Sydney Avey
Dynamic Woman — Changing Times
365 Short Stories (setting)–Week Eighteen
Revisiting my favorite collections this week, I marvel at how authors invite readers into their stories by establishing the setting.
“My Father’s Tears”, My Father’s Tears, by John Updike
I learned in a writing class that the masters have an ability to cause us to perceive vivid reality in tiny details. When Updike writes about “the little rainbow low on the bathroom wall, our pet imp of refraction,” I feel myself settle into the bathtub in the Vermont vacation house, and watch the jiggling light play on the wall. I know these are moments to cherish.
- “Varieties of Religious Experience”, My Father’s Tears, by John Updike
Updike invites readers to consider 9/11 from a variety of perspectives; young and old, perpetrator, eyewitness and victim. From the top of the tower, to a penthouse terrace, to a smoky bar where the terrorists anesthetize themselves, to a passenger seat on a doomed airplane, each individual confronts their mortality.
…the path of safety is narrow, it is possible to fall from it…Dear, Lord, have mercy.
- “Trespass”, Pulse, by Julian Barnes
In another story about repeating mistakes in relationships, we hike trails on weekends with Geoff and his new lady friend, who doesn’t like being shoe-horned into his narrow world any more than his last girlfriend did.
- “The Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, 50 Great Short Stories, edited by Milton Crane
The “high grey-flannel fog” that closes off the Salinas Valley in opening sentence sets the stage for this story about a farmer’s wife who pours her vitality and passion into her chrysanthemum bed. Strong and smart, her energy is wasted in a Depression era culture. I love the images of her strong fingers plunging the earth.
Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started.
- “One Time at Christmas, in My Sister’s Bathroom”, Ordinary Life, by Elizabeth Berg
When your family members don’t live up to your expectations, look for grace in small gestures.
- “Luzianne”, Delicate, by Mary Soujourner
This is a story about listening, across the miles and over the years, to the stories people tell while they are processing painful situations.
- “Spanish Prelude to a Second Marriage”, My Father’s Tears, by John Updike
A vacation in Spain is the perfect setting for a mature couple to test their relationship.
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