LET'S PLAY DOCTOROW

I just read a story in The Best American Short Stories of 2003 anthology. It was called “Baby Wilson” and it was by E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate).  The story concerned a crazy woman who steals a baby and her (more sane) boyfriend who knows she’s crazy and that what she’s done is wrong, but he can’t at first bring himself to turn her in, so they go on the lam.  

The entire story was a dramatic monologue, meaning that there was no dialogue and was all told by the boyfriend’s p.o.v.   The language, though, was beautiful and sounded very modern, even though a Google biography  I read of Doctorow said he was born in 1931 (meaning that my prejudice says his language should sound more, I don’t know, serious or old-fashioned or something).  But he captured the voice of the boyfriend and made it sound as if this drifter/grifter was just chatting with us about this wacko thing his crazy girlfriend did.

I’m always amazed at how the “experts” say things like “show, don’t tell” and “use dialogue to advance” plot, and then the masters come along and break those rules in a brilliant and moving manner.

It makes me want to write.