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Notes from K. Anne Unger, Editor on Going Down:
In “Going Down” we are trapped with what we first think are two rather despicable characters with absolute utter disregard for each other, its only saving grace the snap retorts and easy banter exchanged between the newly divorced couple. Separately they are both a bit quirky, one having lost his hair in chunks from stress, the other obsessively playing with the missing toe she mistakenly severed. Together they are greatly afflicted by the mere presence of each other, but one thing becomes clear: they respect each other enough to sidestep the sympathetic clichés that such situations create. Instead, they stand their ground, saying exactly what’s on their mind until the very end.
Comments on Terry Sanville’s The Way Things Happen by Ezra Fox, author of Going Down:
The three scenes of Terry Sanville’s “The Way Things Happen” cover a lot of ground. We’re treated to teenagers playing hooky and surfing in the ’60s, estranged 30-something friends dealing with consequences from Vietnam before a wedding, and reconciliation and mortality.
We begin the story thinking that it’s just a coming of age piece with a surfing backdrop. But as soon as that section ends, we jump to a new perspective and we leapfrog over more than a decade of our characters lives, including the entire Vietnam war and meeting the woman that a character’s about to marry. We jump another few decades and our trio is old, and in passing, reference dead parents. But the sting is gone from these revelations because even though it’s the first we’ve heard of it, it’s ancient history.
In the space of 5,000 words, we’ve aged over 40 years with our boys, and the last section is poignant because they’re aware of how many years they’ve lost with each other and how few they might have left. But by this point, the characters and the reader have learned something about life. Time moves quickly, but if you’re with people you like, doing something you love, it might be enough. And even if it’s not, you’re sure not getting any younger. You might as well get back in the water and enjoy the ride.
Read "Going Down" at www.10ktobi.org.
