Comments on: A short story written in the form of personal checks?

Question: A short story written in the form of personal checks?

printchick — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:10:24 -0800

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!

By: thewhitenoise

thewhitenoise — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:24:57 -0800

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.

By: justkevin

justkevin — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:51:55 -0800

Looks like Ordeal by Cheque by Wurther Crue. Link has the name of a book that it might be found in.

By: justkevin

justkevin — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:58:55 -0800

Full "text" available about a third of the way through this PDF reading workshop.

By: justkevin

justkevin — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:02:50 -0800

Correction-- not the full text, but a detailed list of the cheques.

By: printchick

printchick — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:08:00 -0800

That's the story! Thank you. Now, bonus points to anyone who has a link to some pdfs or something of the actual checks.

By: yeti

yeti — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:15:38 -0800

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]

By: printchick

printchick — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:30:03 -0800

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'

By: yeti

yeti — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:50:40 -0800

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.

By: goo

goo — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:54:33 -0800

Aw, that's a great story. Thanks!

By: tastybrains

tastybrains — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:43:28 -0800

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-)

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 23:55:45 -0800

hitman?

By: goo

goo — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:05:24 -0800

I thought bookie.

By: printchick

printchick — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:17:55 -0800

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.

By: tastybrains

tastybrains — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:22:48 -0800

I was thinking drug dealer, but I wasn't sure of drug use in the 30's. That probably makes the most sense.

By: exceptinsects

exceptinsects — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 19:29:06 -0800

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.