May 13 - "Another One"

“Another One”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * * * (Great) Realistic

A woman struggles with the decision to break up with her wheelchair-bound boyfriend due to his extended and complex family.

While there are parts of this story lost in the complexity of the prose, the sentences themselves are a joy to read.

Sentences like:

“She took care of him, like she had when he was in the womb, or at least barely out, or at least how she would have, had she kept him, the way she put on this socks for him, the way she emptied his bag of pee.”

or:

“Two others lived there too, an uncle and some sort of brother, half or step or imaginary, the girlfriend never sorted it out and she never saw either one, just slight evidences of their existence, a pair of sunglasses or a motorcycle magazine that some mother or other said was one or the other’s.”

There’s just something about the rhythm – the words – that makes me stop, smile, and reread the sentences. Here, I couldn’t care less about plot or theme or intent; I’m reading for the joy of reading.