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A review by cjf
More Curious by Sean Wilsey
4.0
Zadie Smith, quoted by Sean Wilsey in the introduction to More Curious:
"Underneath the professional smiles there is a sadness in this country that is sunk so deep in the culture you can taste it in your morning Cheerios."
Wilsey concludes his introduction, “Escaping from sadness is what made this country. We are all escapees.” His heroes, Thomas Pynchon and Joseph Mitchell, he writes, are escape artists.
Melville, in the opening of Moby-Dick:
"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bring up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off — then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball."
The United States of America is made up of 3.79 million square miles of sadness. Its total sadness is over three thousands miles wide. At Mount McKinley, the sadness reaches an altitude of 20,377 feet above sea level. To each his own terrain. Ishmael hit the sea. Wilsey merges carefully onto the interstate."
In “Travels With Death,” a half-conscious reworking of Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley, Wilsey drives an uncomfortable, kitschy 1960 Chevy Apache 10, which he bought from a man around Marfa, from Far West Texas to New York City, nearly 2,500 miles, with his wolf-dog “Charlie” (named after Charlie Chaplin) and an architect. We are told that the truck cannot be driven over 45 miles per hour, or else its engine will explode. Wilsey, on the bad idea:
"To better understand the comedy and poverty of the United States, I decided to cross them very slowly."
Wilsey quickly learns that forty-five is too slow, too much.
More Curious collects thirteen essays on America by Sean Wilsey (The New Yorker, McSweeney’s), written between 1998 and 2014. Other essay subjects include: NASA, skateboarding, fine German and Italian appliances, the restauranteur Danny Meyer, volunteering after 9/11, and Marfa, Texas (twice).
"Underneath the professional smiles there is a sadness in this country that is sunk so deep in the culture you can taste it in your morning Cheerios."
Wilsey concludes his introduction, “Escaping from sadness is what made this country. We are all escapees.” His heroes, Thomas Pynchon and Joseph Mitchell, he writes, are escape artists.
Melville, in the opening of Moby-Dick:
"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bring up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off — then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball."
The United States of America is made up of 3.79 million square miles of sadness. Its total sadness is over three thousands miles wide. At Mount McKinley, the sadness reaches an altitude of 20,377 feet above sea level. To each his own terrain. Ishmael hit the sea. Wilsey merges carefully onto the interstate."
In “Travels With Death,” a half-conscious reworking of Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley, Wilsey drives an uncomfortable, kitschy 1960 Chevy Apache 10, which he bought from a man around Marfa, from Far West Texas to New York City, nearly 2,500 miles, with his wolf-dog “Charlie” (named after Charlie Chaplin) and an architect. We are told that the truck cannot be driven over 45 miles per hour, or else its engine will explode. Wilsey, on the bad idea:
"To better understand the comedy and poverty of the United States, I decided to cross them very slowly."
Wilsey quickly learns that forty-five is too slow, too much.
More Curious collects thirteen essays on America by Sean Wilsey (The New Yorker, McSweeney’s), written between 1998 and 2014. Other essay subjects include: NASA, skateboarding, fine German and Italian appliances, the restauranteur Danny Meyer, volunteering after 9/11, and Marfa, Texas (twice).