January 28 - "The Red Fox Fur Coat"

“The Red Fox Fur Coat”
by Teolinda Gersao
translated by Margaret Jull Costa
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * * (Great) Parable

A bank clerk notices an amazing red fox fur coat in the furrier shop on her way home from work one evening. So taken with the coat she returns the next day to examine it more closely. Deciding to put the coat on layaway, the bank clerk begins a transformation as she squirrels away her money until the moment the coat is finally hers.

I began to question myself over whether this was a fable or a parable or what. I settled on parable because of its indirect use of comparison. It’s this comparison between woman and fox that lends the story its strength. It’s always difficult to determine how much of the word play is a result of the translator, and what impact the prose would have if I was able to read it in its original language (this was also the case with “Other Persons”). Regardless, this story is very well crafted, with my only complaint being the too obvious of parallels between creature and woman.