Alan is a terrible writer. Let me explain: he introduces you to off-kilter characters, sets them up in (sometimes, not always) outrageous scenarios, then he clears off to leave you with them parasitically teeming in your head. What a shitty thing to do! The narrator in ‘Norma’ has chosen a Bartleby-type job for the summer over fruit picking in France. Constantly penning resignation letters but never sending them, his saving grace is Norma, the canteen lady (who’s previously worked in a strip club: “They really liked my cinnamon buns…”). Her sexual exploits soon take over, and he becomes complicit in her office affairs, acting as alibi. As ‘Norma,’ the short story progresses, our narrator sinks more and more into a funk: gives weekends over to reading books of lists, lets his appearance slide. I don’t do spoilers, but there’s a bit where Norma and the narrator are on a smoke break and she recalls one time she watches an air balloon drifting off into the sky, but doesn’t finish that story…
First published in The Pig’s Back 2, 2022
A Personal Anthology 