Words That Count

by Elizabeth Solar

Can we pause a few moments to show some love to Amy Hempel? One of the most admired, and exciting writers of the last four decades, her first collection of short stories in over 12 years has been heralded in recent issues of The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and myriad publications large and small. If you’ve been around since 1985, you have most likely read one of her pieces in the aforementioned publications, Vanity Fair, The Harvard Review, O Magazine, and literary journals too numerous to mention.

If brevity is the soul of wit, Hempel is wit’s beating heart.

I saw Amy Hempel recently during a reading at my local booksellers. She was everything I hoped she would be: Warm, irreverent, cavalier and comfy in her own skin. The pleasure of hearing her speak her prose. Thing is, once you have access to Hempel’s fine prose in black and white, you get to savor the adventure of reading her words over and over and over again.  The true delight in reading Amy Hempel is re-reading Amy Hempel. What she does with a few well-placed words is nothing short of alchemy.  She imbues a phrase with so much meaning, yet often remains enigmatic, and sometimes blurs the line between prose and poetry.

While many of us writers bask in word count, Hempel simply makes every word count. Her stories contain no fat, no fillers.  I defy you to read the first story of her new collection, and not swoon by its impact, perhaps have your heart a little broken. In Sing to It, the title story - weighing in at a lean 116 words - she explores a history and relationship in ways I can only aspire to in 150 pages. In literary terms, few do so much with so little to move the reader, while retaining the mysteries and complexities of relationships, of life.

There are times I am not quite sure what Hempel is trying to say, but I always feel the emotional power of her words, an entire shift of my molecules. She, and her prose travel the backroads and detours of life’s journey and you take that wild ride with her through that bumpy terrain.

Hempel’s precision with words can be attributed to her background as a journalist. A primer on her economy of words goes like this: “…Journalism was great training…because you have to grab readers instantly and keep them.”  Think headline news. She quickly felt the limitations of reportage as she didn’t wasn’t interested in being the first to get the story, a downright treasonous viewpoint by today’s standard of instant gratification, better to be first than accurate brand of factual storytelling. “Obviously, in journalism, you’re confined to what happens. And the tendency to embellish, to mythologize, it’s in us. It makes things more interesting, a closer call.” *

She credits the discipline of journalism in keeping stories to what is essential and starting with the headline. “You go in…assuming a person’s going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So, the trick is: don’t give them one. In fiction, you don’t need to have the facts up front, but you have to have something that will grab the reader right away. It can be your voice. Some writers feel that when they write, there are people out there who just can’t wait to hear everything they have to say. But I go in with the opposite attitude, the expectation that they’re just dying to get away from me.” *

Hempel’s self-deprecating attitude is just one more reason she’s a great writer, on one reason we keep going back.  She takes the writing seriously. Herself, not so much.

Not everyone can be Amy Hempel. Not everyone wants to be or should be. Some of us love the discipline and challenge of world being in 300 words or less. Some of us like the sprawl of epic descriptions that go on for paragraphs, even pages. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, another former journalist, was the master of the sweeping description.

Whether you write flash fiction, personal essays, or full-length novels, Amy Hempel can teach us how sometimes taking the minimalist route maximizes the impact of our writing. And how to make every word count.

*from The Paris Review: No. 176 – Amy Hempel, The Art of Fiction

Interview by Paul Winner

Photo: E. Solar