"Stay Awake" by Dan Chaon

When trying to decide on an author for this project, I struggled on finding someone that would really hold my interest. When the name Dan Chaon was mentioned to me, I had no idea who he was or knew of anything he had written. However, after reading "Stay Awake", I was immediately a fan. In each story of this collection, the characters share a certain need, or longing for themselves. The setting is always different, but it always seems to have a gloomy feeling. A hospital room, the house where your parents committed suicide, even a cozy home that burst into flames. The level of happiness in these stories is minimal; however, by the end I was always smiling. Sometimes from shock, sometimes from pure entertainment. My favorite story in this collection was "The Bees". Everything about this story was perfect. The main character, Gene, was fighting an internal battle with himself. After abandoning his previous family and being an alcoholic, Gene moves on and has another son and remarries. He constantly wonder what happened to his other son, if he is even alive. Chaon does a good job of allowing his characters to be easy to relate to, even if their situations are often wildly bizarre. I think my favorite thing about his writing is the way he ends his stories. They are clever, profound, and make you want to read them over and over. Chaon is has the ability to say everything he needs to in a matter of a few sentences. It is hard to find an author that possesses this kind of talent. I applaud Dan Chaon for his accomplishments and look forward to reading more.