Brad Watson (1) (1955–2020)

Brad Watson’s third book of fiction, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, is a pleasant, slow evisceration. There are few of the roughest human experiences possible that Watson does not cover, from the aftermath of romantic relationships in “Visitation,” to unwanted pregnancy in “Water Dog God,” and the death of a sibling in “Alamo Plaza.” Yet Watson’s talent for capturing character makes each story necessary, and each heartbreak a trainwreck the reader cannot disregard.
The show more novella “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives” is the collection’s gem. The grotesque strangeness that overwhelms plot in “Ordinary Monsters” is smoothly integrated here with Watson’s arid southern style. The young narrator is practical and honest throughout his life’s story, spurred by an unplanned pregnancy and the wedding that results. The unshakable consistency of the tone carries the reader through many alternative lives that the narrator and his young bride could have lived, evaluating surreal possibilities as if a lion is no stranger in a Southern suburb than the story’s sweltering attic apartment or VW van. Resolution comes through the experiences of the narrator, who finds equilibrium and humanity in the process of deciding who around him is human and who is alien. In this uncertainty, Watson’s microscopic level of character detail proves useful; the reader can understand the truth of the situation along with the narrator.
Watson illuminates the lives of children well, whether he is invading their headspace or observing them from the character of an alienated father, he captures their variation and essence. In “Alamo Plaza,” Watson transitions smoothly from the narrator’s adult reflections to his childhood memories of his brother, capturing his death through description of a tropical storm’s aftermath: “some incredible violence had occurred, and yet almost everything remained intact.”
Despite Watson’s skill portraying men and children, his female characters seem limited to tragedy. In both “Fallen Nellie” and “The Misses Moses,” plots follow the characters’ descent into loneliness and failure without the redemption offered to Watson’s men in “Visitation” and “Are You Mr. Lonelee?” Yet in all of these, his description of physical sensation absorbs the reader into the mind of the narrator. The swift pace of the collection may make this sensory acuity exhausting, however; he does not give the reader more than half a breath before the next heartache.
Though Watson’s collection dwells on melancholy, it succeeds in transferring a fresh perspective on the muddiness of everyday life, carefully communicating what one of Watson’s characters calls “the inexplicable everyday, the oddness of being, the senseless belonging to this and not that.”
Watson is a professor of English at the University of Wyoming. His first collection of fiction Last Days of the Dog-Men won several awards for first fiction, and Aliens won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction.
--review published in Exile student literary magazine, spring 2016 show less

"[T]he inexplicable everyday, the oddness of being, the senseless belonging to this and not that." This line, from the story "Alamo Plaza," seems to sum up the outlook of the disaffected characters in Brad Watson’s Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives.

I picked this book up thinking it would be similar to the quirky hipster tales of Kelly Link, Karen Russell or Aimee Bender, so I was surprised to find a collection that shared more in common with the subtle, disquieting stories of Raymond show more Carver. That being said, I suspect I'm one of the few people out there who doesn't really "get" Carver, so perhaps the comparison shouldn't be viewed as great praise coming from me.

Watson’s prose is spare and perfectly distilled to create a vague, low grade tension throughout each piece. There often seems to be something lurking just outside the margins, something unspoken and potentially appalling. Something that exists always just beyond the reader’s peripheral vision. My favorite piece, "Terrible Argument," about the rapid disintegration of a marriage after one strange and violent episode, is told from the point of view of the couple’s bewildered and melancholy dog. Another, "Fallen Nellie," relates the unfortunate history of the corpse of a young woman lying about ten feet from a hiking trail. The author focuses his lens on the minutiae of his character’s lives, while the larger, and ostensibly more important issues, like racism, adultery, divorce, domestic violence, rape, incest, murder, serve as a backdrop or a by-product, kind of blurry and slightly surreal. This makes the experience of reading the stories more like scientific observation, as opposed to emotional engagement. I suspect this is the author’s intent.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Watson still manages to insert scattered moments of dry, offbeat humor. Particularly in "The Misses Moses," in which a would be renter is doted upon by two spinster sisters or the opener, "Vacuum," wherein all hell breaks loose when a depressed mother of three nearly falls for the charms of an opportunistic neighbor. Ultimately though, both tales end on a poignant note.

I tend to shy away from contemporary short fiction, finding it more difficult to connect with than novel-length works. However, I approached Watson’s work with an open mind and was rewarded with a collection that was both atmospheric and thought provoking. show less

This is a must read book. The writing is exceedingly marvelous and crafted in a way in which there is a steady rhythm of life in rural Mississippi. Miss Jane Chisolm is born with a rare genital birth defect. Unable to have children, sexual intimacy or a "normal" relationship, Jane is born with a keen intuition and very bright mind.

Unfortunately, her incontinence interferes with every day interactions with the outside world, still she finds ways in which to draw people to her. Jane is show more conceived when her father had too much to drink and her mother is in a drugged state of laudinum use. Long past the age of joy in having children, her mother's despondency grows as she perceives the child as a burden. Her father loves her, but cannot express this. Her sister both loves her yet perceives her as a stone around her neck.

The small-town doctor becomes her friend and mentor and the beauty of their relationship is woven throughout the story. Understanding the incredible personhood of Jane, Dr. Thompson grows to appreciate the exquisite beauty of Jane's internal world wherein she fears very little.

As she grows, she exhibits a keen sense of nature, both of growing, living things found in the wood, and the internal personality traits of people which render them kind and sensitive and then bitter and moody.

This is writing at its best! show less

Miss Jane, based on the author’s great-aunt, is born in the early 20th century in rural Mississippi. She has a congenital defect that leaves her incontinent, as well as unable to have sexual relations or bear children. Life is tough on the farm; her father is an alcoholic, her mother deeply unhappy, and her sister can’t get away fast enough.

Jane is a remarkable girl and woman, and how she finds a life of meaning and worth despite her loneliness and affliction is a joy to read. Her show more attempts to attend school despite her condition, and her brush with young love are particularly poignant. The friendship she has with her doctor, who becomes like a father to her, is touching. I also enjoyed the medical aspect of the story as her doctor searches for a surgical cure to her condition.

I don’t want to give any of the plot away but this is storytelling at it’s finest. I don’t like overly descriptive books, but the prose the author uses to describe rural life, nature, and the inner life of Jane is simply beautiful. Highly recommended. show less