The title of Bausch’s short story at first glance gave me no insight to what the story would contain, but as I read deeper into the story I realized it signified the sex chat line that John, the main character had called. Bausch chooses many interesting tactics and approaches to this short story. First, he chose to write the entire story in dialogue. Thus, the reader learns about John, Sharon, Kate, and John’s kids through dialogue and not descriptions by a narrator. Each line is either John or Sharon speaking through a phone. Another interesting approach is the story in general. An odd talkative character calls a phone sex line to basically blurt out his personal life issues. I found this quite humorous throughout; especially when John began talking about deeper ethical issues like the prostitutes choosing to follow certain laws when they have chosen a “career” that goes against the law. Honestly, I do think John wanted to eventually get to the “sex part” like he says, but he obliviously and annoyingly seems to go off on tangents about his life. As Sharon begins to play the game by answering personal questions, I also found it humorous that John ends up turning Sharon off, who uses phone sex as a job. I would think it would take a whole lot to turn someone like that so off that they cannot even pretend to be interested or please the random person on the other side of the phone. I mean, she does it for a living! No wonder Kate divorced John. He seems a little creepy to me too. However, I thought the story was humorous and entertaining, but it wasn’t my favorite short story we have read so far. I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing big ever really showed up. Of course, the whole “phone sex” theme made the story interesting, but I wish something beyond just talking on the phone could have happened.
Yes, the pitfall of a story like this is there isn't any action, just talk. Good point. I wish it had come up in class.
ReplyDelete