Original publication

2001

Average rating

—

Total reads logged

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Opening Excerpt

From the story

When Jane left me for Barry Kramer, it was a dark and heavy sort of hurt, but she had not been happy in our house anyway, and I felt that there was little to be done. Jane and I seemed stricken by the son of ardent spitefulness that comes to light only after many years of tender acquaintance, and our marriage collapsed beneath the weight of our frequent and spirited bickering. We fought about big things and we fought about little things, and by the time she and Barry fell in together everything was just about wrecked already.

Story Vibe & Style Profile

Literary Dimensions
Emotional Weight 3.8 / 5

Bittersweet

Narrative Pacing 2.0 / 5

Deliberate

Literary Style 2.9 / 5

Clear Realism

Speculative / Reality 1.3 / 5

Realistic / Mimetic

Appearances

About the Author

Wells Tower is an American writer of short stories, non-fiction, feature films and television. In 2009 he published his first short story collection, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned to much critical acclaim. His short fiction has also been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, McSweeney's, Vice, Harper's Magazine, A Public Space, Fence and other periodicals. In 2022, he wrote the screenplay for the feature film Pain Hustlers, starring Emily Blunt and directed by David Yates.

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