Response to "1-900" by Richard Bausch

            Richard Bausch’s short story is a familiar story of love and loss, portrayed in an almost episodic way, suggesting there is more than the tip of the iceberg.  The story consists of only two direct speaking characters and is completely told through dialogue.  This writing style of a story-told-through-dialogue is a great example of how to exactly that.  Bausch remains consistent throughout and allows his characters to have believable and interesting conversations to tell the story. 

            At first, I thought that the story would move on from the initial phone sex scene.  However, the author was able to resolve the plot and remain within the parameters of this one conversation.  As far as plot development, the main character, John, is a recently divorced man with two kids who are with their mother in New York.  What I enjoyed about this style of storytelling is the amount of guessing and preconceptions that the reader must adopt.  The audience simply has to take John’s word for it, which in retrospect seems a bit uncertain.  A lot of evidence throughout the story leads us to believe that John was indeed an unfitting husband.  There are several lines in the story about John’s alleged drug use.  John confesses Sharon, saying, “I have a habit of getting a little too much to drink now and then, and I used to do some other kinds of substances.”

            I think that Bausch is trying to indirectly involve the reader in the character’s lives who are off screen.  He subtly suggests that there are always two sides to a story.  One could assume that John’s family is somewhere else explaining their opposing side of the story.  There’s a lot left to the imagination in “1-900” which is what I enjoyed most about the story.  Bausch allows the reader plenty of information to make the story complete yet not enough to catalyze a deeper meaning in a closer reading.