New Yorker Fiction Review #201: "Caring for Plants" by Hye-yung Pyun
If you're going to read a painfully depressing short story, it's best if it be really short, unlike "Caring for Plants" by Hye-yung Pyun, which weighs-in at approximately 7,000 words. The subject matter of this story, the main character, is a man named Oghi who is recovering after a tragic car accident which left him paralyzed from the waist down and his wife dead.
Oghi watches as his mother-in-law (does every Asian short story have to have a mean mother-in-law in it?), grieving over the loss of her only child, Oghi's wife, takes over more and more facets of his life, firing his caregiver, then his physical therapist, then his psycho-therapist, then -- so Oghi thinks -- gradually attempting to poison him.
Reading this story was like being held under water. I don't think I can remember reading many stories after which I felt such sheer relief that it was over. You might say that, in and of itself, is an achievement. At least Hye-yung Pyun caused me to feel something.
What truly comes across is the feeling of helplessness Oghi feels as his mother-in-law gradually assumes control over his life, including at one point his finances and also writing -- without his knowledge -- a resignation letter to the university where he teaches and where they had been dutifully holding a place for him. We can imagine that, if his wife had lived, or had not been in the accident, Oghi might have been able to make a partial recovery, even lead a somewhat normal life. As is, the story ends with Oghi coming to the painful realization that the accident sealed his fate in more ways than one.
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