There is a great bit of wisdom uttered by Lee, the doomed narrator of Boris Vian’s I Spit On Your Graves:

“It costs a lot to put out a book, and all the dressing is for a good purpose — it shows clearly too that most people don’t care about getting good books: what they really want is to have read the book recommended by their club, the book of the moment, and they don’t give a rap about the contents.”

It is a very spot-on sentiment and one that sadly pertains to Gary Lutz’s Stories in the Worst Way. When it was originally released in 1996 Lutz’s collection of challenging and off-kilter short stories were dismissed, denounced, or simply ignored. In spite of being a protégée of renowned editor Gordon Lish — who inspired the author to scrape and claw at his prose, boiling it down to thin razor while also developing an approach to the English language that can only be perceived as one author rewriting our entire syntax — Lutz’s work was greeted as warmly as syphilis. When the collection was re-released in 2003 by 3rd Bed, it faired not much better. Perhaps greeted as warmly as gonorrhea.

The simple fact is that Stories in the Worst Way was not that book. It’s intent was obvious: not to reward or connect with the reader, but to challenge. As Lutz himself stated, “if I had been assigned to review it, I probably would’ve panned it myself. It’s not the kind of book that’s asking for any wide welcome.” Continue reading →