New Yorker Fiction Review #260: "A for Alone" by Curtis Sittenfeld

 


Review of the short story from the Nov. 2, 2020 issue of The New Yorker...

It's been a few weeks now since I read "A for Alone" so this review will be less nuanced than I would like; however, let me start by saying this is a damn good short story. Well-constructed, loaded with tension, and it actually delivers the goods. Furthermore, it delivers the goods without being moralistic or trying to shove any kind of "meaning" down your throat. It's complex enough that it leaves you with questions to ponder afterward.

In "A for Alone," the main character -- Irene -- undertakes a quest to probe deeper into the level of knowledge and acceptance of the Modesto Manifesto, something of which I'd not been aware before I read this short story. Apparently the Modesto Manifesto it is a set of standards for religious leaders, developed by Billy Graham (it is nicknamed the "Billy Graham" rule and sometimes the "Mike Pence" rule, as well), which dictates that a person should avoid being alone with a person of the opposite sex to whom they are not married. 

In order to accomplish this project, Irene sets up meetings with various male acquaintances in her life, which take the form of "interviews" about the Modesto Manifesto, interviews which she plans to organize into a sort of art exhibition. Irene herself is married, as are several of the men she chooses as her interview subjects. In fact the only one not married is gay. Anyone who has even the most remote understanding of fiction, or has read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld, will know where a story like this is headed, and the tension is palpable from the first page. 

What's really ingenious about this story is how it's structured. It's almost ridiculous to think of a short story as having "chapters," however, each sit-down interview with each new male character in the story acts almost like a new chapter, and each interview gets progressively more interesting, as Irene gets bolder and more curious. It's like a scaffolding on which the story rests, and it really, really works well. There's a lesson in here for would-be writers of fiction, I think. Structure counts for a lot, even in a short story. 

Furthermore, what's interesting -- and I won't spoil the ending, because I really think you should read this story -- is that the ending of it is morally inconclusive. Does she end up proving the Modesto Manifesto is correct? On a surface level, it would seem that her project ends up proving the manifesto has some validity. But the story raises other questions, as well, that Curtis Sittenfeld doesn't burden the story by trying to answer. The actual plot of the story, the structure, reaches a conclusion and payoff. But the broader moral questions remain for the reader to ponder. 

Ever since I first encountered Curtis Sittenfeld's writing, here in The New Yorker, I have appreciated her trenchant probing into the darker and more opaque corners of the human psyche, particularly surrounding issues of sex and sexuality, which seems to be what she does best. I also just realized she wrote the 2005 novel Prep, which I distinctly remember not reading back when it came out, despite some not-insignificant hype. Maybe time to revisit. She also has a new novel, out this year, called Rodham, in which she, apparently, fictionalizes the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

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