means, come with both sad and hopeful force. He doesn’t attempt atonement for his often very dangerous actions, yet he doesn’t let himself believe he’s emerged unscathed, either. Add to this winning formula some very well-placed details that cast a large net over a host of wrenching emotions and a good dose of humor, and you may find yourself, as I did, wishing the stories didn’t have to end as I whittled down to the last page.

Speaking of David, accolades must go to our very own for the forthcoming reading of his poem “Life On Earth” by Garrison Keillor as part of "The Writer’s Almanac" from American Public Media. Tune in to your local station on Friday, November 30^th or listen to the RealAudio on the webpage. You’ll notice that David shares airtime with such names as Mamet, Swift, and Twain. Not bad company at all.

And if you need any help imagining the conceit...