Bret A. Johnston's Corpus Christi
Debut Novel of Short Stories About the Complexity of Human Nature
Corpus Christi, TX is the scene of a book of brilliant, interconnected short stories that examine the tumultuous nature of human relationships and emotions.
Bret Anthony Johnston's debut novel, Corpus Christi, (Random House 2004), is a new concept in short story anthologies. Divided into ten short stories, each can be read separately, but when read in one obsessive sitting, it is all the more intriguing.
Some of the stories are about a husband and wife trying to come together, or falling apart. Some are of children and their parents, learning about one another. One tricyclic story is of a mother dying of cancer, and the son who cares for her and learns more about his feelings both for her and about his own life's journey through her illness.
Themes
The main theme throughout is that of the complexity of human emotion. Through his characters, Johnston says and thinks the things that most of us think and would like to say, but never admit to. His stories are heartbreaking and harsh, while somehow maintaining a thread of hope and an interest in living life to its fullest. He likens the ferocity of the emotions and situations to the weather in Corpus Christi, which is unpredictable and severe.
A woman who has lost her son in an accident reminisces in a mental hospital, balancing on the edge of a life she can no longer understand without her child. Her husband watches from outside, continuing forward without any sense of direction, having lost both his child and his wife.
In another story, a young child watches as his family life deteriorates because of financial issues, and is witness to his father’s extreme violence.
The stories in this novel thread together the memories we want to lose, the memories we hold dear, and the ephemeral nature of relationships based on emotions, as happens when a man runs into his long lost love in a mall, who is now with her children and "matronly." He despairs, and she fails to see what ever it was that she had once found attractive in him. He leaves, understanding that he has been nothing more than a blip on her life's radar and so much more about himself.
Johnston's style is fresh and blunt. The stories are deceptively simple, written in a clear, concise manner that makes the tales flow easily. It is only with after thought and a second read that the reader is struck by the dark themes and silver lining throughout.
About the Author
Bret Johnston left CaliforniaStateUniversity, San Bernardino in 2006 to become the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard. He is an avid skateboarder, and likens the writing process to that of learning new skateboarding moves, saying in an interview, “Chances are [the skateboarder will stay] in that exact spot until he completes the trick; it could take hours, but most skaters won't be able to leave until they've landed what they're trying to land. It's a bit masochistic, and it's quite a bit like writing.”
He teaches at the prestigious Iowa Writers Festival in the summer, and has just released a new book, Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. He graduated from MiamiUniversity and the Iowa Writers Workshop. His work appears in a number of journals, magazines and papers, among them The NY Times, Tin House, and The Oxford Review. He is also a regular contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered.
Corpus Christi: Stories was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent of London and The Irish Times, received The Southern Review's Annual Short Fiction Award, the Texas Institute of Letters' Debut Fiction Award, the Christopher Isherwood Prize, and the James Michener Fellowship.
