A short story written in the form of personal checks?

July 24, 2006 2:10 PM

Short story filter--does anyone know the title and author of a short story that's written entirely in the form of personal checks? The idea of the whole thing is to kind of read between the lines and figure out what is going on by who the person is writing checks to, for what amount, what's in the memo line, etc. A teacher friend would like to know. I remember seeing this but have no idea where to look. Thanks!
posted by printchick to writing & language (15 comments total)

I know it's not what you're looking for, but Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine is very similar. It's written in the form of correspondence between two people who live on opposite sides of the world. Everything is either a postcard or a letter, with the letters stored in envelopes attached to the page.

I'm not sure if that helps refine your search or not, but it's a start (or at least a good read).

I'd also love to know the name of this story, it sounds like fun.
posted by thewhitenoise at 2:24 PM on July 24, 2006

Looks like Ordeal by Cheque by Wurther Crue. Link has the name of a book that it might be found in.
posted by justkevin at 2:51 PM on July 24, 2006

Full "text" available about a third of the way through this PDF reading workshop.
posted by justkevin at 2:58 PM on July 24, 2006

Correction-- not the full text, but a detailed list of the cheques.
posted by justkevin at 3:02 PM on July 24, 2006

That's the story! Thank you. Now, bonus points to anyone who has a link to some pdfs or something of the actual checks.
posted by printchick at 3:08 PM on July 24, 2006

I suggest visiting a library that has Vanity Fair from Feb 1932:

Title: Ordeal by cheque
Author: Grue, Wuther
Article ID: 8217-1932-037-06-000021
Journal Section(s): THE WORLD OF ART
Journal: Vanity Fair
Issue: 37:6 (1932:Feb.) p.60

[Source]
posted by yeti at 3:15 PM on July 24, 2006

With your help, my teacher friend actually found a link to this, which I'll post, but I'm not sure how to make them linkable (can someone tell me that, too?) Anyway, here it is. Thanks again! I look forward to "reading" this again myself.

http://collectiveconscious.com/chaucer/Ordeal%2520By%2520Cheque.pdf#search='ordeal%20by%20cheque%20vanity%20fair'
posted by printchick at 3:30 PM on July 24, 2006

Write your text. Highlight what you want to be hypertext. Click the LINK button. Type in your URL (or copy and paste it). Click OK. Preview to make sure it looks acceptable.

"Ordeal by Cheque" by Walter Crue [aka Walter Grue] [PDF]

Vio-la.
posted by yeti at 3:50 PM on July 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

Aw, that's a great story. Thanks!
posted by goo at 4:54 PM on July 24, 2006

That's a really neat story, so thanks for posting this question, otherwise I wouldn't have even known about it. But, grrr, I can't figure out who Tony Spagoni is, and it's going to drive me nuts. 8-)
posted by tastybrains at 8:43 PM on July 24, 2006

hitman?
posted by seawallrunner at 11:55 PM on July 24, 2006

I thought bookie.
posted by goo at 12:05 AM on July 25, 2006

Some sort of drug dealer? Didn't they do heroin back in the 30s? His handwriting is shaky on the checks towards the end, and he writes checks to the guy several days in a row.
posted by printchick at 8:17 AM on July 25, 2006

I was thinking drug dealer, but I wasn't sure of drug use in the 30's. That probably makes the most sense.
posted by tastybrains at 8:22 AM on July 25, 2006

Hm, so you think Jr. died of a drug overdose? And who was Peter Ventizzi?
I was thinking that Spagoni was blackmailing him, but you might be right about the drugs or the bookie thing.
Maybe he didn't pay up and they offed him.
posted by exceptinsects at 7:29 PM on July 25, 2006