In an amazingly short amount of time Christopher J Ananias has produced over twenty pieces of top fiction for the site. And, in my humble opinion, though all are top shelf, none rate higher than The Footnotes.
The families of persons like Bundy, Dahmer, Oswald and various Manson Family members (and, sigh, seemingly countless others) have their lives turned upside down and possibly ruined by the actions of their kin. And no one gets it harder than the parents. “They made it”; “They must be terrible parents”; “They should be ashamed of themselves.” And although that sometimes happens to be the case, it isn’t always. Society is so determined to find answers to unsolvable riddles. “Shit happens” isn’t good enough.
Christopher explores that hell in this piece. You are in the car with them and I do not feel there is a false note anywhere in this tale.
CJA
This is an amazing story that deserves to be anthologized endlessly, like The Lottery and Incident at Owl Creek Bridge. Maybe that will happen someday!
Leila
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Hi Leila
That would be amazing!
Thank you, and LS, for selecting it.
CJA
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Must’ve missed this one previously. Don’t know what I was doing instead back then, but it was clearly time mis-spent. An empathetic tale of a grim topic, so very well achieved. Great writing.
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Hi Mick
It’s always great to hear from such an excellent writer as yourself.
Thanks so much!
CJA
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Hi Christopher,
It takes a brave writer to take on certain subjects. The main reason being, there can be an idea that the opinions in the story come from the writer’s own opinions. This is of course, nonsense.
You are a brave writer taking on content that some wouldn’t touch.
And I also want to reiterate those last seven lines are as strong as I’ve read on the site.
All the very best my fine friend.
Hugh
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Hi Hugh
That’s a great point! The writer sees the world as it is; they didn’t create.
But there are those who will attack a person for broaching the uncomfortable. I actually had a guy do that to me. He took issue with guns. Like I was a gun maniac. Saying something about me keeping my guns or something negative. I informed him that I don’t own a gun.
I’m glad you liked those last lines and picked the story for the Lit. Rerun that means a lot!
Thanks!
Christopher
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Christopher
I remember reading the tale the first time it appeared and it is one of those stories that one doesn’t need to read again because it is seared in the brain the first time; and it deserves to be anthologized endlessly, too, just like Leila said!
It’s wild what a huge, large, full and complete WORLD you are able to create in what, in retrospect, amounts to a handful of words.
The first time one reads this tale one is swallowed by the reality of it, like Jonah and the giant fish. It (this tale) makes an impact! It is hard-hitting, hardcore, and perfectly realistic. On successive rereadings it is both the same and not the same: i.e., like a living thing.
This story is so well-made that you’ve made it look easy, while at the same time the reader (the awake and alert and committed reader, that is) knows that this wasn’t easy to do.
There are many characters in this piece. It is worth the reader’s time to stop and count just how many characters actually appear in this piece, directly or indirectly. Just like life. And it is all crystal clear, as well as mysterious, scary, disturbing, even funny. Just like life! This story has so many moving parts that it’s far more like life than like a machine. And yet the pieces all fit together, too; again, JUST LIKE LIFE. (This story is fluid, not mechanical; like life. People forget that the Machines are only a part of life, and LIFE is life itself, a message this story also sends, beneath its river-like surface.)
Something about the tone of this reminds me of Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. The novel, not the musical. The miserable ones, the cursed ones, the forgotten ones, the hurt ones, the persecuted ones, the ones Dostoevsky called the insulted and injured. They are all of us; and at the same time they are not us.
True and real story-telling mastery, showing how it should be done!
Dale
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Hi Dale
I’m glad this story came across the way it did. One never knows when a story hits the world’s eye.
Great comparison with Jonah. That’s quite a compliment. The supporting cast can sometimes be forgotten, but they do need to be real and wanting.
There is so much violence in our world–it sort of seeps into almost everything.
That’s very interesting about the injured and persecuted ones. I know people walk around like that all the time; you can see it on their faces, sometimes in the mirror. And that’s not going to change.
Thanks for your exceptional comments. I always learn something, and that is great!
CJA
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Well worth rereading. Bleak, dark and the ending fits perfectly.
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Thanks, I appreciate it!
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Good story. I’m not big on serial killer stories (can’t really say what the culprit’s exact crimes are here, but since we’re in a funeral procession and he’s up for execution I would guess it was pretty bad.) Anyway, this is a nice twist and examination of the collateral damage of a deranged person. The proximity to horror is something more and more folks seem unable to escape in our devolving society. Maybe I should relax my ban on serial killer stories.
Reminds me of a couple of quotes. They may or may not have much to do with Christopher’s really well played short. Just comments on society and writing about it.
#1-“God never made a bad one.”—I don’t know who said this, and it’s debatable, as this story shows.
#2-“Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him.”—Orwell, Homage to Catalonia—sends me straight to Charlie Kirk. All apologies.
#3-“She always says she dislikes the abnormal, it is so obvious. She says the normal is so much more simply complicated and interesting.”—Gertrude Stein, Autobiography of Alice B Toklas—by flipping the script like this, you’ve taken the ‘abnormal’ and shown the more complicated ‘normal’. Great job, Christopher. That’s how you tell an interesting story.
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Hi Shredbobted
Glad you liked the story.
Those are some excellent points about society. When the abnormal becomes normal. It’s life in America now, with these mass tragedies. Innocent people get caught in the crossfire.
It’s awful about Charlie Kirk. I can’t say I agreed with everything he stood for (or even his politics), but he was one hell of a good debater. We need someone like him to keep the debating process alive, since it’s fundamental to our democracy. The right to disagree with one another shouldn’t ever lead to violence in a so-called civilized society.
Thanks for your excellent and thought provoking comments!
Christopher
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I still remember this one – Christopher has such a strong command of voice in his writing.
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Thanks Paul!
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