Wish You Were Here by Claire Vaye Watkins, 2012
The magic trick:
Capturing the reader’s attention with a voice-heavy expository intro
This will seem like a backhanded compliment by the time I get through with it. But that’s OK, I hope.
“Wish You Were Here” has a remarkable opening. It somehow manages to accomplish the delivery of vital and fairly extensive scene-setting backstory while also winning the reader over with an exciting writer’s voice.
This is a rare feat.
The back of the hand will now show itself as I report that I found the rest of the story itself somewhat underwhelming. It’s as if the narrative couldn’t really figure out anything to do that could maintain the rhythm of the opening section.
But, again, that’s all right. The story is good. The opening is great.
And that’s quite a trick on Watkins’s part.
The selection:
It begins with a man and a woman. They are young, but not so young as they would like. They fall in love. They marry. They conceive a child. They buy an adobe house in a small town where all the houses are adobe. The McDonald’s is adobe. The young man is named Carter. Carter often points to the adobe McDonald’s as proof of what a good decision they made in moving away from the city. The woman, Marin, is also glad they’ve moved here, but she misses her friends, and the constant sound of city traffic whispering like the sea. She feels this little town tries too hard.
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