The Plot Thickens

A Canadian story writer I greatly admire once declared that “plot is plod.” This was back in the last century, around the time my first collection was published. He seemed to mean that the things that happen in fiction are secondary to the language they’re written in and that everyday life with its tiny psychological shifts is the real stuff of art. I took these words to heart.

Time passed, and I read and wrote a lot more stories. While I still believe in the supremacy of the word, I’ve long wondered: Can’t a short story have startling language, striking imagery, emotional insight, and an intriguing plot? Do the big things that happen in stories have to be so small? Jess Gibson doesn’t seem to think they do. Her debut, The Good Eye, is refreshingly packed with plot. The body count alone is impressive. Characters are murdered — or about to be — by shooting, by poisoning, by French cuisine. One is choked by an archeological artifact, then beaten up...