At Paradise Gate by Jane Smiley

Author:Jane Smiley [Jane Smiley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Anna must have glanced at the phone, because Claire interrupted herself and said, “It’s not even seven.”

“You don’t think they’re up yet?”

“At the enchanted castle? They’re lucky to get up at all!”

“Helen is a heavy sleeper.”

“Christine does her share.” Though Claire’s voice lifted as if she intended to continue, she picked up a piece of toast instead and nibbled off the crust. At last she said simply, “Well, Mother,” and got up to rummage in the refrigerator. They all knew Claire did not approve of divorce, or any other kind of weakness, either. She bristled with all the views she had to express. Anna, on the other hand, was hard put to find in herself any views at all. Men came and went very suddenly. One was introduced to a fiance—Sam, Geo, Hanson—and expected immediately to love him, while all the familiar boyfriends disappeared. In the forties she had attributed this to the war, but it was still true. Men came into a family more suddenly and intrusively than babies, with their opinions already formed. Those opinions, as trivial as your own, were exalted and analyzed day after day by the daughter in question, and then you were asked not to serve sweet potatoes for Sunday dinner and not to talk about the Marshall Plan, or the war in Vietnam, which you hadn’t intended to talk about, anyway. At Christmas, Christine had been cataloging to Helen Todd’s every preference in shirts, ties, sweaters, socks, undershorts, and T-shirts, and now there would be no more Todd. What could be said, after all?

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