The Hunters: Two Short Novels by Claire Messud
2001
Weight: 13.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Giving Away
Neither one of these stories mirrors anything that is happening in my life or that has happened in my life and yet, it seems it taps into the general malaise I have been feeling lately, and it was easy to drift in and out of. I was tired and sad, and sometimes it was unclear to me what was fact or fiction in my own life, and I still do not know what does and does not matter or how to change any of it or if I still can.
This book contains two stories. One is about a woman who immigrates to America after suffering horrific injustices and then becomes a housekeeper. In time, her husband who is loves and admires dies, her son grows older and marries a woman she cannot stand, her grandchildren grow older, and she seeks comfort in a relationship she has formed with her last client, who she cleans the house of and cares for and who becomes her only confidant. There relationship blurs the lines of employer/employee, but it is not quite friendly. It felt easy to find space in the heart of this woman and to sit there with her ache even though I have never experienced anything like the character did and does. I have not endured war, lost family members, started over, lost a husband, had children, had grandchildren, cleaned other people's houses, and yet this is the power of fiction. I felt it, as if it were an inescapable truth.
The next story is about a lonely woman living in a part of London she has disdain for. She is sad and completely self-involved, even as people gently try to nudge their way in. She tries to be polite, but she also tries to push them off. Her mind wanders, and she makes stories and reaffirms her opinions and beliefs. Eventually, she pulls herself out of the muck and looks back. I suppose I can relate to the self-involved muck, but she never shows me how to get out! Of course, that is not really what this story is about. We see her afterwards, with a partner, a new life, and see her looking back on that year of her life in London. We live in our heads. We have tunnel vision. Sometimes the world seeps in and you get a glimpse outside yourself. Sometimes that glimpse is jarring.
2001
Weight: 13.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Giving Away
Neither one of these stories mirrors anything that is happening in my life or that has happened in my life and yet, it seems it taps into the general malaise I have been feeling lately, and it was easy to drift in and out of. I was tired and sad, and sometimes it was unclear to me what was fact or fiction in my own life, and I still do not know what does and does not matter or how to change any of it or if I still can.
This book contains two stories. One is about a woman who immigrates to America after suffering horrific injustices and then becomes a housekeeper. In time, her husband who is loves and admires dies, her son grows older and marries a woman she cannot stand, her grandchildren grow older, and she seeks comfort in a relationship she has formed with her last client, who she cleans the house of and cares for and who becomes her only confidant. There relationship blurs the lines of employer/employee, but it is not quite friendly. It felt easy to find space in the heart of this woman and to sit there with her ache even though I have never experienced anything like the character did and does. I have not endured war, lost family members, started over, lost a husband, had children, had grandchildren, cleaned other people's houses, and yet this is the power of fiction. I felt it, as if it were an inescapable truth.
The next story is about a lonely woman living in a part of London she has disdain for. She is sad and completely self-involved, even as people gently try to nudge their way in. She tries to be polite, but she also tries to push them off. Her mind wanders, and she makes stories and reaffirms her opinions and beliefs. Eventually, she pulls herself out of the muck and looks back. I suppose I can relate to the self-involved muck, but she never shows me how to get out! Of course, that is not really what this story is about. We see her afterwards, with a partner, a new life, and see her looking back on that year of her life in London. We live in our heads. We have tunnel vision. Sometimes the world seeps in and you get a glimpse outside yourself. Sometimes that glimpse is jarring.
