Evelyn is a 74 year old woman. She is the mother of three adult daughters and was married twice. She spends her days largely doing house-wifely tasks that her daughters find mysterious. How can she clean her apartment and iron her days away? One day, the seven-year old boy (Scotty)from across the hall knocks. And then begins his regular visits, where he assists Evelyn with the kind of tasks he can do. She feeds him cinnamon toast and one day gives him a dollar, telling him he must value his work. Both of them are content in their roles.
But after a bit, he begins taking things: a package of kleenex, a corn cob holder. At some point, Evelyn decides even though the thefts are small, she must act on it and she marches across the hall and tells his mother. Scotty brings out the box of things he has stolen and his mother, though mystified by it all, makes him apologize. While Evelyn is visiting a daughter, the family moves. Is it related to this incident? I think it is odd enough to make a family with a small child move.
Marissa Silver is writing a collection of stories about Evelyn and another older woman. She is a regular contributor to THE NEW YORKER. I like this sort of story but it's probably not for everyone.
6 comments:
I'm not sure if it is my sort of story, Patti, but it really is intriguing.
Not all the NYer stories are for me, but this one was.
Interesting. Silver is the daughter of Joan Micklin Silver, who did HESTER STREET and CROSSING DELANCEY, among other films. Like both her parents, she wrote and directed films (as does her husband), before leaving Hollywood and turning to writing short stories.
I finished the last two short story collections I was reading.
I have a free short story (you can download it from Amazon this month) by Alice Hoffman, THE BOOKSTORE SISTERS, I might read next. Also a MEGAPACK collection of Darrell Schweitzer stories. Plus I have several on order at the library.
In the British Library collection, I enjoyed (again, as I'm sure I read it before) Edmund Crispin's "We Know You're Busy Writing," about an author - clearly himself - constantly interrupted in his writing by people calling on the phone and ringing the doorbell.
This is not the sort of story I usually like, but it really depends on the writing. I like collections that follow one character or a set of characters (like Olive Kitteridge).
I am anxious to read the collection.
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