Nobody Said Anything

Nobody Said Anything takes you back to that place when you are younger where you are just starting to assert yourself as an independent person, while still feeling the need for your parents approval. 

The part where he hitchhikes made me think of that one David Sedaris story (please forgive me, I am unaware of the title, and it would take an hour for me to locate it) where he decides to hitch hike and is propositioned. It also took me to that This American Life where the brother's try to hitch home and some unsavory characters take them to a graveyard and they escape. But I digress. 

The imagery of the kid constantly "beating off", made me sort of uncomfortable, I am not going to lie. The style of writing here reminds me of David Foster Wallace, a very masculine organic way to present what I understand to be real male experiences. (S.S., you would like DFL very much, I think). 

The kid tries to think where to start fishing and remembers where his father used to take him and his brother.  I wondered where the father was at the beginning of the story and this line sort of made me think that he died, but it turns out he is just an angry jerk. 

I really like the way Carver brings the anxiety and personal tension to the forefront of his characters. In A Small Good Thing, I really felt the anxiety of Ann. In this story, I am taken back to being a kid and those weird negotiations we make to play certain games or get the blue popsicle. This kid wants the fish, just to show his father. That other crazy green one was cool enough, but this one will prove that he listened when his father told him to bait the hook just so and go to this part of the creek at this time of the year. He wanted his father to be proud and when he got home he just got arguing and nobody said a thing about his fish.