Where We Are Now by Ethan Canin, 1986
The magic trick:
Numb inertia
Yet another Ethan Canin gem today.
It’s actually one of my least favorites in his remarkable Emperor Of The Air collection, but they’re all winners, so that’s a very relative statement.
Like many of the stories in the collection, this one deals with a strange kind of comfortable malaise in which people – usually men – seem stuck in a depression. Things aren’t terrible nor are they great. And in the middle, the man doesn’t feel much of anything either way. He certainly doesn’t feel capable of doing anything to change the circumstances. In “Where We Are Now,” a title that seems to highlight just that very inertia, this conflict is accentuated by a married couple’s futile house search.
And that’s quite a trick on Canin’s part.
The selection:
“The ad says there are nice trees in back,” says Jodi.
She leads us to the house. It’s two stories, yellow stucco walls, with a cement yard and a low wire fence along the sidewalk. The roof is tar paper. Down the front under the drainpipes are two long green stains.
“Don’t worry,” she says. “Just because we look doesn’t mean anything.” She knocks on the door and slips her arm into mine. “Maybe you can see the ocean from the bedroom windows.”
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