American Standard — John Blair

Winner of the 2002 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

Selected by Elizabeth Hardwick


It is difficult to see what lurks beneath the surface of a muddy river, an alligator-infested lake, or a John Blair short story. The deep currents that drive a demure, devout, church-going woman to shoot her husband; the ripple effect of a midnight rendezvous at church youth camp that goes slightly -- then horribly -- askew; the sinkholes that can swallow Porsche dealerships -- or marriages; what is dredged up in American Standard cannot easily be forgotten.


Set mostly in central Florida, Blair's stories are filled with people living lives of disquieting longing and stubborn isolation. For them, this is the American standard, as ubiquitous and undistinguished as vitreous china bathroom fixtures.