Abstract

The title of the collection refers to mental noise, the chatter in the mind that never stops. It also refers self-reflexively to the act of fictional narration from which the collection was created. The opening tale establishes the meta-fictional terms of the collection’s creative process, and stories thereafter explore the interpersonal conflicts and ethical dilemmas that arise from the contradictions, often between social conscience and personal appetite, inherent in mental chatter. In these stories, brief moments of inner silence offer a measure of hope, or a reprieve perhaps from the more nightmarish aspects of consciousness. Although “the narrator who wouldn’t shut up” is essentially gender-neutral, the vehicle for its exploration in each story is the “marginalized” white male in his various guises: henpecked husband, guilty boyfriend, inadequate father, talentless son, indifferent brother and, finally, impotent narrator. My hope is that a reader might get the “we’re all in this together” feeling from reading these stories, and perhaps be reminded of the therapeutic value of silence.