Does one dare to explore mysterious/wondrous short stories? Dan Chaon has an approach to the craft of writing that is both unique and different. Among the missing is a collection of short stories about everyday people, most of whom are somehow broken on the inside. Whether it’s a woman finding comfort from a blowup doll, a family driving into the lake committing mass suicide or a boy who imagines he’s a detective who investigates a man he believes is his future self. His work is ambitious and weird yet it feels real. Chaon was born in 1964 in Sidney, Nebraska. He began writing in his early life around the time of junior high. Although he always got turned down from magazines, Chaon never stopped pursuing his dream. As he got older, he went
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In all of his stories, whether it’s a child or adult, someone is struggling with depression or hard situation caused by the loss of someone they love. In “I Demand to Know Where You’re Taking Me”, a woman has to care for her imprisoned brother-in-law’s bird whom she begins to hate. And from the beginning she has never felt like she belonged in her husband’s family: “She thought back because almost ten years had now passed, and she still felt like a stranger among them. When the children had been younger, it was easier to ignore, but now it seemed more and more obvious. She didn’t belong.” (24). She longs for the feeling of acceptance but, she doesn’t seem to get that from his family. Chaon’s short story has a way with readers because everyone wants to be accepted and liked by their loved ones. The story explores how she reacts to never being accepted – strangely …show more content…
She wrote, “… Among the Missing satisfies our desire to ponder and to appreciate the variety and also the lack of choices we each face and accumulate daily as we continue to become ourselves.”. As humans, we can all relate to this quote because we don’t have many choices in life but the choices we do have, make us who we are today. Like the characters in his short stories, what we choose to do in certain situations or in certain aspects of our lives, do help us figure out who we are. Sometimes we wish we could take an easier road but going through difficult times makes us appreciate the
In all of his stories, whether it’s a child or adult, someone is struggling with depression or hard situation caused by the loss of someone they love. In “I Demand to Know Where You’re Taking Me”, a woman has to care for her imprisoned brother-in-law’s bird whom she begins to hate. And from the beginning she has never felt like she belonged in her husband’s family: “She thought back because almost ten years had now passed, and she still felt like a stranger among them. When the children had been younger, it was easier to ignore, but now it seemed more and more obvious. She didn’t belong.” (24). She longs for the feeling of acceptance but, she doesn’t seem to get that from his family. Chaon’s short story has a way with readers because everyone wants to be accepted and liked by their loved ones. The story explores how she reacts to never being accepted – strangely …show more content…
She wrote, “… Among the Missing satisfies our desire to ponder and to appreciate the variety and also the lack of choices we each face and accumulate daily as we continue to become ourselves.”. As humans, we can all relate to this quote because we don’t have many choices in life but the choices we do have, make us who we are today. Like the characters in his short stories, what we choose to do in certain situations or in certain aspects of our lives, do help us figure out who we are. Sometimes we wish we could take an easier road but going through difficult times makes us appreciate the