"A Real Doll" by A.M. Homes

I took a little time off from the blog because my "vacation" has been chock-full of family, writing, mini-golf, and bay swims.  But my fingers have been getting twitchy.

Today I'm going to share my reading through the lens of the book Hooked by Les Edgerton.  The talented and lovely Ms. Lori Goldstein was kind enough to read the first five pages of my WIP and referenced some key concepts from Hooked.  I can't thank her enough.  

I'm sure this will come as a shock to the seven people that read this blog, but I'm an untrained writer.  I took one creative nonfiction course in college and I'm quite sure the professor hated me.  Us Type A people make the worst creative writing students.  Alas, I'm trying to learn as much as a I can the old-fashioned way: by reading tons of books on craft.  Hooked makes it simple.  Well that's not quite right.  If it was simple I would be on my book tour instead of writing this blog for you seven people.  Better put, Hooked points you in the direction of Mt. Everest and says, "Go climb that." But at least I have a better idea of which way I'm walking now.  

In an attempt to put these ideas to use I'm trying to find the elements discussed in Hooked in the books and short stories I'm reading.  These include the inciting incident, the surface problems, and the story-worthy problem.  I'm also going to highlight opening lines of the stories I read.

It's ironic that the first time I'm doing this on the blog is with "A Real Doll" because this story is so off-the-charts unique that to try to reign it into my neat boxes feels like lassoing a wild stallion.  But lasso I will.

Opening lines:

"I'm dating Barbie.  Three afternoons a week, while my sister is at dance class, I take Barbie away from Ken.  I'm practicing for the future."

Inciting incident:

The story begins when the narrator, Jenny's brother, notices that his sister's Barbie has come to life.  

Surface problems:

Where do I begin?  In any intense sexual relationship between two young people, problems are expected.  When one of those young people is a Barbie, things can get really complicated.  You might give Barbie too much Valium, overestimating her tolerance.  You have to decide what romantic gift to buy her.  Do you get her the pool, snowmobile, or grand piano?  And of course, you have to compete with the anatomically incorrect Ken.  

Story-worthy problem:

It seems reasonable, as someone who has only known and never been a teenage boy, that all sorts of strange things must go through boys' minds on the topic of sex.  I think that if we are all being honest with ourselves, it isn't what this boy does to Barbie (and Ken for that matter) that is strange, but rather Homes's ability to so vividly enter the mind of a pubescent teenager and to capture the force of his infatuation.  As I read, the question that drew me forward was: What is wrong with this kid?  That's the story-worthy problem that engaged me.  When he callously dumps a recently deformed Barbie at the end of the story, I think the answer is revealed: nothing.  He's just a teenage boy.  It's A.M Homes that is the exceptional one.

Click HERE for a full-text version of "A Real Doll."