The History of Sound: Stories

Edwin Chase is the protagonist and first-person narrator of “Edwin Chase of Nantucket.” In the narrative present, he is 20 years old and living on Nantucket with his mother Laurel. Although Edwin loves Laurel and appreciates their life together, he often feels disillusioned with the predictability of his circumstances—past, present, and future. However, he experiences a surprising revelation when his mother’s former friend and childhood love Will unexpectedly appears on the farm one evening. 

At first, Edwin is close-minded, repelled by the idea of Laurel loving someone other than his late father Silas. However, reading Will’s journal and Laurel’s love letters to him from over the years gradually changes his perspective, highlighting his growth during the story. Laurel’s personal history also provides insight into Edwin’s life in the present. He discovers that there is more to his life than he understood: His mother has harbored longing and loneliness her entire life. This discovery compels Edwin to feel newfound empathy for Laurel and changes his outlook on the human experience, marking him as a dynamic character who transforms over the short course of the narrative.

The first-person narrator and protagonist of “The Silver Clip” is unnamed. He is a young man who has decided to spend time at his late grandmother’s house on Nantucket after completing his art degree. He plans to fix up the house for sale while cultivating his painting practice, but his time on Nantucket doesn’t go as planned. He finds himself cold, lonely, and anxious, and his circumstances fail to inspire him. 

He also feels unsettled by his encounters with the past while he’s here. He discovers the antique ceramic dildo in the fireplace and spends time with his elderly neighbor Mallory—experiences that make him realize how alive the past is within his present life. A young and developing individual, the narrator is unsure who he is as a person and an artist. Although he does abruptly leave Nantucket within a month of his arrival, his experiences there end up shaping his life to come. The image of Will Snowe’s songbird painting in his studio at the end of the story suggests that the narrator’s time on Nantucket has stayed with him, highlighting The Clarifying Power of History.

Hope is the protagonist of the story “Graft.” In the narrative present, she takes a trip to the museum with her husband Harold one day and encounters a surprising reminder of her buried past life. She sees a little boy in the museum who starkly resembles either her former husband Sam’s child from his other marriage, or her and Sam’s own child, Eli. 

The child doesn’t end up being her or Sam’s son, but his appearance in Hope’s life compels her to reflect on how her personal history has shaped her identity in the present. She is a thoughtful and courageous character who, by the end of the story, decides to tell Harold everything about herself she’s been keeping from him. The truth she plans to share is that she fled home as a young woman, got pregnant out of wedlock with her lover Sam, was abandoned by Sam—who she discovered had another family—and left their child Eli with her brother Davis and sister-in-law Annabelle. Although she later tried to see Eli again, Davis and Annabelle forbade her to visit. Hope has felt such shame over her past that she hid it, but her decision to share these fraught aspects of her past with Harold conveys her capacity for change. Her museum experience awakens her to the clarifying power of history and inspires her to claim her story in her own words for the first time.

Mark is the protagonist of “Tundra Swan.” He is a middle-aged man living on Cape Cod with his wife Julia and his 20-year-old son Ian. He works at McAllister Farm & Nursery and lives on the property Julia inherited from her family years prior. Although Mark’s life seems stable on the surface, he is facing a wealth of emotional, financial, and familial challenges. His son has a substance use disorder, and Mark is desperate to get him help. Because Mark didn’t seek rehabilitation options for Ian right away, hopeful that Ian was ready to change, he feels guilty and responsible for his son’s recovery.

Although Mark is established as a compassionate, thoughtful, ethical character, his guilt leads him to make the uncharacteristic decision to steal trees from work. Despite his efforts to care for and connect with his son, Mark’s efforts are for naught. He accidentally pushes Ian away when he gets upset with him for shooting a swan on a hunting venture. By the end of the story, Mark longs for time to pass so that his troubles feel less encompassing. However, while Mark’s life appears static, he is a character capable of change. The image of him planting the trees at the story’s end conveys his capacity for hope.

August is the main character and first-person narrator of “August in the Forest.” In the narrative present, August is a young, aspiring writer living in a cabin in Wells Slope, New Hampshire, where he’s received an artist’s fellowship. Although invested in writing, August feels constantly frustrated during his time at Wells Slope. He becomes particularly disillusioned after Chloe—his girlfriend of one month—breaks up with him. On the phone with his best friend Elizabeth, he complains that he’s “always cold in the cabin,” “his writing [is] going horribly,” and he can’t “remember why [he’s] come to live here” (122). The story later reveals that much of August’s despondency originates from his unrequited feelings for Elizabeth and his failure to get anything published. August therefore feels trapped by his seeming inability to realize any of his dreams or desires.

By the story’s end, August has everything he wants. He’s married to Elizabeth and has just published his first short story. Even still, August’s internal monologue in the story’s closing pages suggests that August still isn’t satisfied. He wants to keep the publication from Elizabeth and is desperate for the short story to beget another series of stories or a book-length contract. His character represents the ever-hungry artist, willing to exploit any part of his life for the sake of creation, success, and a name.

Thomas Thurber is the protagonist and first-person narrator of “The Journal of Thomas Thurber.” In this story, Shattuck conveys Thomas’s story via his personal diary entries. Away from home and his wife Isabelle on a logging venture, Thomas starts keeping a daily journal to catalog his experiences. Most of his entries are addressed to his absent wife, affecting an intimate and confessional narrative tone that conveys Thomas’s thoughtful nature and gentle humor. Throughout the story, Thomas logs everything that happens to him while staying in the remote cabin in the woods and working with a group of unpredictable and gruff men. At the story’s start, Thomas is optimistic and thrilled by the change of scenery, but by the story’s end, he’s desperate to return home. His time away arguably evolves his outlook on his life and marriage; however, his fate is left ambiguous at the end of the story, highlighting his character’s static nature.

Anna Mott is the protagonist of “Radiolab: ‘Singularities.’” Years after moving to Newfoundland, Anna tells her story on an episode of the podcast Radiolab. She frames her story around her interest in the great auk. During the pandemic, Anna was living with her parents in Halifax. Alienated and depressed, she started working with and researching birds. Soon she encountered an uncanny image of a great auk from 1991, a photograph that opened her to the possibility of magic and mystery amidst the quotidian. 

Anna was moved by the image because great auks had allegedly gone extinct over 150 years prior. Determined to make sense of this mystery, Anna traveled to Newfoundland (where the photo was taken). She didn’t find evidence of auk life, but she did end up settling in Mule Harbor. On Radiolab, she tells the hosts that the great auk gave her hope and led her to her fate. Anna thus proves to be a dynamic character because she allows the experience to shape her future, illustrating her character’s capacity for open-mindedness and transformation.

Will Hunt is the main character and first-person narrator of “The Auk.” In the early 1990s, Will is living in Mule Harbor with his wife Nora. However, life is difficult for Will: A decline in tourism is threatening the life of his inn and Nora is exhibiting signs of early-onset dementia. Unsure how to save Nora or the inn, Will excavates a taxidermied great auk from his attic to distract himself from his woes. 

Much as it does for Anna, the great auk offers Will a renewed sense of hope and possibility. He lives in a different era and setting than many of the other characters in the collection, but Will’s longing for fulfillment, joy, and love resonates with Shattuck’s entire cast of characters, highlighting the universality of love, loss, and longing. Ultimately, Will will do anything in his power to hold onto whatever goodness he can in the present.

Caroline Thatcher is the protagonist of “The Children of New Eden.” In the narrative present, Caroline is traveling with Karl Dietzen’s Children of New Eden. She joined Karl’s congregation shortly after meeting Karl in Dedham. Trapped in her life with her parents and disinterested in accepting their arranged marriage for her, Caroline attached herself to Karl’s hopeful promises of eternity. She also convinced her childhood love Philip and younger sister Emma to join; along with the other Children of New Eden, they fled Dedham and are traversing the wilderness together.

Caroline is an earnest character who gets involved with Karl because she longs for an escape from her stifling circumstances. According to Karl, on January 1, 1700, the Children of New Eden will be carried up to heaven on a beam of divine light. This story offers Caroline hope and alleviates her trials on earth. At the same time, her involvement with Karl endangers her and her sister’s well-being. She doesn’t end up leaving the Children of Eden, but her father’s visit and the abuse Emma suffers challenge her to reconsider her beliefs. She is a complex character, caught between competing versions of reality.

Cal Owens is the first-person narrator and protagonist of “Introduction to The Dietzens.” A writer and historian, Cal is penning his history of Karl Dietzen and The Children of New Eden, who he refers to as the Dietzens. In the introduction of his book on the Dietzens, Cal details his interest through a personal anecdote about his relationship with his sister Mary. When Cal was 11, he and his sister spent a night at a museum before a pregnant Mary fled home with her boyfriend Jim. While here, Cal not only bonded with Mary, but he encountered the Dietzen Bible for the first time. 

In retrospect, this night led Cal toward his vocational fate, and it also marked a turning point in his and Mary’s relationship. In “Introduction to The Dietzens,” Cal employs an introspective and empathetic tone when rendering both his personal history and that of the Dietzens, and his perspective on the Dietzens develops the compassion and intelligence of his character.