comments

1. Deron Bauman on March 13th, 2008 at 10:19 am

   opens into a pdf, fyi.

2. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2008 at 10:27 am

   I’m mildly stunned by the realization of how many of these books I’ve read. In fact, I have to go all the way down to number 24 (Continental Drift) for the first that I haven’t read.

3. david on March 13th, 2008 at 10:39 am

   Funny you should say that Sheila, because I had to go to number 41 to find one I had read. I’m exaggerating, but I’d probably read less than a dozen from the whole list.

4. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2008 at 10:53 am

   Well, David, there’s not much published after 1990 that made the list! (I assume it’s weighted to encompass a historically representative selection of novels.) Do you go mostly for new fiction — or are you not a great fiction reader?

5. Cindy Scroggins on March 13th, 2008 at 11:47 am

   I like lists like these, even though I rarely agree with the choices. This one brings back a whole world of books that I haven’t read in a long time. It also reinforces my view that how something ends is as important–and sometimes more important–than how it begins.

   I apologize in advance for touting my own husband’s work (how’s that for self-deprecation by proxy?), but Daryl Scroggins can end a story better than just about anyone. I don’t have his books here with me, so I’m limited to what I can find on the Internet, but how are these for some great ending lines?

   From “The Hounding”
   I looked out again at all those shapes without color. The streets were empty. But I know they’re still at it. I know there is no stopping them until something happens.

   From “Wingtips”
   Only when he reached the top, where he had to pause and catch his breath, only when he was pinned against the sky like a rag did the shouting begin.

   From “Issue From the Grotto of the Street Hermit Saint”
   She rubbed her hands together and then cranked the window shut, vaguely embarrassed by her deed, but not willing to think about it long enough to admit it–long enough to be reminded again of foolishness, and work gone to the wind.

6. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am

   Apology unnecessary, Cindy. Just because you’re married to the guy doesn’t mean you can’t recognize what’s good when you read it.

7. Deron Bauman on March 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am

   I couldn’t agree more.

8. Pascal Ebert on March 13th, 2008 at 11:56 am

   I realize this is probably not a forum to hock wares but – where might one find these works? A cursory search on Amazon was not a fruitful one.

   Should anyone ask – the end line from “Wingtips” sold me.

9. Deron Bauman on March 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

   Good question, Pascal. I often wonder where to buy Daryl’s books myself. Cindy, if you have the answer, I’ll make a post about it. I tried to direct people to Daryl’s work at kottke, but was only able to find his chapbook at wds.

10. Cindy Scroggins on March 13th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    “Wingtips” is a great story, Pascal. If you like that, you’ll like most of what Daryl does.

    And, Deron, that was so sweet of you to mention Daryl on kottke.

    Daryl’s books are hard to find because he’s always spent his time writing rather than promoting. It’s a shame, and something that some of us are trying to remedy. He has a book coming out this summer through Ravenna Press (with Cooper Renner as editor, with a cover by Elizabeth Perry). That one will be titled This Is Not The Way We Came In. His book Winter Investments is out of print and is being re-issued this year (with a cover by Barry Stone). Both of these books will be properly marketed and available to through Amazon, etc. When they’re available, I’m sure that Cooper and Daryl and Deron and I will all have something to say about it here at clusterflock.

    He also has a couple of chapbooks (Oracle, which is short fictions, and Entropy of Hunters, poetry). I think they’re sold out. And he has a book of connected prose poems, Game of Kings that I guess is sold out or out of print–I only see used copies on Amazon from time to time. There’s usually something of his available on bookfinder.com. I just checked, and a bunch of copies of Game of Kings are available. For some reason, they’re asking a lot for it in Canada. Go figure.

    I’ve always said that if Daryl’s work were more readily available, he’d be famous. Not that fame is necessarily a good thing. But he’s an amazing writer, and I love it when people get to experience that.

11. Deron Bauman on March 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    Lisa Grunwald interviewing Gordon Lish in Esquire magazine:

    What’s the Fantasy?

    GL: Daryl Scroggins from Dallas, Texas. Never heard of this fellow. No letter. No nothing. With a name like that would suggest anything but the kind of text that was on the page, which was a joy to receive. I got a letter off to him straightaway saying ‘Send me everything you’ve ever written, I simply adore you, I adore you.’ That’s the ideal. Ideally he’ll have twenty stories of that kind, and I’ll publish a collection. And then what? Then, you would say, I’ll wear him out, wear him out, so that Daryl Scroggins ends up being published by some other house? Is that the ideal case? Yes, maybe. But I hope not. I would clearly hope that Daryl Scroggins would reach down, pick the carpet up, put it in his pocket, and walk away with the whole thing.

12. Cindy Scroggins on March 13th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    I clearly remember the day we saw that Esquire piece. We were buying groceries on a Thursday night, and it was on the newsstand. Gordon had called Daryl to tell him that he’d said something that would be published in the March issue. Daryl and Gordon had had a very amicable parting of the ways (Gordon essentially wanted Daryl to write in a specific way, and Daryl wanted to write in his way, and they agreed to disagree). Anyway, I saw the issue of Esquire and opened it and saw Daryl’s name and read what Gordon said and just stood there, stunned. Then I showed it to some jerk who was standing there looking at a Sports Illustrated or something, and he acted like I was crazy. Asshole. The whole thing was a surreal experience.

    Some guy who is writing a book on Gordon contacted Daryl recently for information about that period. Daryl and I agree that the best thing that came of the Esquire piece was that it led, in a roundabout way, to our finding Cooper and Deron.

13. Deron Bauman on March 13th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    Actually, I have a story about that Esquire piece too, Cindy. I don’t know if I’ve told you this. I was at the university coop bookstore before spring break and just happened to pick up Esquire and flip through it. Seriously, the magazine fell open to that page and that was the first paragraph I read. When I got home, my dad told me that Renner had called and that he was in touch with some guy from The Quarterly named Daryl Scroggins. I kindly fell out of my chair.

14. Cindy Scroggins on March 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    Wow. No, you never told me that.

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