Mitchell’s Black Swan Green hasn’t grabbed my full attention so I’ve taken out as well this collection of short stories by Peter Taylor that I’ve had for years–since a creative writing class and a recommendation by the instructor.
The first story, The Gift of The Prodigal is wonderfully written, starting out with the immediate tension of the first person narrator, a widower watching his grown, always-in-some-kind-of-trouble son approaching his front door. The detail here reinforces the character:
There’s Ricky down in the washed river gravel of my driveway. I had my yardman out raking it before 7 a.m.–the driveway. It looks nearly perfect. Ricky also looks nearly perfect down there. (…) looks as though he feels perfectly at home in that driveway of mine that was so expensive to install and that requires so much upkeep. (p.11)
This is so telling of the relationship that is revealed further through the story. It sets the background as one of wealth (“my yardman”) and establishes tension between father and son. As he watches, we are given the information that Ricky has always been the problem child, and that the father has always bailed him out–much to the chagrin of his other children, daughters who have married well (in contrast with Ricky’s three marriages and many affairs) and who show their love for their father more easily than Ricky has managed to do.
The narrator misses his wife, and appears to give her a bit of the blame for his “safe harbor” handling of Ricky’s escapades, even as he continues to do so after her death. He is obviously a man of power and has taken action against Ricky’s accusers and enemies. As he waits patiently to do so yet again, we wonder if this will be the last time.
There is a twist at the end, and yet one that in reading the story carefully through the ‘voice’ of the narrator, should become obvious. It reminds me of Carver’s Cathedral as we discover the truth in action rather than what the narrator reveals to us. Beautifully done.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology