‘What’s Wrong With You? What’s Wrong With Me?’ by J.M. Holmes

What’s Wrong With You? What’s Wrong With Me? by J.M. Holmes, 2017

The magic trick:

Introducing the story’s central them at the outset but then having the main character avoid exploring it for most of the story

I enjoyed the (funny to no one but me) humor of our Coover Carver Cheever week earlier this month, here we are again with a classic weekly double for you on SSMT pairing J.M. Holmes and A.M. Homes. Hilarious.

Today’s story gets right to its subject.

First sentence.

“How many white women you been with?”

Bam.

Here we go. Right into it.

Except… we don’t.

The politics of race and sex are arguably the most complicated subject in American history, and it’s not one our narrator is particularly excited to wrestle with in this story. He dodges the question.

The story stutters with anxious, awkward avoidance.

But stick with it. That’s part of the story.

And then when our narrator finally explodes into the subject at hand, we examine those racial politics in an incredibly interesting way.

And that’s quite a trick on Holmes’s part.

The selection:

“Why won’t you answer the question?” Dub continued. “Gio would answer.” He looked at me: “Wouldn’t you, G?”

“Don’t play this game,” I said.

“How many?”

“Man, G don’t count, he’s mixed, that’s a performance-enhancing drug.” Rye tagged me light on the chest.

“He speaks!” Dub said.

“Shut the fuck up,” Rye said.

“Whoa, peace,” Rolls said. “My place is a sanctuary.”