The best short story I ever read and I can't remember the Title or Author. It was before the days of the internet and would have appeared in either the New Yorker or The Atlantic because that is the only place I read short stories. It was in one of those "Best of the Year" collections and the critics were all in awe of the first sentence: "I steal". (They thought it was such a powerful opening). It was about a girl that worked in the mailroom and she stole some of the mail each day. We find out her inner conflict as to why she was doing it. Anybody happen to know it? How would I go about trying to find it or is it lost forever for me?
Is this it? It's just the first few paragraphs. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20156080?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents In case that doesn't work, this page talks about it: http://www.allisonparr.com/begin-at-the-beginning/ I found the second link by Googling "short story" atlantic "I steal" mailroom and it pointed to the first link.
http://www.allisonparr.com/begin-at-the-beginning/ Ah, I see @ChickenFreak got there before me! Google is, indeed, our friend....
Wow! Thanks, that was fast. I didn't think it would be that easy or I could have done it myself a long time ago. I never in a million years would have thought the title is Lawns. Kudos, to the writer. All these years I have been thinking about her story and it is good enough that you can google it. It looks like it is also being taught in college.
A strange and depressing story. Strong voice. I wasn't that keen though. What made you love it so @EBohio ?
That was back when I tried to write short stories myself and I think it is more the technique of the writing I love more so than the theme. I agree with the critics that the opening grabs you. I also like how she ended it. The girl while about to steal again sees a letter addressed to her, throws it away and we wonder (she decides to throw it away without opening it to find out) who sent it to her. Then when she decides to retrieve the letter from the garbage she puts it in her mail box, to as the last sentence says "to get her mail like normal and like everybody else". Just as powerful a sentence as the opening was. (Also, my career is in psychology so of course a story like this is right up my alley).
I wasn't sure what to think of it, honestly. Her telling her mother about what the father was doing happened so abruptly too - I guess I'm used to novels, not short stories, where things take a lot more time. I confess I'm disappointed by Glenn. The writing's certainly strong since it established so many characters so quickly to the point where I can be disappointed in a character who was mostly off-screen. When Jenny's name was finally revealed, it caught me off guard a bit. It's got to be deliberate on the author's part, to introduce her name so late into the story - almost at the end, but not quite. Feels like an odd place to introduce the main character's name, you know. If it was really right at the end, it would feel normal - almost gimmicky - but the way it was, it felt odd. What was the purpose of withholding her name all this time till then? I do love it how it felt so natural that that's the place where her name was slipped in, like it wasn't deliberate at all.
I too remember saying, "oh that's her name". I also was surprised that she had not received any letters of her own all year. I think the author did it that way because in the opening paragraph the girl felt like she was un-noticed, a nobody. She stole and felt a rush, but because she got away with it she was still un-noticed. The paragraph ends with "Nothing changes". As the story progresses things sure change. We learn who does know her and notices her. That girl friend (who finally used her name) knew who she was and cared about what was happening to her. The friend even said she hated Glenn and didn't like his actions. As the story progresses she is noticed, known and feeling more "normal". She is becomming somebody with a name. I thought the mother's reaction to what was happening was a little restrained and unrealistic. I thought she'd be a lot more angry with the father instead of just arranging for him to see a psychiatrist.