In the middle of "The Pilot," Leonard, an aspiring television writer and recovering alcoholic, agonizes over whether he should attend a snazzy Hollywood party. He hates parties. He brain is busy mulling past blunders: "Should he have been more casual? Intense? Fawning? Detached? Happy? Was happy an option?" That last question plagues most Ferris protagonists, from the office workers of his astounding first novel, "Then We Came to the End," to the cranky dentist of "To Rise Again at a Decent Hour."
For those versed in Ferris' work, the themes and characters of "The Dinner Party and Other Stories" will seem familiar. Brooders, worriers, neurotics, depressives — the lonely and the detached — yearn to get out from under themselves.
In "A Fair Price," Jack hires Mike, an acquaintance of his "yard guy," to help move his stuff from a storage locker. Jack's bad mood escalates when Mike — "paint-splattered work boots and a puffed-up face" — ignores Jack's attempt at small talk. The story unfolds largely in Jack's head as he decides what kind of man Mike is. Jack's insatiable need for a response turns from twitchy-guy comedy to high-stakes psychological thriller when he admits he'd "certainly sooner watch him die than show him any kindness or respect."
In "Fragments," the nameless protagonist, much like Tim Farnsworth of Ferris' second novel, "The Unnamed," tries to walk off his unhappiness. He has just found out his wife is having an affair. He walks all over New York City eavesdropping on people's mostly funny and absurd conversations. "For long passages, nothing penetrated the roar in his head." Eventually, he's pushed to the breaking point, and he starts yelling out the window of his apartment, inviting strangers up to take his wife's stuff.
A handful of marriages teeter on divorce. The title story, a remarkable, John Cheever-esque tale, shows a couple preparing dinner for their friends, who are expecting their first child. The husband gripes about how he can predict the evening's events; the wife dishes back the sarcasm. "She spoke to him in bad taste freely, and he considered it one of her best qualities." Their witty banter swerves dark when she says, " 'Why don't you suggest they have an abortion?' "
Some stories feel underdeveloped. A few of the marriages gone awry blur together.
Others, however, widen Ferris' range and prove stunning feats of compassion, such as "The Valetudinarian," which follows an early retiree and widower as he blunders with a prostitute. He collapses, and when his neighbor steps in to help, she is "struck dumb by his perfect helplessness."
It's Ferris' great gift, and, indeed, readers will surely be struck dumb with empathy for these memorable cranks and depressives.
Josh Cook's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Washington Post and the Iowa Review, among others.
The Dinner Party and Other Stories
By: Joshua Ferris.
Publisher: Little, Brown, 256 pages, $26.
