Like many of us, Richard Bausch is a worrier. In an interview he said, “In every
circumstance, all my life, my mind shows me the possible bad outcome: someone walks down steps, and before I can do anything to head the image off, I see a fall, a catastrophe.” Many of his characters believe that there is a strong chance that they are doomed. What I love about these stories is that you don’t know what will tip the scales. He says that his most successful stories surprise him. They astonish me, which is why they’re a great pleasure to reread.
Richard Bausch, Spirits and Other Stories (New York: The Linden Press / Simon and Schuster, 1987) 233.
When I read this line I laughed out loud. This is such a commentary on how we often tend to diminish someone without every really taking the time to get to know them. There was a story today on Public Radio about an author whose parents told him that nobody would remember him or his little novel after he was dead. Lincoln said at Gettysburg in 1863 that the world would little note nor long remember… Well, it turns out writers have the last laugh. After all, writers are very important.