44 pages • 1 hour read
Denis JohnsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Outside of a brief setup at the beginning, “Steady Hands at Seattle General” is a story composed entirely of dialogue from a single conversation. While at the hospital, the narrator becomes intoxicated and offers to shave the other patients. He shaves his roommate, Bill, who tells him a story of the time his wife shot him in the face. It turns out that Bill has been shot, on two separate occasions, by each of his ex-wives. The narrator tells Bill that one day, he’ll read about himself in a story or a poem, but Bill doesn’t like hearing that, because the way the narrator phrased it “makes [him] look kind of stupid” (108).
Bill tells the narrator that after he was shot in the mouth, he had a dream that he can’t remember. They chat more, mentioning car accidents and movies they’ve seen. When the narrator says that he likes living at the hospital, Bill says, “You can take a couple more rides on this wheel and still get out with all your arms and legs stuck on right” (110).
By Denis Johnson
Addiction
View Collection
American Literature
View Collection
Books that Feature the Theme of...
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Forgiveness
View Collection
Friendship
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Hate & Anger
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
School Book List Titles
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
The Past
View Collection