‘A Really Good Jazz Piano’ by Richard Yates

A Really Good Jazz Piano by Richard Yates, 1961

The magic trick:

A dastardly mid-story change in perspective

We close our week of stories from Richard Yates’ Eleven Kinds Of Loneliness collection with the showstopper of the bunch; the hit single as it were. This is probably his most famous story. I gather he thought it was his best. It’s hard to argue.

We’re in France with two young American expatriates. The important thing is that we start in Paris with the boy named Carson. We see the story through his eyes, which means we see his friend Ken through his eyes. Ken is in Cannes, pestering Carson with phone calls. Inevitably, we see Ken as a nuisance; a kind of dork, hanging on to the much cooler Carson in a strange kind of hero and hero worshipper friendship.

We don’t really think much of it. This is just the story we’ve been introduced into.

Then the action shifts to Cannes, though. Here we see things from Ken’s perspective, and this is when our awareness of what this story is about really starts to shift.

And it’s not because now we realize something different about the characters, either. It’s not that obvious. It’s not like once we are in Ken’s point of view, we realize Ken is actually really cool, and Carson is the dork. No. That’s not it. We find that we were essentially right from the start. Carson is the cool dude. Ken is the nerdy, needy tagalong.

What we become aware of is a bit more subtle. We start to see how condescension works. We are forced to recognize that we were perfectly comfortable engaging in our own condescension at the beginning of the story when we saw Ken through Carson’s eyes. It’s like the change in perspective in the story throws our sympathies into confusion, and we’re forced to realize our own bad tendencies.

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

The selection:

Ken couldn’t stop talking. Pacing in and out of the bathroom while Carson took his shower, jingling a pocketful of coins, he talked in the laughing, full-throated joy of a man who has gone for weeks without hearing his own voice. The truth was that Ken never really had a good time away from Carson. They were each other’s best friends, but it had never been an equal friendship, and they both knew it.

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.