DeWitt, depending who you ask, is somewhere between an underrated genius and a universal taste, but she doesn’t publish new work very often. This – OK, a novella more than a story; who’s counting? – is an exquisite self-contained world, led by our narrator Marguerite. Wealthy but fallen on hard times, she is required to write her life story, which we are reading. Her poise and orientation toward the world are visible when she is asked to write more about her feelings: “Perhaps there were people who would like to hear about feelings, but I did not think that they were people I would want to know.” The purity and intensity of DeWitt’s prose is a wonder, and the story will have you referring to certain things as “mauvais ton” for weeks afterwards.
First published as a standalone story in the New Directions Storybook ND series, 2022
A Personal Anthology 