A Perfect Universe
Page 20
8. Opening lines are essential for any writing, but especially important in short stories, when the writer has less time to grab your attention. Look back over the stories in A Perfect Universe and re-read each opening line. Which ones do you think are the most effective and kept you reading? Why?
9. “In the Red” tells the story of Jonas, who we eventually discover has physically assaulted his girlfriend. However, since we don’t know that at the beginning of the story, it’s easy to have sympathy for Jonas’s character, for his loneliness. Discuss the idea of having sympathy for abusers. How is it helpful for us to understand where men in that mindset are coming from? Alternatively, how could understanding be harmful?
10. Several of the stories in A Perfect Universe (“Soldiers,” “Golden State,” and “Colnago Super,” especially) are told from the perspective of children who take care of their parents and have a better grip on reality than their parents. Why do you think this is a theme in the collection?
11. Richard (in “The Plagiarist”) and George (in “Flicker”) are both male celebrities who have either embarrassingly failed in their careers or are about to. What does fame mean to each of these characters? Discuss how each of them handles failure differently.
12. In “The Plagiarist,” Richard has an episode of panic after he discovers that Lydia is about to expose him. He has a dream involving himself and a woman in a medical clinic: “His body, her body, had turned murderous, and so they were pumping her full of poison” (p. 209). What do you think this dream means to the rest of the story? Who or what does the woman symbolize?
13. The stories in A Perfect Universe are primarily set in the suburbs of California—away from the bustle of Los Angeles and glamour of Hollywood. How does this setting unite the stories? What about suburban California makes a realistic setting for these stories?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. In “It Was Over So Quickly, Doug,” the pacing and scene setting feels a bit like a movie scene. Ask each person in your book group to write a two-page screenplay (dialogue and scene details included) about their last experience in a coffee shop line.
2. In “Golden State,” the game show The Price Is Right drives much of the plot forward, and physical objects give important hints to the wealth of the characters (Bruce’s truck, Diane’s blue dress that she has to wear twice, Claire buying a beat-up used bike). Play your own version of The Price Is Right with your book group, and then discuss the importance of physical objects. What items’ prices are each of you most familiar with and why?
3. The movie and book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls deals with young children having a somewhat stronger grip on reality than their adult parents and having to take care of their parents frequently. Watch the movie as a group, and then discuss how the themes of The Glass Castle also relate to the short stories “Soldiers,” “Golden State,” and “Colnago Super.”
4. Short stories rely on precise, image-rich words. Even shorter stories abound online and can pack a similar emotional punch. Research “six-word stories” on the internet, and have each member of your group pick a story from A Perfect Universe and rewrite it as a six-word story.
About the Author
Scott O’Connor is the author of the novella Among Wolves and the novels Untouchable and Half World. He has been awarded the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and his stories have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and cited as Distinguished in The Best American Short Stories. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ZYZZYVA, The Rattling Wall, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Also by Scott O’Connor
Among Wolves
Untouchable
Half World
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Scout Press
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Scott O’Connor
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First Scout Press hardcover edition February 2018
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Interior design by Jaime Putorti
Jacket design by Donna Cheng
Jacket art: © Wendy Laurel / Stocksy (palm trees); © Dylan M Howell Photography / Stocksy (forest)
Author photograph By Peter Konerko
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: O’Connor, Scott, author.
Title: A Perfect Universe / Scott O’Connor.
Description: First Scout Press hardcover edition. | New York : Scout Press, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017014957 (print) | LCCN 2017021407 (ebook) | ISBN 9781507204061 (ebook) | ISBN 150720406X (ebook) | ISBN 9781507204054 (hardback) | ISBN 1507204051 (hardcover)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Short Stories (single author). | FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / General.
Classification: LCC PS3615.C595 (ebook) | LCC PS3615.C595 A6 2017 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014957
ISBN 978-1-5072-0405-4
ISBN 978-1-5072-0406-1 (ebook)
Some of the stories from A Perfect Universe were originally published as follows: “Hold On” and “Jane’s Wife” in ZYZZYVA; “It Was Over So Quickly, Doug” in The Rattling Wall; “Golden State” as an Amazon Kindle Single; “Interstellar Space” in F(r)iction and Six Shorts 2015: The Finalists for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award; “In the Red” in VLAK; “Hold On” was listed as Distinguished in The Best American Short Stories 2015; “Interstellar Space” was shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.