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This book contains five novella-
length stories. They are laid variously in the
South, in Italy, in Canada, and in New England.
“Jean-Pierre”
Like “I, Maureen,” this story dramatizes
the division in Montreal between the French
and English speaking populations. An English
speaking girl, Callie, whose parents have
moved to the U.S., has remained with her
married sister in Montreal. She lives on her
own and works. She meets a French-Canadian,
Jean-Pierre, and is drawn into the first strong
sexual relationship she has experienced.
He is a widower, who has business interests
in the eastern half of Montreal. He marries
her over her sister's strong opposition,
but subsequently one day disappears. Callie’s
wait is the whole unfolding of the story.
It is filled with her fears and foreboding,
but also with her faith that he will return.
The atmosphere I tried to capture was
one of distance and distrust between
the English and French speaking components
of Quebec Province.
“The Cousins”
Five cousins from an Alabama town
who are lifelong friends in close relationship
are about to go separate ways as the time
for college, marriage and displacement in other
situations has drawn closer. They decide
on a trip abroad as a farewell gesture to their
relationships. The narrator, Ella Mason, recalls
the events of that summer many years later,
and realizes how permanent her love was for
one of the cousins, Eric. But there were also
Ben and Jamie and Mayfred. The trip itself
and the latent emotional context it brings
to vivid life becomes a deciding force in all
their lives. I find it hard to summarize this story,
but it has attracted a great deal of attention.
A reading tape of it was made in recent years
by Kay Bonetti of American Audio Prose Library.
“Jack of Diamonds”
Rosalind is the daughter of Nat Jennings
a man involved with some success in Broadway
musical productions. Her mother has died two
years before in a collision while returning alone
from a cottage the family keeps on Lake George
in upper New York State. Her father has remarried.
Rosalind undertakes to go up to the cottage to
open it up for the summer for the first time since
her mother’s death. Her father and mother-in-law
follow her. While here, she learns for the first time
the full story of her father and mother’s relationship
and the events that led up to the accident.
She goes through a defining series of encounters
with others in the area—one, a boy she is attracted
to, plus one or another of the neighboring families.
At the last she finds the necessity and strength
to see more clearly and stand on her own
for a life ahead.
This story was included in Pushcart Prize
Stories. It has been requested for their twentieth-
year anniversary volume.
“The Business Venture”
This story is about a group of young married
people in a small Mississippi town. They are a fast-
living, heavy-drinking crowd, all involved with one
another in friendships and sexual ties. A member
of the group from the beginning is Nelle Townshend.
Unmarried, with a widowed mother to support,
she splits away to start a business of her own,
with an African-American veteran as a business
partner. The relationship disturbs her group
and causes a great deal of gossip in the town.
There is finally an injunction brought on trumped-
up charges to shut down the business. Nelle’s
determination carries her through. Her partner
Robin, feels himself threatened by this society,
but sticks with her faithfully. The suspicion directed
at them is that she and Robin are lovers. Whether
or not they are, the story does not reveal. The
narrator is Eileen Waybridge, a long-time member
of the group, married to Charlie Waybridge, who
by the end of the story finds himself in love with
Nellie Townsend. This story is emphatically based
on the racial attitudes prevalent in Mississippi
during the 1970’s, and perhaps still a vital
force there.
The story was included among the O. Henry
Prize Stories.
“The Skater”
Sara, a Montreal housewife whose children
are no longer present in the city, and whose marriage
has become routine, goes on a search for a richer
emotional life. The lover she finds is of interest but
not finally satisfying. Her true relationship comes in the
form of a rather derelict young man. She manipulates
her lawyer-husband into securing his tenuous hold on
some important property. A skater on thin ice, her
various maneuvers have found her a reality of new
possibilities for love.
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