#272 Dream Children- Edith Pearlman
Willa is a live-in nanny for a family on Manhattan’s upper
west side. They are a nice family, thoughtful and careing and probably a little
over-protective. She notices how controlled their environment is:
“In her country there was a TV in every village bar, and in
the island’s capital city even the poorest family owned a set. But in this New
York apartment—none.”
She quietly and gracefully takes care of the children,
quietly watching her privileged employers and their friends. She gives them
comfort and piece of mind, and even though they don’t recognize their lucky
place in the world, she is understanding on a very human level. Their neighbor
is losing her apartment and with it the office where her dentist practice is.
Instead of taking the opportunity to move to a diferent neighborhood and take a
position with another dentist office, she is intent on wallowing in self-pity.
Willa sees her in a sympathetic light:
“Back home this woman would have been respected. She would
not have been forced to work. People would have brought her stew and beer and
smokes, and she would have sat on her porch and looked at the sea.”
Two stories in, and although I see grace and shape in her
writing, I have yet to feel a personal connection with the subjects or
characters in her stories. That happens.
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