by Cynthia Ozick published in The New Yorker
Read original on The New Yorker's website
Evangeline has a group of friends that all went to...Show description
Posted 1121 days ago
I thought this story started off strongly; the wit of Ozick's characters was immediately apparent and pulled me in. But over the course of the story, they started to bother me. Maybe that is Ozick's intention, that these people who all think they are unique are really not, and are actually just annoying in their pursuits, but that feeling translated too far into my experience of the story.
It seemed like too much happened too. At one point they are at a cafe, then tons of years pass and they are meeting up again, then she is meeting this guy who is a bird watcher, then she is at a boarding school for girls, then she has her own child...I think that I am on the side that short stories should be about one single thing, unless they are masterfully executed.
Although Orzick's story was decent, I enjoyed reading it, it wasn't masterfully executed and therefore the huge number of events and scenes made it seem like it was dragging along and incoherent. I wonder what others thought about this one.