Just finished Peter Taylor’s story The Old Forest and I understand that the theme is one of how people treat one another, and how change comes slowly.
There is a friendly tone to Taylor’s first person narrator and in the reminiscence of the event of the automobile accident which brought the comparison of lifestyles and in particular, of woman’s place in society, he is telling us what he has learned from it. There is a wistfulness in his voice, as if he wishes he could have understood it all better and more, that society had understood the strength of women and brought it to its fruition rather than sidestepping it into an almost cunningness rather than recognize its value. He understands that even as she had explained it all back then, his fiancee–now his wife–still has not broken free from the role she was given at birth.
Nice writing–though as I said, a bit dated in its overinvolvement of language to tell a simple story. The underlying them of equality of gender was strong throughout and almost anticlimactic once the answers to the mysteries are given.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology