#217 The Sugar-Tit- Carolyn Cooke
Jack and Giddy lived in proper New England society. Right about there is usually where I start to lose interest in such stories. However, this
one kept me interested. It wasn’t about the society as much as the strong and
noble spirit of Giddy.
She had a healthy and rightful disdain for the men in her
life: “Since she could remember, Giddy had washed out handkerchiefs full of
stuff from men’s noses. First het father’s nose, then Jack’s”
“Most of the ailanthuses had been chopped down years ago
because their blossoms stank and fouled the old cisterns on the roofs. But it
turned out the flowers of the female had no scent; the rankness was in the
males.”
As for Jack himself, “He was a wild inconsolable,
enthusiast.” Always working on some outlandish business scheme like selling
crayons to children in England. He wasn’t loveless and like everyone else,
adored Giddy, but he was a philanderer and loved someone else. But in society
life, you let such things go, unsaid. And so, she was a dutiful wife and he the
tragic husband:
“He looked at her tragically, to remind her (she supposed)
that he was a tragic man, a failure in business, and unfaithful; none of his passions were perfectly
requited.”
He had a Grecian heart, but he “Lived to suffer.” These qualities
that her father believed made him undeserving of his daughter later made him like his son-in-law better than Giddy herself. She outlasts them all, however,
stoic, loyal and hopeful.
Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30
