Books: Truth in fiction

By John Ziebell

Anyone familiar with the Las Vegas literary scene knows how fortunate we are that Doug Unger is part of it. He's an exceptional teacher, the director and co-founder of UNLV's Creative Writing MFA program. His scholarly acumen is equally impressive, especially his extensive knowledge of Central and South American writers. Unger is the author of four critically acclaimed novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Leaving the Land. His second book, El Yanqui, focused on his experience as an exchange student in Argentina; his most recent, Voices from Silence, revisits that world to explore the tragic, politically fueled violence that overwhelmed the country in the post-Peron years.

Looking for War is Unger's first collection of stories, and one unique aspect of the book is it comes from the perspective of a seasoned novelist. Though the stories do vary widely, we never get the sense of the author feeling his way around, looking for a form or voice or tone that fits; no narrative false steps here, but stories that know exactly what they want to say and how they want to say it. The stories insist upon evolving at their own pace, in a pleasingly organic manner, in part because Unger's approach to character development is novelistic in its temperament. Character is of the utmost importance in his work, and shortcuts simply can't do the honest work of building up layered portraits of believable people.

The book opens with stories that begin in a standard or expected fashion but have a far greater degree of resonance than most. "Leslie and Sam" explores the plight of an overworked college student who takes on the wrong work-study job--a tech in an animal research lab--that becomes its own poignant life lesson. In "Tide Pool," a woman returns from a dream vacation only to succumb to an unknown, incurable disease, an eerie, fascinating tale that would be cautionary if it weren't so elegantly chaotic. "The Perfect Wife" is a charming, note-perfect study in irony (though perhaps not surprisingly so, if we note the "after De Maupassant" that follows the title).

The book's middle stories--"Cuban Nights" and "The Writer's Widow"--create an oddly dissonant parallel. Each is an homage, in its own way, to art and its creators; while it's hard to argue the works specifically represent a moral schism--say, good and evil, or truth and falsehood--they are obviously meant to illustrate a light and a dark side of practice. And while the more positive of the two feels the more successful, it's certainly less emotionally engaging than its opposite.

The book closes on a trilogy--"Autobiography," "Matisse" and "Looking for War"--that share a narrative voice as well as a narrative ethos. The works follow the painful arc of a troubled life, and are meant to echo. In the sense that they support and reference each other, they're like a more worldly version of Stuart Dybek's Chicago stories. In essence, however, they are far different; the author's philosophy and politics are closer to the skin, and there's an immediacy gained both from the airing of those convictions and the deliberate ambiguity in the lack of markers that clearly delineate fiction from memoir.

This review is doomed to fall short of its mark; there's simply not enough space to discuss the book itself, much less Unger's obvious love of language, the patience used to shape these stories, the skill that is evident in every sentence, and his deep emotional investment in the worlds he creates or re-creates. Looking for War is a strong collection by a writer who is dedicated not only to perfecting his art, but more importantly, using it in the service of truth.