#652 The Third Dumpster- Gish Jen
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this story. On the surface it’s a story about family. But there seems to be a lot of other stuff rumbling beneath the surface that kind of pops up briefly but never really develops.
Goodwin and Morehouse are brothers. They are both unemployed contractors and they buy a house to move their aging parents closer. The parents were born in China but have lived here for fifty years, never fully assimilating to American culture and sometimes opening despising it as garbage.
The house they purchased is an asbestos filled dump that they bought cheap and are fixing up. Not having enough money to do it properly they cut all sorts of corners like illegally dumping their demolition waste and hiring illegal Spanish speaking workers (who in turn mock them somewhat openly. In the end nobody is really happy. The brothers never get their parent’s approval, the parents have to put up with the “garbage dump” Americans and the workers barely get enough pay to survive.
So, I say again, I’m not sure what to make of this story. If there is a moral or clear point of view, I missed it.
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