Prof., author sheds light on act of writing

By Mary Trombley
Daily Arts Writer

In a story in University professor Charles Baxter's new collection of short fiction, "Believers," a character relating a tale at a dinner party says, "I keep forgetting about the necessities of violence in the U.S.A. Well, if you were expecting violence, you'll be disappointed. Something else happened."

This statement is almost emblematic of Baxter's own work. His stories, in their graceful depiction of Midwestern life, never hinge on overt brutality. Something else is always happening in Charles Baxter's work - something dark, something slow, something heady, but always something subtle and well-crafted. Even when he's describing an assisted suicide or a bar brawl, Baxter's writing is endowed with careful clarity and wit.

"I've come to feel that the real challenge to me as a writer is to take ordinary experiences and to make them interesting again," Baxter said. "Apparently it's not my mission in life to take the huge subjects - war and peace - and deal with them. What I do is to take some of these more day to day events and make them compelling."

The author's statement is humble, considering that the "huge subjects" in most people's lives are the ones that Baxter writes about. Marriage (the lasting kind), conventional confusion and the after-effects of death and disease are mainstays of his stories. As he writes about confused people making choices, Baxter avoids the flamboyant and focuses on slower, scarier realities. In his fiction, a drunken driver will avoid crashing his car, only to have to face the wreckage of his life in the morning.

This year has been particularly productive for the author: Besides "Believers," which is in stores now, a book of his essays entitled "Burning Down The House" will be available in April. Vintage Books is also re-issuing his first collection, "Harmony Of The World," this spring. In addition, Baxter is the current director of the English department's MFA program.

Though Baxter focuses on the short story genre, he has written two fine novels - "First Light" and, most recently, 1993's "Shadow Play," as well as a collection of poetry. His work is regularly published in many academic journals and such mainstream magazines as "Harper's" and "Atlantic Monthly." Baxter is frequently anthologized in "Best American Short Stories" and has received numerous accolades, including an O. Henry Price award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Baxter's collections of short fiction have garnered him the most attention. Despite his forays into other forms, short stories continue to fascinate him. "I really like the poetry and the compression and the scope of the short story, how much you can tell in a limited space," Baxter commented. "Within this small size, this constriction ... I think you can do amazing things."

Baxter's characters are particularly memorable - a young child experiencing the death of his grandmother, a bored banker determined to explode his life, an elderly woman deceiving her husband on his deathbed.

The novel form influences Baxter's work in a different manner. "I really think novels are more about time and memory and people making plans. Novels are often up to the business of creating histories."

"First Light," for example, traces the relationship of a brother and sister in reverse chronological order, starting from a present-day holiday party and ending at their first meeting in infancy. The book is particularly apt in showing the connections between the characters' past and present circumstances; each episode reveals a little more of the complicated links between past events and present pain.

Baxter is a native of Minneapolis and has taught in the state of Michigan since 1974. His writing is nearly always set in the Midwest, most particularly the fictional rural town of Five Oaks, Mich.

"I write about the Midwest because I know it and because I'm a Midwesterner and you write about what you know. Even Stephen King writes about Maine because that's what he knows," he says. Baxter's stories are eerie portraits of the region - they accentuate the surreal in the most commonplace of Midwestern lives.

Baxter's writing has its ardent fans. "Some people just want to see him as a nice Midwestern writer, but he's got a dark view," says Elwood Reid, former student and University lecturer. "Inside (Baxter's) normal appearance lurks an edgy guy." Reid compares Baxter to John Cheever. "His writing is very well-observed. It's dead-on ... there's not a wasted word."

09-03-97