About to begin Dark's new novel, FELLOWSHIP POINT, I decided to reread this story. It is in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE (20th) CENTURY. It is only for the stout of heart, but the writing is so exquisite it is worth the tears. Whenever I read something like this, I don't regret the sadness. I feel like I am sharing an emotion that needs to be shared. Does that sound crazy?
A mother and her thirty-something son, always close, bond even more strongly in the last days of his life. The story didn't specify an illness, but because it was written in the nineties and it is a wasting disease, you assume it is AIDS. It was made into a movie (HBO) with an all-star cast. I will try and watch it. The last line is the saddest. It is perhaps too sad.
14 comments:
I can see how the last line of this one would be so sad, Patti. It sounds like the sort of story that you know isn't going to have an upbeat ending...
Yes, you know it can only end one way and yet that last line was unexpectedly sad. Hope to see you in LaJolla if all goes well.
First lines and last lines are keys to great short stories.
Don't rememberreading it but I remember the movie - Glenn Close, Robert Sean Leonard, David Straithairn, Bridget Fonda (according to Wikipedia), the first movie directed by Christopher Reeve (in 1997). I wonder if it is still available on HBO.
Currently reading three collections: Gil Brewer's very noirish DEATH COMES LAST: THE REST OF THE 1950s, Charlotte Armstrong (inspoired by your last entry), I SEE YOU (so far, not as good as I remember her other collection), and ANOTHER ROUND AT THE SPACEPORT BAR, edited by George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer. In the latter collection, I liked John M. Ford's atmospheric (CANTERBURY TALES-like) "THe Persecuter's Tale," But the dark Brewer stories probably made the deepest impression overall.
I have never read Brewer, nor the other for that matter. FENS just came in at my library. Anxious to see how "out there" they are.
Harlan Ellison's best story, "The Deathbird", incorporates among its disparate elements a contemporary mimetic narrative in which a woman is dying of an incurable malady (I believe in her case it's inoperable cancer) in the early '70s, and she calmly asks her adult son to give her an injection that will euthanize her...it introduces a theme in the story that recurs in the narrative, as in a multiple choice quiz later on asking (paraphrase) "What is the greatest expression of love?" one of the answers is "Use the needle." Yes, the narrative that seeks to share a terrible experience, and in sharing helps the reader recall when they had to cope with that kind of thing...part of what art's for.
My entry in SSW will be up shortly. Thanks for the citation of the Dark, and Jeff for reminding us of the film.
I will look for that one, Todd.
1. Checked HBO On Demand and IN THE GLOAMING is indeed available.
2. Checked my records and, as I thought, we did watch this on April 20, 1997.
Wish I had kept such great records.
I've kept Week-At-A-Glance (or equivalent) yearly books since 1975. Of course, you need some idea of the year at least in order to know where to look! In this case, I knew it came out in 1997 so just went to that book.
Finally, a version!
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2022/08/short-story-wednesday-kit-reed-margaret.html
I don't mind a sad ending like this because it is an inevitable part of life. Depressing endings bother me because it seems that there is a choice and it came out wrong, or it is due to some "unfair" part of life. Not expressing that well, but I agree that sharing an emotion through reading is good.
Right from the first sentence you knew what you were going to get. But because the writing was so strong, the emotions so real, you were able to go with it.
From the new ANSIBLE, and the running feature about awkward construction in writing:
* Jacketed, Not Stirred. ‘Horace was ordering two dry martinis, handsome and composed in a white dinner jacket.’ (Helen Reilly, Lament for the Bride, 1951) [BT]
• Neat Tricks. ‘He pulled a forelock that wasn’t there subserviently.’ (Ibid) [BT] ‘His ears shadowed George out the door far below.’ ‘Mr. Josef oozed across the hall.’ ‘Mr. Josef poured himself around the edge of the door and inside.’ (all from Charlotte Armstrong, ‘Three-Day Magic’, F&SF, September 1952) [CG]
https://news.ansible.uk/a422.html
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