#460 Sexy- Jhumpa Lahiri

#460 Sexy- Jhumpa Lahiri

Miranda works as a telemarketer for a radio station. She is twenty-two and knows only two people from India, her co-worker and her boyfriend. Her co-worker is recently obsessed with talking about her cousin who’s husband just left him for another woman. Miranda’s boyfriend is also married.

At first Miranda is taken with being someone’s mistress. She is lonely and likes having someone to be with. She feels loved, she feels romantic and she feels sexy. However, hearing the other side of the story from her co-worker makes her feel less special. She see’s first hand what this kind of philandering can lead to and she's losing her taste for it.

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#335 Her Cousin Jamie- Edith Pearlman

#335 Her Cousin Jamie- Edith Pearlman

Fern and Barbara are teachers who meet once a year for drinks at the annual teachers conference. Usually Fern doesn’t tell stories but this year she shares one about her cousin, Jamie…”Fern’s Cousin of Perpetual Penitence.”

Fern once had an affair with a man, a prominent educator and speaker. He had a weak heart, and he dies while they were in bed together. Gasp! That’s all there is. I seem to be missing something with this one. I don’t see any other layers here, or hidden symbolism or meaning. It’s juts a bit of gossip, wrapped in a short story. Not that a short story needs meaning or depth. But then it should be more than just a bit of gossip.

Rating: 7-4-5-5 Total= 21

#206 The Blush- Elizabeth Taylor

#206 The Blush- Elizabeth Taylor

Lying, deceit, domestic squabbles, and class warfare, this story had a little of each but not enough of any to make it all that interesting. The mistress of the house is a judgmental gossip. Here she begins by making it sound as though she supports and defends her house maid, but then by the end she turns her harsh eyes on the ugliness of the lower class:

“She did not deliberately mislead him, but she took advantage of his indifference. Her relationship with Mrs. Lacey and the intimacy of their conversations in the kitchen he would not have approved, and the sight of those calloused feet with their chipped nail varnish and yellowing heels would have sickened him.”

But then we have nothing to actually celebrate in the servant either. She’s a drunk, absentee mother, and lying, cheating spouse. So, without a true protagonist, there was little to hold onto.

Rating: 7-5-5-4 Total= 21