That's what Esquire said about Chris Jones' story "The Things that Carried Him." And they were right. The story traces the journey of Sgt. Joe Montgomery, from the roadside where he was killed in Iraq, back to Scottsburg, Indiana. Jones captures every detail and paces his story in such a way that each one hits hard. To get it, Jones talked to more than 100 people to write the story, almost all of them in person. It's the best magazine story I've read in two years.
So print it out (it was 17 pages in print), take an hour, read it and post what you think. There's a lot to learn from here.
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ReplyDeleteCouple things this story made me think about:
ReplyDelete1. Structure. Notice that it's written chronologically backwards. How does that affect the impact of the story? Would the story have felt emotionally different if it was written in chronological order?
2. Restraint. You can almost feel the writer holding stuff back, for a reason -- he knows the story will depend on the sustained impact of key moment after key moment. Example -- You don't know the soldier's name until four pages in, and at that point, it's more than just a name.
3. Suspense/drama -- Jones draws out the intense moments, like how the soldier's widow finds out he's dead. (if you want to go straight there: part 3, page 117, starting with 'Micah Montgomery, who had visited ...')