(from 2022)
Graham Swift is one of my favorite writers. He won the Booker Prize for LAST ORDERS and was short listed for several other books. MOTHERING SUNDAY, WATERLAND, SHUTTERCOCK and LAST ORDERS have all been made into films.
In
this story, the two adult children of a man who died taking his golf
clubs out of the trunk have gone to a minister to tell him about their
father's life so he will have something to say, (about a man he didn't
know) at his funeral. Funny how often this seems to happen in stories.
The woman thinks back over her father's life to an incident when she was nine and her father had called a carpenter to fix the hinges on their door. Although the carpenter was far from a young man, she is attracted to him--the first time she has experienced anything like this. And it becomes apparent that "Joe Short" is something of a Lothario in their neighborhood.
At the funeral, she considers telling this story, how her father held her hand while they waited to have their front door put back on. But in the end, she reads the poem that appears on the program. Of course, it is the writing that makes this story work. There is no eureka moment, no mystery solved, no problem overcome, just people going through a situation we have all gone through so its familiarity is soothing. And perhaps gaining some insight into their life (and ours).
7 comments:
I need to read some of Swift's writing. He's one I'm not familiar with yet.
I loved LAST ORDERS too, and read one of his collections of short stories, neither of which has this story in it. (But then, I remember the novel but not which book of stories I read, though it was probably the first, LEARNING TO SWIM and Other Stories. Just downloaded the second (ENGLAND and Other Stories) and will see if I remember it. I don't have my previous lists of stories and collections read with me down here. I see he has a third collection coming in May.
I did finish the Peter Tremayne collection of Sister Fidelma stories yesterday, , HEMLOCK AT VESPERS, and was going to start something new today anyway.
Not familiar with Graham Swift. Perhaps I should be.
My SSW is up now: "The Emerald Buddha" by Murray Leinster, a 1930 far-east adventure tale.
LAST ORDERS was made into a good movie, with Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, and Ray Winstone.
Cannot remember if I saw it or not.
Graham Swift is new to me too. I looked up Mothering Sunday and it sounded very good, and under 200 pages. The Kindle edition is reasonably priced, I will get a copy.
The story you featured reminded me of when I went home for my father's funeral in 2009. He had had dementia for many years and they had not been able to attend their church for a long time. The pastor, who had never met either of them, came to Mother's house and we talked about my father and his life so that he could do the service. I can see how this could be used in fiction.
It is a natural "in" for a short story structure/plot.
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