It’s Like A Whisper by Megan Abbott, 2009
The magic trick:
Retelling real events but using a lyrical beauty in the conclusion to create an even greater aura of mystery around the story
Our week of noir from Megan Abbott travels to Phoenix, Arizona, today.
I was not aware of the real-life story behind Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane. Abbott makes a point at the end of the story to note this history as the inspiration for “It’s Like A Whisper.”
One, I just think that’s a very cool thing to do – take a real event, and one that sits perfectly in that realm of famous but not that widely known, and twist it into a fiction. But two, acknowledge that the story you’ve just told is based on a real event and go on to outline some of that real history.
What is especially well-done here, too, is the way she writes the closing scene into a kind of poetic horror-show mystery. When you look at the real events, there is certainly some mystery about what really happened at the end of Crane’s life. This story doesn’t necessarily try to solve that mystery, but instead adds some real artistry and beauty to the tragedy.
And that’s quite a trick on Abbott’s part.
The selection:
“Who’s the tomato?” Bob said as he rose. He was handsome and, old as he was, almost as old as someone’s dad, he didn’t look like a dad. The way he turned toward her, so casual, so knowing, like he’d been waiting for her.
When he looked at her, something sharpened in his eyes, sharpened into a spark, and then his face lit, a camera flashing, and there he was, Bob Crane. He was giving her Bob.
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