New Yorker Fiction 2014

A WRITER'S WIT
All the legislation in the world will not abolish kissing.
Elinor Glyn
Born October 17, 1864

Sin Is for Everyone

October 20, 2014, Kirstin Valdez Quade, “Ordinary Sins”: Crystal, a single woman pregnant with twins, works in a Santa Fe rectory for two priests and is confronted with a number of jagged truths about priests and the Church. ¶ Valdez Quade is a courageous writer, daring to enter into these domains of the priest: his office, his rectory, even his bedroom. Father Paul, a reformed alcoholic, has taken pity on her and given her a job as a housekeeper . . . who also types. Not only does he pay her, but he seems to offer her a kind of forgiveness—that perhaps she’s not even seeking. ¶ The other priest, young, fresh from Nigeria, is stiff, cold, judgmental. Within these two extremes, Crystal must enter the rectory each day, perhaps symbolic of the Church itself: offering forgiveness in one breath and condemnation in the next. The author has entered into what has always been thought of as a sacred place and rooted around to find that it isn’t quite so. ¶ I became acquainted with Ms. Valdez Quade in 2000 as we participated in a weeklong writers’ workshop, she fresh out of undergraduate school. Need I say, even then, that she brought the best story to the group? She certainly knocks this one out of the park. Her book, Night at the Fiestas will be out in March. You can pre-order now at Amazon.
[The magazine gives no credit for the story’s illustration.]
NEXT TIME: MY BOOK WORLD

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