Shann Ray/ American Masculine

“Lord, to be thirty-three forever.”
- Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, “Stevie Nix”

While only some of the characters in Shann Ray’s first short story collection, American Masculine, are thirty-three in age, almost all of them are, in some way, figuring out how to become unstuck from their own personal forever.  Men are afraid of giving up and giving in.  They hold on to their past, their sense of love, their dependence of substance, and their perception of what’s right.

“Men, dumb as animals, but like angels, majestic.  Born into foolishness.  Into love awkward.  Unknowingly they willed themselves to succeed or die.”

- Shann Ray, “The Miracles of Vincent van Gogh”

Ray does what any good writer does, giving his characters the opportunity to succeed or die, and although he allows some to linger upon that tightrope, he brings back nearly every single one of them.  And for the characters’ sake, they appear better for the experience.  As do we, the readers.

The stories that work best in American Masculine are those that seem to contain a trace of what might be best called magic.  The two men in “When We Rise” spend a whole night scouring a small town for basketball hoops still covered in the fresh snowfall.  Their goal is to sink the perfect jumper, to experience the thrill of seeing the snow explode from the net and hearing the accompanying pop.  It’s no surprise that on their final attempts, on two baskets outside of town in the early morning, they both succeed.

“They are standing in the snow like brothers, the big lights of the Jeep making everything immortal.”

But of course, nothing is ever truly immortal, but for Shale, a character we see in multiple stories in American Masculine, there’s something about seeing that snow fly.  It’s a chance to remember a brother who has died, to solidify a moment in his past as the rest of his life continues on and changes.  It’s a “chance,” Ray writes, “to be face-to-face not with the mundane but with the holy.”

Salvation is sought after throughout American Masculine, and when characters do come face-to-face with it, Ray achieves his most powerful moments.  Lives are restored, born, and saved, and in every instance, Ray captures the moment with quiet dignity.  His language, perhaps wrongly read as digressive by some, circles from all directions and hones in on true emotion.

Ray's characters won't be thirty-three forever, but throughout American Masculine, he shows us why that's not something one ought to worry about.