 | A WRITER'S WIT |
New Yorker Fiction 2016
Eleni Kalorkoti May 2, 2016, Alexandra Kleeman, “Choking Victim”: Karen, thirty-two, is a young urban mother who leaves her six-month-old infant with a strange but friendly woman, so that Karen can return a few blocks and retrieve an expensive stroller which becomes unnavigable when it loses a wheel. ¶ With short stories, titles mean everything. In “Choking Victim,” we sight a victim immediately, an old man who succumbs to a terrible coughing fit in the apartment next door. Then he survives. As mother Karen and babe Lila stroll through the city—before the stroller becomes unhinged—one expects the baby to choke somehow. But no. After the accident, Karen and Lila abandon the heavy, expensive pram and alight in a café, where the friendly woman offers to sit with Lila so Karen can return for the stroller. In addition to exploring the issue of trust, this story helps us creep through the suffocating life of a new mother, whose husband is away on business for two weeks.
“She felt as if she were deep underwater, desperately stroking up toward the surface, toward light and air. She had no idea how far away it might be” (65).
Finally, we see that Karen is perhaps the real choking victim here! When she runs into a college friend in a store where she’s buying Band-Aids for her beleaguered feet, the friend’s questions remind her that she is a writer with a successful professional life having nothing to do with a baby who isn’t even forming words yet. Karen is so enamored with this man’s attentions that she lingers longer than she probably should.
As she returns to the café, we expect something awful to have happened. Kidnapping comes to mind. But no, worse. Blue and red lights of police cars illuminate the face of her baby, who’s been abandoned a second time—this time by Linda, the friendly woman. The entire last paragraph moves at a glacial pace—and with good reason—because the narrative has entered the mind of the infant, who seems entirely unmoved by the event. Kleeman’s story collection, Intimations, is out in September.
Illustration by Eleni Kalorkoti.
NEXT TIME: My Book World
“She felt as if she were deep underwater, desperately stroking up toward the surface, toward light and air. She had no idea how far away it might be” (65).
Finally, we see that Karen is perhaps the real choking victim here! When she runs into a college friend in a store where she’s buying Band-Aids for her beleaguered feet, the friend’s questions remind her that she is a writer with a successful professional life having nothing to do with a baby who isn’t even forming words yet. Karen is so enamored with this man’s attentions that she lingers longer than she probably should.
As she returns to the café, we expect something awful to have happened. Kidnapping comes to mind. But no, worse. Blue and red lights of police cars illuminate the face of her baby, who’s been abandoned a second time—this time by Linda, the friendly woman. The entire last paragraph moves at a glacial pace—and with good reason—because the narrative has entered the mind of the infant, who seems entirely unmoved by the event. Kleeman’s story collection, Intimations, is out in September.
Illustration by Eleni Kalorkoti.
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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