After I read Amanda Holzer's short story, "Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape" in the anthology, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003, edited by Dave Eggers (Houghton Mifflin), it became a story I wish I had written.
The story, originally published in Story Quarterly, follows a romance from beginning to end through a series of song titles and the musicians who recorded them.
It starts off with "All By Myself, Eric Carmen. Looking for Love, Lou Reed. I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Whitney Houston. Let's Dance, David Bowie. Let's Kiss, Beat Happening. Let's Talk About Sex, Salt 'n' Pepa. Like a Virgin, Madonna. We've Only Just Begun, The Carpenters. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, The Ramones. I'll Tumble 4 Ya, Culture Club. Head Over Heels, The Go-Go's. Nothing Compares to You, Sinead O'Connor. My Girl, The Temptations. Could This Be Love? Bob Marley. Love and Marriage, Frank Sinatra." And ends several songs later with "I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor. Hit the Road, Jack, Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer. These Boots Were Made for Walking, Nancy Sinatra. All Out of Love, Air Supply." Finally ending with the song the story began with, "All By Myself, Eric Carmen."
Altogether about fifty songs, crossing different musical genres. Wow, what an ingenious, inventive way to tell a story, making it a fascinating and humorous journey. You could probably do the same thing with book titles as well.
In fact, in the "Contributors' Notes" in the back of the book, the reader is told that Holzer "encourages you to create your own mix-tape tale." Why not?
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