Beautiful Green Grass

The short stories in "Beautiful Green Grass" rely on communication by the characters to bring the themes of the story forward. Dialogue is always different. Dialogue can be guarded, as in the opening of the cover story when a landlord comes by to collect delinquent rent. For the two principal characters in the “San Juan River Inn,” one is desperate to recover her memory while the other will not leave until he helps her find what she lost. Dialogue is up and down, strong and weak, and not always equal. What helps even dialogue out is the ability of one or more parties to listen. In “The Tide is Turning,” Eddie Wheelwright is overwhelmed by the anger that Valerie Samson expresses, but it wakes him up.

Dialogue in short stories depends on the characters getting what they have to say out, without missing an old lady’s crystal clear “Memory” of what it was like to watch London being bombed at night. It means the younger listener needs to give this older lady the opportunity to bring those memories into the story at her pace. Dialogue also takes place in the mind, what the fashion designer says to herself on a night out in Paris as she is trying to remain calm when an older mentor comes on to “The Beauty Queen of Coamo.” A young reporter tells himself to be resolute in his fidelity – Sam Nichols finds temptation all around him in “Aftermath of the Afterparty.”

Conversation in a short story allows a tale to take place in a tight concise way. Anger, sorrow, and memories can all be brought forward in a short story through dialogue that enables its full development.