In this post: A woman is on again and off again with her childhood crush while trying to find a stable job - it's not much more exciting than that but there is something that caught my eye.
Category: Short Story Collection + Fast Fiction
Ramiah Recommended?
No.
This is a weird and somewhat raunchy story, lol. I think it questions what it means to have a career and love as we follow protagonist Eileen moving through relationships (romantic and non-romantic) and jobs. We see a bit of her family, and the tension she feels of not having one career she's chosen. We also see a 'will they won't they' with the childhood crush Simon, and it ends with them just being together for a night.
One thing that is going for this story is its imagery. "After closing one file and before opening another, she routinely checked her social-media feeds. Her expression, her posture, did not vary depending on the information she encountered there: a news report about a horrific natural disaster, a photograph of someone’s beloved pet, a female journalist speaking out about death threats" -- I like this vignette of scrolling through social media.
I also don't recommend this story for its underhanded use of racial stereotypes. In the below paragraph, one character at a party responds to the group's discussion on 'working class'. Eileen began arguing with a man about who is considered working class, including whether Eileen is or not. To help alleviate the tension, Darach tried to step back and define what working class means:
Darach said he thought they were just using the same term, 'working class,' to describe two distinct groups: one, the broad constituency of people whose income was derived from labor rather than capital, and the other, an impoverished, primarily urban subsection of that group with a particular set of cultural traditions and signifiers.
My mind caught on the second half, especially 'urban'. Urban has long been associated with Black people, some would say as a euphemism, others would say as a racial label.
I don't support how the author threw this in. I understand not all short stories are meant to educate, and I'm sure there are people who believe working-class mean Black, but any reader who does seek education from short stories could be grossly misled by this definition. Even a footnote could have been helpful.
Let me know what you think by checking it out for yourself here!
Ramiah Reflects
Questions to Ask Yourself (and answer!):
How would you define working class?
Ramiah's Re-read When
Re-read when:
You want a story for its imagery but not storyline
See below for my book notes:
(No notes this time, folks!)
Check out my other posts and book notes here.
Until next time!
Montana Houston
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