A friend had this anthology in duplicate and gave me a copy. I don't remember seeing it before but it's from the nineties. Richard Yates was a favorite writer of mine, but I don't remember this story. Lots of the nineties most popular writers are included: Russo, Atwood, Updike, Banks, et.
It takes place at a TB hospital. Do they exist anymore? A woman is visiting her husband who seems to have been there for a long time and through many surgeries. A friend has driven her there and she is having an affair with another passenger. This must happen often when your spouse is at a place like this for years. She has brought her husband some magazines, which he is anxious to read. She breaks down after her visit but then her lover cheers her up. What an odd story.
11 comments:
Stories about marital/emotional infidelity are likely to go looking for a New Angle, I suspect...I missed this anthology as well. A number of favorite and near-favorite writers, and only one or two un-favored ones. Can be read at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/highinfidelity240000john/page/n9/mode/2up
Thanks for checking that out, Todd.
You're quite welcome! I don't think there's much call, in these days of Reasonably effective antibiotics (so far) for even tuberculosis wards any longer, much less dedicated sanatoria...
Big fan of Yates too, but I don't remember this story either.
I'm finishing the Jack Ritchie/Crippen & Landru collection, CARDULA AND THE LOCKED ROOMS, today. Cardula (obvious anagram) is a vampire PI - seems he needs money to pay the rent - who only (of course) works at night. I thought it took a few stories to get it down right, but by the last few I was enjoying them.
The second half of the book is unrelated locked room stories, and some of these are very clever and fun. Most of the stories (both groups) were originally published in AHMM. I found "Play a Game of Cyanide" to be very annoying, though I think that was Ritchie's intention, but I really liked "Box in a Box," and thought "Swing High" was clever.
Always love locked room mysteries.
This anthology sounds interesting. And I would like to read the story. Maybe someday I will find a copy.
Today I got a Kindle edition of The Best of Manhunt 4: The Jack Ritchie Stories. I think I am going to like them.
Ritchie was a god writer, and more prone to humor than some other MANHUNT mainstays.
Well, a good writer, if not necessarily divine.
I remember when Richard Yates was mentioned as a possible Nobel Prize contender. Another writer who died too soon.
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