Emily appears to have it all: professional success and a sweet family life. But when her promotion causes her family to relocate to a new city, the move unexpectedly stirs up unpleasant memories of Jack Olney, the handsome jock who bullied her during college.
As Emily sorts through her recollections and past humiliations, she decides to reach out to her old dorm mates. Do they remember her? Are they happy? And whatever happened to Jack?
With piercing emotional truth, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the indignities we can't ever seem to shake-and the pitfalls of self-reflection.
****
There was a tiny kind of story my mother told when I was growing up, less a narrative than a few colourful facts.
***
(Amazon Original Stories, 15 September 2020, 22 pages, ebook, borrowed from @AmazonKindle, #PrimeReading)
***
***
I've wanted to read more of the author since I read loved an ARC of her incredible book Rodham earlier this year. I jumped at the chance to read this story. I really enjoyed it. A lot happens across the scant pages of the story which moves back and forth in time from the present to Emily's memories of college and the bullying Jack. The story felt very real like I was reading something that actually happened to someone. Our memories of the past can be triggered by small things that aren't even linked to something that happened to us. In this case, Emily's memories of Jack are triggered by reading about a town with a similar name to his surname. She reconnects to her old college friends and finds out how much and how little some of them have changed.
