I finally found an Edith Pearlman story (Jeff recommended her stories) in a collection called LOVE STORIES FOR TURBULENT TIMES (2018). My library had nothing else and although HONEY DEW was listed in the catalog, it wasn't there and was not available to get through their inter-library loan system Mysterious for a writer that won awards a decade ago. This story was first published in The Antioch Review in 2007.
"Elder Jinks" concerns the whirlwind romance of two older (but not elderly) people and how their marriage procedes when neither of them has been very careful in making their choice and the story is full of their wonder at the other's behavior, habits and choices. When Gustave is on a trip, Grace has questionable evening guest(s), which brings things to a halt. But perhaps they will mend their fight now that they know each other better and seem willing to tread more carefully. An unusual story, both in style and story. I will read more of her--even if I have to buy it.
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I thought you might enjoy her stories. After I finished HONEYDEW (which was her last collection), I found BINOCULAR VISION: New and Collected Stories in the local Palm Beach County Library. Fortunately, Jackie was able to get a library card there a few years ago when we were borrowing DVDs in the previous apartment we stayed in. This is a larger trade paperback with 21 "selected" older stories (one dates to 1976, but most are since the 1990s) and 13 new ones, including the one you reviewed. I've read three of the older ones so far. "Day of Awe" is set in a Central American country, where the narrator is visiting his adult son, who is down there to adopt a young orphan boy. (The son is gay.) The father doesn't speak much Spanish, but he tries with the little boy and when the son takes him on a tour of the various orphanages. But it is Yom Kippur, and even though he is not particularly observant, he wishes there were eight other Jews for a minyan.
Claire Keegan has definitely been "flavor of the month" lately. I was able to get her first collection, ANTARCTICA, from my library (on the Kindle). It was her first collection, published in 1999 when she was just 30. She is a very strong, very evocative (on time and place) writer, who is well worth your time in seeking out.
Also reading another Agatha Christie collection, this with Christmas-y stories, MIDWINTER MURDER. There are series character stories throughout, it looks like, Poirot, Miss Marple, Harley Quin, Tommy & Tuppence so far. I've read them all many years ago but don't mind revisiting them here.
Well, sounds interesting, at very least.
I have ANTARCTICA on my hoopla audiobooks but have only read one or two.
Anxious to see how my book group did with SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE.
Please include mine as well: https://casualdebris.blogspot.com/2023/02/casual-shorts-isfdb-top-short-fiction.html
Thanks!
And, given a variety of small tasks and setbacks, including this morning's collapse of the house internet (now repaired--and then, just now, failing again for a couple/few minutes, sigh), here's mine for now:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2023/02/ssw-part-1-robert-arthur-robert-bloch.html
I had meant to look Pearlman up when Jeff first mentioned her. Now I have gotten a Kindle version of HONEYDEW and have put BINOCULAR VISION on my wish list. That one sounds especially good with both older and new stories.
Todd-You certainly have your hands full of household annoyances. Which is why I sold my house and moved into a place where they are someone else's issues.
Would that any dwelling was trouble-free...alas.
At least we've had only two very brief outages since.
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