 | A WRITER'S WIT |
New Yorker Fiction 2016
Grant Cornett June 27, 2016, Paul Theroux, “Upside-Down Cake”: In this story narrated by a son named Jay, a large family gather to honor their mother on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday. ¶ These seven adult children are welcomed by their mother with about as much zeal as when they are children:
“Child-hating was not a pretense for Mother, the jokey exasperation of a sentimental woman, who spoke of her children insincerely as rug rats and burdens. She had already raised seven of them, plus the ghost of Angela—why more? Children bored her, they irritated her, they were always in the way. Worst of all, they took attention away from her” (62).
The mother’s animosity toward children, including her grandchildren, as one can imagine, has done little to create seven secure adults—though all seem to be educated and well connected. Sarcasm and dark irony reign supreme at the table in a restaurant called the Happy Clam. The meal limps along until dessert is served:
“Mother smiled at the slumping, soggy cake, topped with eight lurid pineapple slices, most of them with a cherry in the middle, two with candles, and, on the sloping side, “MOTHER” spelled out in shaky worm-cast piping, with scrolls and roses around it.
‘Make a wish, Ma,’ Franny said. ‘Pineapple upside-down cake. Your favorite’” (61).
At this point three more guests enter the room, a grown couple and their child, and all seem to be counting their fingers, to determine who these outsiders are. In a way, it doesn’t matter. This family doesn’t merit the presence of anyone decent, let alone the narrator’s thirty-eight-year-old son he once put up for adoption, his son’s wife, and their young child. Yes, it’s a mean trick for Jay to play on his family but one that they probably deserve. Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads is the author’s most recent book.
Photograph by Grant Cornett.
NEXT TIME: My Book World
Photograph by Grant Cornett.
NEXT TIME: My Book World
READ MY ‘BEHIND THE BOOK’ BLOG SERIES for My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!
Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
"My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
"A Certain Kind of Mischief"
"Ghost Riders"
"The Best Mud"
"Handy to Some"
"Blight"
"A Gambler's Debt"
"Tales of the Millerettes"
"Men at Sea"
"Basketball Is Not a Drug"
"Engineer"
"Snarked"
"Killing Lorenzo"
"The Age I Am Now"
"Bathed in Pink"
Listen to My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
"A Certain Kind of Mischief"
"The Best Mud"
"Handy to Some"
"Tales of the Millerettes"
"Men at Sea"
"My Long-Playing Records"
"Basketball Is Not a Drug"
"Snarked"
"Killing Lorenzo"
"Bathed in Pink"
Also available on iTunes.
Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
"My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
"A Certain Kind of Mischief"
"Ghost Riders"
"The Best Mud"
"Handy to Some"
"Blight"
"A Gambler's Debt"
"Tales of the Millerettes"
"Men at Sea"
"Basketball Is Not a Drug"
"Engineer"
"Snarked"
"Killing Lorenzo"
"The Age I Am Now"
"Bathed in Pink"
Listen to My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
"A Certain Kind of Mischief"
"The Best Mud"
"Handy to Some"
"Tales of the Millerettes"
"Men at Sea"
"My Long-Playing Records"
"Basketball Is Not a Drug"
"Snarked"
"Killing Lorenzo"
"Bathed in Pink"
Also available on iTunes.
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