What I Read Wednesday: Virgins by Danielle Evans

I thought this short story was appropriately titled to kick off my first What I Read Wednesday.  The purpose behind What I Read is blatant: I want to share what I've read with you and I've chosen Wednesday because there's nothing like a good story to get you over that hump.  (That is, if you subscribe to the whole time and space thing, but that's another blog)  That said, enjoy my rant on "Virgins" by Danielle Evans.

"Virgins" was originally published in The Paris Review, but I read it in The Best American Short Stories series edited by Salman Rushdie in 2008.  It takes place circa 1996 just following the death of Tupac.  The opening got me right away because, though the story takes place on the east coast, it puts me on the west--where I was when the actor/rapper died.  

Evans uses dialect and vivid description to convey the ages of the main characters and although they are clearly African American, I believe the archetypes are racially interchangeable.  For instance, it's a coming-of-age story featuring three high school age kids.  The main character, female, is conflicted, her girlfriend is a fast know-it-all, and the guy friend is secretly crushing on her.  That's a universal set up if I ever read one.   

What attracts me to this story most is the reality of it: the struggle and eventual outcome could very well be biographical if it weren't fiction.  We can see the main character's inner turmoil and outer confidence up until the end when she gives in and loses her virginity. 

The beauty of a story for me, however, is in the layering: the story behind the story.  In "Virgins" the protagonist didn't feel like her virginity even belonged to her, which I believe to be a ubiquitous feeling amongst most women. Her girl friend wanted to tell her what to do with it, her guy friend was pissed when she lost it as though she borrowed it from him, and she, having been detached from it for so long, could only (try to) understand it through what they felt.  

I commend Ms. Evans for making a classic idea contemporary by paralleling it with the death of Tupac.  Even if it was more biography than fiction, the ability to analyze and pinpoint what went on in a very emotionally tumultuous time in one's life, is the uncanny skill most writers would sacrifice Virgins to achieve.

Blip Blam Bloggo,

~sondria!

P.S. Purchase The Best American Short Stories 2008 here.  And read more about Danielle Evans here.