Tuesday, February 07, 2006

One Story. The One Story concept is appealing—each issue, 18 per year, consists of just one story. I have yet to read one that I didn’t like and yet the magazine publishes a variety. One recent issue was a ghost story, another was a surreal story about a hijacked airplane perpetually circling the skies above Dallas, two others were straightforward but well-written cancer stories. "Do You Like it Here?" by Kim Brooks is a good example. Claire and Cameron take their children, Zoe and Michael, on a Caribbean vacation. Zoe is self-conscious because of a facial deformity caused by surgery to remove a cancerous growth. Her parents are anxious on her behalf and the point of the story is how they react differently and, perhaps, come to terms with where they all are in their relationships. Here's Zoe: "Would you stop ignoring me? How come everyone gets to talk about my face except for me? You get to talk about it to Dad; Dad gets to talk about it to Michael; Michael, I'm sure gets to talk about it to his psychologist. . . Everyone gets to talk about it but me, and it's my fucking face!"

No comments: