A couple, who are both straying for the first time, go to the beach. As the man is trying to tell a joke, the woman notices someone in distress in the ocean. The man, a strong swimmer, joins the drowning man's friend, in trying to save him. They both fail. As the couple is leaving the beach he notices his purple flipflops are gone. Then he notices a woman stumbling away, wearing them. He demands she return them and then figures out she is the wife of the drowned man. The couple is unable to consummate their afternoon and go home. This was a successful short story for me. Well- written and had a point.
13 comments:
Is Boswell's book a collection of stories about infidelity (and, perhaps, its "desserts")? Interesting. Aesopian, for adults?
Ah...a 1997 anthology: https://tinyurl.com/mwmb76yf edited by the busy John McNally. https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/john-mcnally/285063/
Don't know him...or the story, obviously.
Currently reading collections by John Dickson Carr (the latest Crippen & Landru collection, this is mostly his very early stuff, before his first mystery, written when he was a teenager and in his early 20s) and James Salter. I thought I'd read a Salter collection, but if I did it sure wasn't this one - LAST NIGHT. So far, I like it.
One thing: Carr was really ahead of his time here. In "The Deficiency Expert" (1927), the main character, a college student, gets his indulgent father to let him take over a local newspaper and print (basically) "fake news" to get more readers, which it does. He even comes up with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) 100 years ago!
"People won't buy the paper, or advertise!"
"Oh yes, they will....People'll always be kind of afraid there may be some truth in what we say, and they'll go on buying it because they're afraid that if they don't they may miss something. That's anybody's weakness: afraid to miss something."
It is a collection of stories about infidelity by many authors.
It's interesting how often you see an intuition of what's ahead by many writers. No one knew how far it would go though. We didn't two years ago
Sounds like a good story. I will check out Robert Boswell.
Sorry I missed Monday, Monday. I was at the Santa Barbara Courthouse Monday and Tuesday for jury duty. Very tiring. Arrived at 8:30 a.m. and we did not get to the courtroom until 2:00 because the lawyers and the judge were "conferring" and then we did not get called back until Tuesday afternoon. I am amazed that they actually ended up choosing a jury in that short a time and grateful that they did not around to questioning me. I did take a Rex Stout book to read and got most of it read while waiting.
I went back and read the MONDAY, MONDAY post and comments, and saw that Patti was reading THE PASSENGERS ON THE HANKYU LINE by Arikawa Hiro. I don't remember the book but I have read two other books by that author and enjoyed them. Either Glen or I had seen the book earlier because it is on our wish list to buy later in the year. It sounds very good.
Some of us did. Particularly when the Democrats dithered so badly about whether to ask Biden to sit out.
Congratulations. I've never been empaneled, as well, in four goes. Only once for beliefs (I lived in Virginia, which I believe is still a death penalty state, and was turned away for being unwilling to go for capital punishment).
Glad to see another rec! Or Hiro Arikawa, as the translation probably arrays his name.
Jerry has one up, as well: https://jerryshouseofeverything.blogspot.com/2026/06/short-story-wednesday-old-fags.html
Nope! They did keep his family name first, as they do in Japan, at least on Patti's edition of the subway novel.
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