In this post: A sad story about siblings, death, and mismatched love... but it's so, so, so good!
Category: Short Story Collection + Fast Fiction + Black in America
Ramiah Recommended?
Yes.
Yet another story from Longreads list of short stories in 2022. The ones I've read from them so far have all had a theme of sadness, usually of death. This one is no different.
I write that with a bittersweetness because I don't like reading sad stories, but this short story does it amazingly well.
Our main protagonists are siblings Silas and Bernice. Silas is between jobs and living with his sister, a guidance counselor. Silas is more pragmatic and Bernice goes with the flow. In one of her 'carpe diem' moments, she meets Dove: a man even more free than her, a full-time DJ with some quirkiness she found charming:
She didn’t shake the hand he offered, but smiled at how flustered he was. His name, which he said was Dove, pleased her, and the way he scrunched his lips together and shifted them from side to side had what she described to me as a clarifying effect.
Soon enough, Dove and Bernice move in together and get engaged.
Bernice, who has been suffering spoke of not feeling well a few times throughout the beginning of the story suddenly has a seizure and ends up in the hospital. The doctors discharge her (too early to her family) and a short time later, she dies.
Silas doesn't speak at her funeral, Dove doesn't attend, and Dove quickly moves on (Silas and Bernices's mother yell at Dove that he's the reason for Bernice's death, that may be related). Silas lies to Dove by saying Bernice never loved him, perhaps for revenge of Dove moving on so quickly Bernice's death and for not coming to her funeral.
Similar to "The Great Escape", the author does a stunning job capturing the rawness of human emotion. Silas, for much of the story, did not believe that Bernice was actually in pain,
"The truth was, I found my sister exhausting, the way she could crowd you out of your life with the enormity of her own." Once she is in the hospital, he emphasizes wanting to find her a Black doctor, perhaps taking her health so seriously since he didn't at first, and agreeing with many Black people's distrust of the American healthcare system.
Another example of the expression of human emotion is Silas writing Bernice's eulogy for himself: "I opened a blank document and typed, “My sister Bernice is dead.” I wrote it as a simple matter of fact, as a way to begin accepting it, but then I kept typing. The document became something like a eulogy, but a very honest and private one. No flash, no oratory. It was just for me."
There's an honesty of how personal eulogies are. A public display of emotion to the memories of someone who's passed on. For Silas, losing his sister is a deep loss. He seemed to feel there was something performative about saying his sister's memory in front of many people.
An example of good imagery: "From the bedroom came sweetly fragrant wisps of musk that added to the gloom. The bedroom was filled with even more smoke. Sticks of incense had been lit, well over a dozen, and scented candles burned. In the middle of this cloying cloud, the bed was strewn with books and other objects, and Bernice’s head and torso were elevated on a pile of pillows."
This was a good story, but the ending left something to be desired.
Read it for yourself here and let me know what you think!
Ramiah Reflects
Food for Thought:
“We can try to get you a black doctor,” I said. But in truth, I had little sense then that this could make a difference. I hardly went to the doctor myself." There is a deep mistrust toward healthcare given how it has historically mistreated Black people and our pain threshold and opt-in treatments (or lack thereof). What can be done to alleviate this deeply rooted issue?
Ramiah's Re-read When
Re-read when:
You want to lightly contemplate Black health disparities
You want to read a story with good imagery
You want to read a story that honestly portrays emotion
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
Comments