"The Architect of Flowers"

“The Architect of Flowers” is a collection of short stories by William Lychack. When I first started reading the stories, I was thoroughly confused by the dialog. Lychack uses no quotation marks to offset his dialog. I don’t necessarily like this style of writing because it can be harder for a reader to understand. I kept asking myself, “Oh wait. Is someone talking? But who is talking?” It may be my personal preference, but I don’t like the way it looks or reads. I don’t think that it worked well in this book. My favorite short story so far is the chicken one, “Chickens.” I just found it so comical. I actually know people who have had this issue with chickens before. They didn’t cook them or eat them, they just blew their heads off. I also found the main couple’s marriage to be interesting. It seems that their marriage was falling apart before their little bundle of joy was born. After, things began to fall back into place. Lychack showed us how the woman would drive around town searching for her husband’s car. It reminded me of so many relationships that I have seen in today’s time. There is usually an absent member of the relationship, whether it be the man or woman, and it usually involves a child. I found their relationship easy to relate to, which could be why I liked the story so much. The one story I absolutely did not like was “The Architect of Flowers.” I was so confused throughout the whole thing. There is about six sections and each section is in a different point of view with a different narrator. The fact that Lychack does not use quotations for dialog does not help in this situation. I kept wondering if the hybridizer was a person. I couldn’t tell if it was a person or an inanimate object with human characteristics. Then when it was established that it was indeed a person, I understood a little more. Towards the end I kept wondering if the woman was actually dreaming when she laid down or if she in fact died and went to be with her husband. That was kind of a gray part in the story. I just didn’t like it and I never really had a full understanding of what was going on. It didn’t help that it was told in multiple point of views and each section had a different narrator. I normally don’t have an issue with more than one narrator in the story, but I just don’t think it worked for Lychack. I couldn’t follow along and, in my opinion, it was too long of a story with not enough going on to grasp the reader’s attention. I found myself zoning out quite a bit. It actually has taken me about a week to read this one story. That is how unassociated I was with it. It could be that I just didn’t care for the subject matter, or it could be that I just don’t particularly like Lychack’s writing style. I found these stories to be slow readings. I only have liked one so far out of the few that we have read. Hopefully they speed up and I can take more good things away from them than bad ones. I must say that, unlike some, I do not find Lychack’s writing to be beautiful. I am not a big fan of his writing style either. The story “Griswald” is probably one of my favorites. The fact that the subject matter was never said is great. So just to make sure I have all of my bases covered, the child was in fact molested by the old man, correct? That is how I saw it. It seems as if the child pushed that memory out of his mind because he doesn’t seem to remember, or if he does he does not tell us, the act that occurred between the two of them. I have this sudden interest in subtext and I think that this story does a good job at portraying it. “The End of the Wedge” was a very interesting story. Doc Yoder always says that the girl who comes across as a slut has to die. I think that girl is Joy-Dee, but I’m not saying she has to die. The curse words he uses in this story reminds me of modern day teenagers. Also, the way she dresses shows us a bit of Joy-Dee’s personality. I actually became confused in this story the farther I got into it. I don’t understand the length of time that is happening. Lychack seems to jump around, or doesn’t explain much. I’m a big fan of an author showing me step by step of what has happened and why it happened, but Lychack doesn’t do that. It could just be my personal preference, but it makes it harder to read. Also, why is this kid walking around this neighborhood going door-to-door? Why is his mother not around to supervise him? Maybe it’s in a different time period than what I grew up in, but my mother never let me out of her sight let alone let me walk around a neighborhood. I like how Lychack uses the phrase “must have.” It’s as if the narrator isn’t quite sure what happened on that particular day of his father’s death. Makes me wonder. Is this kid a psychopath? He laughs at beating the other kid up. He thinks his mother regrets his birth. These are tell-tell signs. I might use some of these in my story. I don’t really understand the purpose of this story. I also don’t like the way Lychack talks about the boy. It’s as if the kid is projecting himself out of his own body. That’s just weird, and I don’t think Lychack does it correctly. Anyone who is from the south knows that if you hit a deer with a vehicle you leave it on the side of the road. The meat isn’t any good after it’s been demolished by a car. I wonder if Lychack knew that, because in “Hawkins,” they’re skinning a deer that the narrator hit with his car. Maybe it’s because I grew up skinning animals and gutting them, but I didn’t find this story entertaining at all. All it is is Lychack telling us how the Hawkins guy skinned the deer. I know how it happens. It just wasn’t interesting to me. I don’t really understand the points to Lychack’s stories. For me, I like to have some sort of moral point or something to get me through stories. Lychack doesn’t do that. Maybe I’m just missing it or something, but so far all I’ve taken away from these stories is what not to do in my writings. No matter what, I’m still not a fan. I will admit, he is a great writer; however, I just dislike his story themes. I’m not a big fan of magical realism, unless it’s Harry Potter. My disliking him is probably just the personal preference I have, but it’s something I can’t get over. His lack of quotations around dialog drives me crazy. It confuses me more than anything. I don’t like the fact that I can’t easily follow his stories. I am a very realistic person and I don’t like stories that portray something that will never happen in real life. I actually liked Amy Greene better than I like him. Yes, her story started off slow, but when things started happening then I was hooked. Also, my personal reading preference is novels, but all I write is short stories. Ironic, huh? I never even noticed when he broke the rules because all I could focus on was how lost and bored I was. When a story doesn’t grab my attention then it’s hard for me to pay attention. I did like a few of his stories, “Chickens” and “Griswald.” I think that I liked “Chickens” because it is a very real story. I have seen that happen too many times. The reason why I like “Griswald” is because, having read my manuscript, you know that I like the gory stuff. I am a Law and Order: SVU junkie. If you haven’t watched it then you should. Then you would know what I’m talking about. Those two stories were to my liking, but the others just weren’t. I don’t find family issues entertaining or interesting. I have family problems of my own, I don’t want to read about someone else’s. I can’t stand when a story makes me feel stupid, and I feel like it happened too much while reading this book. I never understood what was going on. I kept wondering, “Is the hybridizer a person or a thing?” “Why is this relevant to what is happening?” etc. I think the book ended the way it began. I wasn’t impressed with its ending. It was just the same to me. Honestly, I didn’t see what was so special about this author. Yes, he is a great writer. His works are very clean and it is obvious he spent a great deal of time of them, but his stories were boring and drab. I didn’t even want to pick up this book when it was pouring down rain this weekend. It seems like either him or someone close to him had a big dad problem in their lives and that was the influence of the stories. That’s cool. It works. But I personally do not care to read about family drama. We all have our things that need to be worked out with our families, but I don’t think portraying it on the page is a good way to do that.