February 23 - "To Be Honest"

“To Be Honest”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * * * (Great) Realistic

A couple’s conversation changes their relationship when emotions and honesty are dragged to light.

This is a beautiful example of a conversation many people have, a conversation on the page that feels as real and true as one you may recall having or hearing. As much as I enjoy fiction, there is magic to be found in the truth – or in the near-truth of writers with a gift for taking the real and twisting it to suit their imaginary purposes.

I’m still impressed with these beautiful, rambling sentences:

"And now, he says, he’s feeling many things connected to memories and ideas and each thought is a revision of the last thought, each thought is a new emotion requiring honesty and each thought changes him and he can’t explain to me each shift quickly enough before a new shift occurs and so the only way he can be honest is to sit across from me and say, ‘I’ve changed. I’ve changed. I’ve changed. I’ve changed. I’ve changed.' "

I don’t know what I’ll do when I run through these quick and wonderful stories by Unferth. This is easily becoming a favorite collection of mine.