Short Story Review || Duty (2024)
"A woman recalls her father as he was, the childhood she grew out of, & the sister she misses though she is not far away."
: 🌕 : SPOILER ALERT : 🌕 :
A person on the cusp of nothingness may likely neglect to whisper one last parable into the night. The air around those left standing remains stifling & void of nutrients; nothing remains of the person they longed for or perhaps, nothing remains of the one whom they were loath to forget but are pleased to see wander off. Circumstances prevent a wanderer from truly peering into the secrecy of these exchanges. Is a person at the cliff’s edge because they long for the end or because they have come to the precipice to give up on the beauty of their world?
“Even our mother did not know. Indeed she too forgot. They would wake into days to be remembered for their forgetting.”
Harsh are my opinions of this story so much so that they remain framed apathetically in my mind & now, in the written word. Readers who have wandered the literary world will find themselves faced with a woman who is destitute of positive attributes; her rambles are entirely too boring to be cared about & yet they represent an experience that is complicated & unique to the individual who receives them through the familiar face of their kin.
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In essence, this story follows an adult woman whose father is grappling with Dementia. The narrator is pregnant, she has a complicated understanding of her elder sister—a person who is responsible & undertakes the care & maintenance of the household. The narrator fails to portray herself in any way that might linger on the page & see the reader wait there with them. Her troubles stem from elements found in other people, people she claims to love but never takes time to understand.
The reality of the narrator’s situation will not be entirely lost on the reader. This review will not lay claims that diseases of the mind, namely those that steal away a person’s agency & essence, are to be besotted & ignored. My views of these maladies are likely the same as yours. Therefore, what is one to say when faced with a person who complains about their lot in life without taking care to action their agency into solutions?
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Whereas the narrator’s father is battling Dementia, her story does not delve into the depth of what this means for her situation. As the youngest daughter, her position in the family & during the dance of the unknown darkness that beseeches her father’s psyche, entices the story with an overwhelming truth, one that, she never endeavours to share. I wonder why that is. In fact, as the story progresses, one notes that the narrator hints at occurrences that might colour & shade the tale but she gives them no weight, choosing instead to pick apart the people in her life & complain about her solitude.
Certainly, a reader may accept that the narrator is dealing with a troubling situation; her father is being consumed by disease & her sister is focused on tending to her family & her father’s well-being, no longer having the capacity to care for her adult sister.
Although it might be simple to accept that this is par for the course, the narrator shadows the truth so that readers cannot form a firm & well-educated opinion. Was the narrator outwardly catty towards her sister? One notes an occasion during which she accused her sister of being cold when what she was attempting to accomplish was care for everyone who leaned on her.
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The family dynamic explored in this story never breaches the depths required to render the narrative one worth investing in. The main character has struggles within herself & her looming motherhood. I will not begrudge her for being insecure & worried in the face of so much change. However, rather than insert some form of personality into her recollections of ice cream & scary moments stemming from her parents’ anger, she tiptoes away from the concavity of her person & her experiences.
One might wonder whether the narrator trusts the reader at all; whether she chose to begin sharing her story because she was pushed to do so or because someone like the reader happened upon her path, finding her in a semi-vulnerable moment.
This question persists throughout the story as the narrator dips her toes into the past, recalling the foundation of her domestic relationship & yet, what does any of it mean? She is neither insightful about herself nor those around her & therefore one must wonder if her ignorance is intentional.
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Ultimately, the progressive flow of this short story, from the beginning during which the promise of unburdening would be revealed until the end, during which the narrator closes off her story with accusations against all those around her; the reader may find that this fits into their idea of a familial relationship & need not be further explained. On the other hand, one may long for the insight the narrator seems to wish herself capable of assuming.
The core of the plot longs to be more than what it was & yet, simultaneously it cares naught to be anything but the shallow rut in which words lay scattered & strewn. Unfortunately, this is not a situation that brings anything new or unique to the conversation. I would not pretend that all stories need to do such a thing however, the teasing nature of everything that the secondary characters experience has done nothing but highlight the void in which the main character rots.
For readers who long for the mirror or those whose turmoil requires a sounding board, this story will provide them with the medicine they crave. Readers who seek the profound, introspective essence of cruel reality will be left wanting.
I find, even now, that I hardly care to think back on the narrator or her situation at all, so intentionally my curiosity has been piqued for her sister who carries the weight of the world without burdening others with cruel jabs or shallow judgment.
If you would like to read this story, please visit this link — « Duty » by Diana Evans
C. 💌