Friends of Words

Tag: emotional

  • Crazy Glue by Etgar Keret: Summary, Analysis and Review

    Crazy Glue by Etgar Keret: Summary, Analysis and Review

    What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you read these two words:

    Crazy glue

    I bet you can recall at least an incident or two about crazy glue – maybe you were the victim to whom the ‘crazy glue’ happened, or you were the one that gave someone their ‘crazy glue’ moment. 

    There are so many stories available on ‘crazy glue incidents’ of people’s lives – some tragic and some outright comical. I will let Google be your friend on that search.

    So why are we talking about it?

    Enter Etgar Keret and his remarkable short story Crazy Glue.

    Etgar Keret takes crazy glue beyond the physical realms into something much more. Crazy glue is a story about a couple who seem to be struggling in their marriage – nothing will stand out for you initially till our beloved ‘crazy glue’ is introduced. 

    Here’s how:

    Crazy Glue: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The wife asks the husband not to touch ‘it’ as it is super glue. The husband asks what the glue was for, to which, upon not finding a satisfactory answer, expresses his irritation – unable to understand why she is fixated on ‘buying all this crap.’ 

    The wife retorts with ‘of course!’, mentioning that she buys these things for the same reason that she married him: ‘to kill time.’

    The husband is in no mood to get into a fight, and so is the wife; the fight that never happened, ended there. 

    The husband asks if the glue is any good, and the wife shows him a picture of a guy that seems to be hanging from the ceiling with his shoes glued there. The husband mentions that to be impossible and points her to look at – what he believes are flaws in this presentation. She does not look. He then rushes off to work.

    At work, the husband calls someone named Mindy, with whom he seems to be having an affair. He mentions to her that he will not be able to make it that day as his wife might suspect something. Mindy expresses her confusion about the husband still being in a relationship with his wife when they were hardly doing anything together. 

    They were so apart that they were not even fighting anymore. The relationship was completely dead. 

    Mindy begins crying; the husband consoles her by saying that he will come the next day and lies to end that conversation early.

    The husband returns home. He calls her name but gets no answer. The odd thing he notices is that the super glue tube is completely empty, and his wife has glued the chairs and tables to the floor and has glued the fridge shut. 

    He is puzzled by his wife’s behavior. She had been reasonably sane so far. It just wasn’t like her. 

    He tried to call her to see if she was at her mother’s but was furious to see that she had glued the receiver as well.

    It is then he hears her laughing – a laugh that seemed to be coming from up above him. She was hanging upside down from the living room ceiling. It looked like she had glued her feet to the ceiling. 

    Completely flabbergasted at this point, he assures her that he will get her down safely, seeking help from outside if needed. He stacks a pile of books and climbs on top to pull her down from the ceiling, but nothing happens.

    He reassures her, to which the wife responds, amazingly calm and still laughing, “I’m not going anywhere.”

    At this point, the husband starts laughing too. She finds her very pretty, natural, and incongruous and reaches out to kiss her on the lips; they kiss passionately.

    The books slipped out from under the husband’s feet, who is now hanging by her lips. 

    Crazy Glue: Analysis and My Thoughts

    I loved how poignant the story is, and how power-packed it is with emotions. To top it all, he used so few words to convey so many messages. I am fangirling over it right now, but I will rein in my excitement and point out a few excerpts that stood out for me.

    “There’s nothing that needs gluing together,” I snapped. “I can’t understand why you buy all this crap.”

    “The same reason I married you,” she shot back, “to kill time.”

    The usual couple banter. Isn’t it? (Unless you are one of those couples that get along on everything, because in that case, R-E-S-P-E-C-T!).

    The conversation is so relatable. I have heard a variation of this dialogue by every couple I know. Keret’s understanding of the couple banter is on point. 

    I didn’t feel like getting into a fight, so I kept quiet, and so did she.

    ‘I don’t see why you stay with her,” she whispered in the end. “The two of you never do anything. You don’t even bother fighting anymore. I can’t figure out why you go on like this. I just don’t get what’s holding you together. I don’t get it,” she said again.

    Again, to its core, this is such an astute observation. Lack of communication kills a relationship, and it’s the same thing that was happening there. The couple didn’t fight. This indicates that they are not putting in efforts into their relationship, as if they are convinced that it is beyond repair.

    And then..

    She was so pretty and so incongruous, hanging upside down from the ceiling that way. With her long hair dangling downward and her breasts molded like two per­fect teardrops under her white T-shirt. So pretty. I climbed back up onto the pile of books and kissed her.

    Yes, they seemed to have fallen out of love, the husband cheating on her and wife apparently knowing this treachery, choosing not to talk as she is too indifferent to care.

    The husband engaging in an affair simply to keep out the boredom and avoid confrontation. Just like the crazy glue, they have shut each other out of their lives with a striking passive force.

    But here, he brings the silver lining: the spark is still there. It’s just that the things that brought that couple together had faded into the background. 

    But now, when they laughed together, the memories had all come rushing back and so had the passion. But does it end there?

    My fiercely romantic side would say Yes! They live happily ever after. But my pragmatic side (I do have one, and I am amazed at that myself!) does not agree. It says it is another roller coaster ride. 

    Highs and lows – guess that’s common between your friendly neighborhood stock market and and your neighbor’s (and may be your own) marriage(s).

    Kyle Smith once remarked, ‘Keret can do more with six paragraphs than most writers can with 600 pages’

    I couldn’t agree more. AND there is nothing crazy about that.

    So, what’s your crazy glue story? We would love to hear from you!

  • The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro: Summary and Review

    The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro: Summary and Review

    Where would your mind take you if someone said the words ‘the love of a good woman’ to you?

    If your mind quickly takes you to classic romantic movies of yore, a wife tirelessly sacrificing her life for her husband, you are the same as the rest of us.

    What’s more is that this titular story from this short story collection by Alice Munro is going to take you and that notion of yours for a ride.

    The Love of a Good Woman: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story is a four part plot that starts in Walley. The first part – Jutland – begins with a museum.

    A very strange exhibit is being displayed in the museum, a red box containing medical instruments which were once owned by an optometrist D.M. Willens.

    Mr. Willens tragically drowned in the Peregrine river, in what seemed like an accident. The submerged body and car were discovered by three young boys – Cece, Bud and Jimmy.

    Bud and Jimmy fail to inform their parents of their discovery, feel guilty about not doing so the first day. They try to go and meet Mrs. Willens, who seems to be completely unaware of her husband’s absence, hands the boys flowers to take home and retires back home.

    The news does finally reach the police and Mr. Willens death is now known, and three of those boys have new nickname now: Deadman.

    Part two makes an abrupt change to what seems like a completely different setting. (This reminded me of the time when I first read the Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle and the abrupt plot change somewhere in the middle).

    We are now tracing the life of Enid, a saintly soul as her mother calls her, is a middle aged nurse. She is currently employed by the Quinns, taking care of an ailing Mrs. Quinn, who is dying of a kidney failure.

    Mr. Quinn is a farmer and an old classmate of Enid’s. They have two daughters.

    Mr Quinn is shown to be a silent man, while Mrs Quinn is a cranky woman, who constantly whines about everything including her husband’s absence, albeit a lack of it doesn’t seem to comfort her much.

    Enid, who is regarded by her mother as a saint for her selflessness, is constantly tormented by erotic dreams and is ashamed by them.

    Part three connects the earlier two parts of the story by establishing a link between Mr Willens and this family, when one fine day, Mrs Quinn starts talking to Enid about Mr Willen’s death.

    In her version of the events that led up to Mr WIllen’s death, Mr Willens, a lecherous old man, was touching her inappropriately while examining her.

    Rupert, having witnessed this, in a rage of passion, grabs Mr Willens and bangs his head on the floor till he dies.

    Suddenly realizing that Mr Willens is dead, Mrs Quinn proposes to dispose of the body in the nearby river in his car so as to make it look like an accident. She helps Mr. Quinn carry out this plan.

    In a flashback, it is also shown how Enid having once seen his father with another woman, is silenced by her mother saying that it might have been a figment of her imagination

    Fourth part of the story deals with the events that follow Mrs. Quinn’s death.

    Enid, who seems to have developed feelings for Mr Quinn, is torn between her desire for companionship and her moral obligation to do what is right, which is to expose Rupert for the crime he committed.

    There is no way for her to be sure that Mrs Quinn’s version of events was real or a figment of her imagination spouted by her disturbed mind in a diseased body. She devises a scheme to test Rupert, by asking him to row her out in the middle of the river and then letting him know what Mrs. Quinn told her.

    Rupert will then have the choice to kill her and remove all the evidence of his crime.

    The story closes with Rupert getting the oars while Enid waits for him and her fate at the riverbank. What happens next, is totally left to reader’s imagination.

    Want to read The Love of a Good Woman?

    The Love of a Good Woman is a short story which is published in a collection of short stories called The Love of a Good Woman. This collection won the Giller Prize and National Book Critics circle prize. You can use the links given below to check the price of this book:

    Check Price on Amazon US
    Check Price on Amazon India

    The Love of a Good Woman: Review and My Thoughts

    This short story collection by Munro went on to win many accolades – including the prestigious Giller Prize and National Book Critics Circle prize.

    There is a reason why this story is celebrated the way it is. Such an astute description of a world built on lies! How change of perspective completely changes the story and that perception, more often than not is usually based off only a cursory understanding of events. The deeper you go, the more you discover.

    It’s endearing to see that how remarkably real her characters are. As always she does magic with her kid characters, the way only she can. Consider for example the time that she has spent with the three kids – Cece, Bud and Jimmy.

    The way she captures their innocence and their dark worlds is haunting.

    Some endearing quotes from The Love of a Good Woman

    And yet they hardly thought of each other as friends. They would never have designated someone as a best friend or a next best friend, or joggled people around in this position as girls did.

    This brought back a flurry of childhood memories, where nothing in the world mattered more than your  friend reciprocating the esteemed honor of best friendship bestowed upon them.

    Those walking home for dinner were mostly men. The women were already there- they were there all the time. But some women of middle age worked in store or offices for the reasons that were not their fault.

    A little depiction of what the old world looked like, where women had very specific responsibilities in the family, it’s hard to believe that this was our world not very long ago. Working women a fault. Hmm.. Oh how the times have  changed and thanks for that!

    A little sibling jocularity coming from Munro is the sweetest kind. This does not fail to put a nostalgic smile to my face every time I read it.

    In a family of mostly females, a boy remarks about his sisters

    “They stationed  themselves in front of every mirror in the house with the shelf underneath always loaded with bobby pins, pennies, buttons, bits of pencils”. Ah, the young vanity!

    And then the sibling playfulness, the elder and the mighty playing with a younger one’s limited understanding of things around.

    “Look, She’s putting lumps in the mashed potatoes again. He had his brother convinced that lumps were something that you added , like raisins to a rice pudding from a supply in the cupboard”

    This is a perfect description of a mother with too many quarelling young kids to manage. This is in fact too real for me.

    “Leave that pie alone. Stop swearing. Stop tattle-telling. Grow up”

    You would feel that this can not be topped. Yet Munro seamlessly transitions from the children’s world to the adult world staying as true to the characters, as it possibly can be done. I marvelled at her deft maneuvering of both the worlds.

    “Enid thought she knew what this meant, this spite and venom, the energy saved for ranting. Mrs.Quinn was flailing about for an enemy. Sick people grew to resent well people, and sometimes that was true of husbands and wives, or even of mothers and their children.”

    By the time I was done reading the novel, I wondered and wondered, went on a lot of journeys. To the past and to the future. To memories with my siblings, to my classmates growing up, my girlfriends, my workplace, my mother, and that’s hell of an after effect of any story one could read. 

    Alice Munro is often touted as Master of Contemporary short stories. And this book is a window to the reason behind that.

  • The Five Boons of Life By Mark Twain: Summary, Analysis and Review

    The Five Boons of Life By Mark Twain: Summary, Analysis and Review

    The Five Boons of Life is a short story by Mark Twain published as part of his collection, The 30000 Bequest and Other Stories.

    It’s different from his other stories in that it does not have our humorous Mark Twain saying things that make us grin like idiots in awe of his wit, but something to mull over, something to reflect.

    The Five Boons of Life: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The fable, as the title suggests, is about the five boons of life. It features a fairy and a man over the span of a man’s lifetime. It is divided into five chapters.

    Chapter 1

    Enter Fairy who has arrived with gifts.

    ‘Take one, leave the others ’- she says.

    The five options on offer are – Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure and Death.

    Without a second thought, the young man chooses pleasure. It does not take him long to realize that it was not a good choice – as each of those pleasures were short-lived, vain and empty.

    He regrets his choice and resolves to choose wisely if the opportunity ever presents itself again.

    Chapter 2

    Man has aged a bit now, Fairy makes an appearance again and grants him another wish. He has the option to choose from the rest of the four.

    The man chooses love this time thinking that it had to be the right decision.

    Years have passed since that visit from the fairy – every loved one the man ever had, either left him or the world. He is pained with grief and curses love from the bottom of his heart.

    He lost way more than he gained, trading with the monstrous Love.

    Chapter 3

    Fairy reappears and now offers the man to pick one from the remaining three.

    Man chooses fame this time. The fairy grants the wish and leaves.

    The man enjoys fame, but that experience of enjoyment does not last long either. Fame is quickly followed by envy, persecution, derision and pity. He sits there alone, marinating in hopeless self-loathing.

    Chapter 4

    The man being given the choice between Wealth and Death this time, chooses Wealth, considering himself utterly foolish for not having done that before.

    Wealth, he thought, was the answer to everything.

    The result of this one was worse if not better than ones from his previous choices. Three years after choosing wealth, the man sat in rags, cursing wealth and coming to realize the most precious wish of them all – Death.

    Chapter 5

    Man is ready to embrace death when Fairy appears and offers him to choose again, but there is a twist.

    The man can only choose from the four options that he had used before. Death was not an option anymore for the man.

    What lay ahead of him was something worse – and in Mark Twain’s words – The Wanton Insult of Old Age.

    Want to read The Five Boons of Life by Mark Twain?

    The Five Boons of Life is a short story which is published in a novel alongwith other short stories written by Mark Twain. You can use the links given below to buy this short story collection on Amazon:

    Check Price on Amazon US
    Check Price on Amazon Canada
    Check Price on Amazon India

    The Five Boons of Life: Review and My Thoughts

    ‘If you were granted one wish, what would you ask for?’

    Growing up, someone must have asked you this question at least once. It is not just something that children marvel at, but is also a good conversation starter for adults.

    Now, I do not know about you, but I have been asked that question many times in my life, so much so that it’d  be a miracle if it does not make a monthly appearance at some conversation or the other.

    What’s more intriguing is how the answer to that question changed for me as I grew older.

    I distinctly remember the first time I was asked this question. And I answered like any ice-cream loving kid would,  ‘An Ice cream truck’.

    Of course, I couldn’t have the satisfaction of having my imaginary ice-cream truck, because I was immediately told what a stupid choice that was.

    If I were you, I would have asked for ‘I wish for every wish of mine coming true’

    That was the Big revelation. How smart! How Intelligent! Why didn’t I think of it?

    Of course I couldn’t, because I was stupid. And my neighbor was smart.

    And then Life happened. (It’s still happening by the way; I am not that old)

    Like the man in Twain’s story, I have craved for some of those things. But with a growing stack of life experiences, I’ve come to realize that there is no end to desire.  Getting one is always followed by an immediate craving for the other and then another and so on and so forth. 

    The fable is not new. You have some version of this in every culture and even if you are not familiar with this particular story, you are not new to the idea.

    Equipped with whatever you took from the story, if I were to ask you, for the n-th time..

    If you were to be granted one wish, what would you ask for?

  • Sweet and Low by Nick White: Summary, Analysis and Review

    Sweet and Low by Nick White: Summary, Analysis and Review

    Sweet and Low is a short story written by Nick White. The story revolves around the life of a young boy Forney, who, having recently lost his father, is coming to terms with a life with his mother – a mother he doesn’t especially feel close to.

    With the feeling of love comes the dread. When you love someone, you give them the power to destroy you with something as little as a look. Or a song.

    This is an excerpt from a short story by Nick White, an American author noted for his debut novel How to Survive a Summer. The story Sweet and Low is one of the stories in his short story collection of the same name.

    Sweet and Low: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story opens with Felicia (Forney’s mother) cleaning the house meticulously, something that was not very characteristically her, having announced to her son that she was expecting someone for dinner that day.

    Forney, who hasn’t still come to terms with the fact that his mother is seeing other men, feels disgusted but resolves to make sure he knows who that man is.

    The man doesn’t arrive on time and Forney is secretly happy when he tries to console his mother about being stood up.

    The man, whose name is Buck, however, pulls up shortly after, apologizing profusely over his tardiness.

    Dreading to see another man with his mom, he prepares for the worst but looking at the tiny and frail frame of this man, he is secretly relieved. He is convinced that his mother seems to be in this arrangement strictly for his connections.

    Over the course of the evening, Forney comes to know that Buck met his mother at Country Music Palace where her rendition of Sleeping Single in a double bed bewitched him.

    Buck is very appreciative of Felicia’s talents which Forney finds very hard to understand – having never experienced them first hand.

    Buck continues to regale them for most of the night. Forney comes to know that Buck is a DJ, and hosts a show Buck Wild in the Morning – second most-listened program in the  Delta. He confesses to having a soft spot for happy songs.

    Buck, a self confessed sweet tooth, asks them for a dessert. Felicia asks Forney to get some for him from the freezer.

    Dreading the sight of his mother and Buck using it as their moment of privacy, Forney, to his relief, sees them in the driveway where Buck and his mother were sharing a cigarette.

    His mother sees him off and wards off Forney’s question about the nature of the relationship between the two.

    Buck’s visit to the family becomes a regular Friday occurrence – and more and more focused on Felicia’s talents.

    Forney is impressed with Buck’s talent on the piano and even more so, when he listens to his mom singing for the first time. He now realizes what his father and Buck meant when they said they were enchanted by her voice.

    Buck and his mom practice, often till late in the night, but Buck never stays the night. They continue to maintain a strict business-like relationship – at least in Forney’s presence.

    Buck and his mother start going to small open mic gigs and on those occasions Forney is left to live with his uncle and his aunt.

    Although both his uncle and his aunt pretend to not care for information about Felicia, Forney knows that they secretly wish for as much as they can get out of him. He tells them about Buck and how he is teaching her country music.

    Buck drives up into the front yard one afternoon and announces to Forney that the opportunity for his mom had now come. They would be going on a trip to Memphis and this time his mother is going to take him along with them.

    In preparation for the trip, both his mother and Forney shop for something classic that suits the occasion. His mother is in a very jolly mood and kisses Forney on the forehead.

    This, in Forney’s words, is an atomic bomb for his senses.

    Buck drives them to Memphis in his crown vic, entertains a few questions from Forney on his way there before they arrive at the Little Tina. Felicia, nervous about her upcoming performance, touches the statue of W.C Candy for luck.

    The three of them get in a booth at the back, where Forney and Buck order sweet tea and Felicia goes straight for her gin and tonic. They see a performer playing quite well, only to be booed.

    Felicia performs shortly after and the crowd does not even notice her presence. This breaks Forney’s heart who wanted her mother’s performance to be immensely successful. He breaks into sobs.

    Buck’s friend Bishop visits shortly after, missing Felicia’s performance. Felicia and Bishop get drunk and perform again, with her mother slurring through most of the song.

    Forney is disturbed by this drunkenness, and Bishop’s behavior towards his mother.

    In a fit of rage, he splashes his tea on Bishop’s face. He is about to retaliate but he’s stopped by Buck.

    Felicia, in an attempt to repair the damage done by Forney, announces that she will join them later and that they could go on without her.

    Buck and Forney both disagree but Felicia insists that she needed to talk to Bishop to smoothen things as she feels that this will help her career.

    Buck drives Forney back to stay at a motel where both of them share a cinnamon bun brought by a waitress and Buck tells him where his son was, answering a question that Forney had asked him months ago.

    Both of them know that Felicia was not going to return. Forney is sure that she thinks – this is the saddest room in the universe.

    Want to read Sweet and Low?

    Sweet and Low is available on Amazon if you want to get yourself a copy. You can use the links given below to check the price or buy this book:

    Check Price on Amazon US
    Check Price on Amazon India

    Sweet and Low: Review and My Thoughts

    I find the evolution of the relationship between the mother and son endearing. Both of them were grappling with the loss of a dearly loved one; it came as a salvation to see Forney progressing from an emotionally distant son to one that breaks into sobs when his mother did not get the applause he so desperately wanted for her.

    Her response does not alarm or frustrate Forney. That is their way with each other: distant with an air of suspicion.

    He recognizes the feeling inside him and shudders. With the feeling of love comes the dread. When you love someone, you give them the power to destroy you with something as little as a look. Or a Song.

    I loved how Nick White took a loving jab at deep South here and there. And on his road trip to Memphis:

    Forney has this notion that they will see Memphis glittering in the distance, a good mile or two before they reach it. So far, however, there has been nothing but a vast stretch of nothingness in front of and behind them: a hazy wall of humidity,a diminishing wall of trees. Like they are headed away from civilization, not towards it.

    I almost found myself rooting for Buck when he confesses to liking happy love songs:

    The kind where it ends the way it should.

    Although Nick White didn’t end the story that way, he made the journey worth the while.

  • The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley: Summary, Analysis and Review

    The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley: Summary, Analysis and Review

    The Loudest Voice is a short story by Grace Paley, published as part of her short story collection – Little Disturbances of Man, back in 1959. The story captures the world of a young Jewish girl living and learning about a life of balance between her roots and the world that she currently lives in.

    The Loudest Voice: Summary and Plot Analysis

    The story opens at a grocery store where Shirley’s mom and the grocer are having a conversation where the grocer is advising her to not be scared of her child. Her mother laments about her loud husband and daughter.

    Shirley goes to school nearby, where she holds a reputation for being a loud and clear speaker.

    Shirley, upon being asked by the monitor of her class, speaks with Mr Hilton, who wants to have her narrate the school Christmas play.

    Having received high recommendation from her teacher Mrs.Jordan, Mr Hilton gives her the part after making her swear that she will work harder than ever before.

    In a backdrop of festivities, a recently concluded Thanksgiving and soon to be up Christmas, Shirley and her family live in a culture very different from their own.

    Bright as Shirley is, she performs splendidly in all rehearsals and has the teachers fully impressed with her abilities.

    Her mother, on the other hand, finds the Christmas festivities and her Jew neighbors involvement in them unsettling. She has a conversation with Misha (Shirley’s dad) about it. He simply discards this as one of her tantrums pointing to the fact that other places in the world had bigger problems than Christmas for her.

    Shirley with her brilliant performances and her booming voice becomes a favorite of teachers.

    Despite lack of approval from her mother about her booming voice and her Christmas performance, Misha defends his daughter. He says he knows his daughter is not a fool. He wishes her good luck for her performance.

    The day of the performance arrives and Shirley delivers splendidly. A Mrs Kornbluh visits them for tea and they have a conversation about it. Misha finds the play beautiful considering that it introduces them to the belief of a different culture.

    Mrs Kornbluh however points that Jews got very limited parts in the play.

    Shirley retires to bed, but before falling asleep she prays for everyone hoping to be heard as her voice was the loudest.

    Want to read The Loudest Voice?

    The Loudest Voice is a short story which is published in a collection of short stories called Little Disturbances of Man. You can use the links given below to check the price of this book:

    Check Price on Amazon US
    Check Price on Amazon India

    The Loudest Voice: Review and My Thoughts

    The story is feel good on so many accounts – the amazing father and daughter relationship, a loving family, tolerance on cultural differences, the practice of yelling that the family used to silence each other and the warmth with which Shirley recalls her past. How her father’s tolerant and open minded views impressed upon the mind of a young Shirley.

    Some notable quotes from The Loudest Voice

    There are a few quotes from the book that brought a smile to my face as I envisioned a simple Jew household that Paley has effortlessly created.

    Consider Shirley’s mother’s view when Mrs Kornbluh points to her the meagre parts that Christian children got in the Christmas play.

    They got very small voices;after all, why should they holler? The English language they know from the beginning by heart. They are blond like angels. You think it’s so important they should get in the play? Christmas..the whole piece of goods-they own it.

    And then her fathers when faced with his wife’s incessant banter about Christians 

    You wanted to come here. You would be eaten alive in Palestine. Here you got Christmas, Some joke,ha?

    His level headedness and support for his daughter is heartwarming 

    What belongs to history belongs to all men. 

    Does it hurt Shirley to learn to speak up? It does not. So one day, maybe she will not live between the kitchen and the shop. 

    (to which Shirley quickly reminisces) Thank you Papa, it’s true about me to this day, I am foolish but I am not a fool.

    A little friendly banter is again a pleasant addition to the mix, when Mrs Kornblun speaks with Shirley’s father after the play.

    How’s the virgin? Asked my father with a look of concern.

    For a man with a daughter, you got a fresh mouth Abramovitch

    Here, have some lemon, my father said kindly. It will sweeten your disposition.

    Despite the struggles of an immigrant family, I found the family and community a very closely knit and functional one. A child being brought up by loving parents, a level headed father supporting her and tolerant, rather appreciative, of other cultures.

    I could not help but imagine a world with a lot more of such fathers and a lot more Shirleys – one spreading the message of tolerance while the other the message of love.

    Grace Paley had a lot of foresight highlighting the importance of differences leading to a wonderful mosaic of life, where differences are at least tolerated if not celebrated.

    In the world that we live in right now, the message is as relevant as ever.