Nothing To Declare by Richard Ford, 2020
The magic trick:
Bringing the heat of summer in New Orleans to life
A couple years ago, we highlighted Richard Ford’s “The Run Of Yourself” on SSMT. It’s a story that has only grown in my estimation since, as it’s stuck around my head and shifted in my memory. “Nothing To Declare” hails from the same Ford collection, 2020’s Sorry For Your Trouble.
I’m not sure I enjoyed it as much as I liked “The Run Of Yourself,” but it boasts some of the same pleasing qualities. Specifically, it’s fairly long and fairly slow. More of a hang than a page-turner. I liked that. You can settle into this world.
“Run” was set in Maine. This one here is a purely New Orleans story (the city is arguably the main character, that type of thing). So the slow pace is perfect for the setting. No one wants to move very quickly in this heat anyway.
The story is fairly relentless in bringing up the heat. Multiple mentions of sweat stains and the cold air rushing through the revolving door of the hotel. It seems to simple. If you want the reader to feel the heat of the setting, keep mentioning the heat in your story. But simple as it may seem, it’s very effective.
And that’s quite a trick on Ford’s part.
The selection:
Tourists who’d watched the parade were flooding into the lobby from outside— hot, weary, in need of what the hotel offered. The bellmen ignored them, smiling. The revolving door was permitting gusts of hot, mealy air to mingle with the inside cool. “Were those real?” he heard someone inquire. An Iowa farmer’s accent. “They were so beautiful. The pink feathers. So many.” People were pulling suitcases past the bellmen. It was long past time to check in.
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