Skip to footer

Contents May Have Shifted

High-flying tales of life and love from the author of 'Cowboys Are My Weakness.' 

Contents May Have Shifted By Pam Houston Norton, W. W. & Company 320 pp.
stack of books What are you reading?

As any reader of the stories in her early-'90s collection, "Cowboys Are My Weakness," could tell you, Pam Houston was an early master of the art of rendering fiercely independent, brilliant women in love with the wrong men. Her protagonists share a lack of self-pity, a driving passion for adventure, and a love of dogs. It would never occur to any of them to ask for help. 

That characterization holds true for Pam, the narrator of Houston's latest novel, Contents May Have Shifted, which has 144 mini-chapters, 132 of which are named for their settings (Alaska, Turkey, and Texas, among others). The 12 remaining scenes take place on airplanes. Leading a comfortable and nomadic life, Pam (like Houston) teaches writing in Davis, California, owns a Colorado ranch, and answers only to herself and her dogs. After decades of cramming herself into undersized relationships, Pam has embraced freedom with her "arms swung open wide." Then she meets Rick, "a man who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL." Even with his complications, including a young daughter and a narcissistic ex-wife, Rick offers compelling reasons for Pam to tether her life to his, and to find at home what she'd been looking for all over the world. 

Fractured into so many vignettes, the narrative can feel distractingly nonlinear, but on its own each tiny chapter shines. Houston's talent for needling out moments within moments, like nesting Russian dolls, testifies to the truth of Annie Dillard's proverbial notion: how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. Of real interest are details: flashes and exchanges with which Houston constructs a mosaic. The result is quietly funny, poetic, and authentic – a thoroughly rewarding trip.

Sarah Norris, arts editor of The Villager, has reviewed books for The New Yorker, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and other publications.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Contents May Have Shifted
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2012/0323/Contents-May-Have-Shifted
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe