Aegis 2015
76
Book Review >>> Gretchen Heisler
Leaving the Sea Marcus, Ben New York: Vintage Books, 2014. 249 pp.
Fiction writer Ben Marcus’s newest collection of short stories, Leaving the Sea, is a compendium that cannot be described easily. While all of the stories revolve around the trauma of adulthood and the varied responsibilities and situations that can arise from it, each of the six sections of stories are likely to evoke different reactions from readers (though, not all of them good reactions). Marcus’ stories run the gamut of style and form, and although I would be surprised if any one reader enjoyed all of Marcus’s stories, every reader can find at least one in the collection to which they can relate. Marcus begins the collection with stories written in rather traditional forms, all of which recount some stage of a deteriorating relationship. It is fairly obvious that such stories are not going to be something read to brighten one’s day, but Marcus takes readers far past sympathetic or even tolerable levels of fictional misery. Even those who normally revel in the experience of schadenfreude will be internally screaming over the sheer pervasiveness of the characters’ unhappiness. Reading these first four accounts of relationships, Marcus seems to be giving readers the impression that adulthood is the end of anything remotely approaching happiness or contentment, and all young people should prepare themselves now for the general despondency and dread that will overtake them the moment they pass through whatever invisible barrier demarcates the beginning of true maturity. On top of all of this, each of the first four stories carries heavy undertones of bitterness and resentment. This is not particularly surprising, given the subject matter, but once again becomes nearly overwhelming. By the time one has reached the fourth story, the tales of adult men dissatisfied with their lives and relationships has become beyond tiring, and there is little in the way of pity or compassion left for the characters. At the end of the first section, an impression is made of having just spent an untold number of minutes having something that is not very complex explained in four different ways, when it was understood perfectly well the first time around. Luckily, Marcus’s remaining six sections of stories change quite a bit from the traditional, and frankly exhausting, stories of section one. It is when Marcus begins these more experimental pieces that one can see why he has received such praise for his past work. While still focusing on the horrors of adulthood, stories such as “My Views on the Darkness” and the title story “Leaving the Sea” approach the topic in lighthearted or achingly sad ways, respectively, without making the focus feel redundant or overemphasized. “My Views on the Darkness” is particularly interesting for its form. It is written in an interview style, with the unnamed main character explaining why he or she has chosen to live in a cave instead of deal with the pressures of adult life.
