Thursday, March 15, 2012

Day Seventy-Five: "The Stockholm Syndrome" by Maxine Chernoff

Assumptions.

This story in my view is near perfect. There were few spared words as the narrator, a woman in her late 60's, tells of a friend who has left the comforts of their town and their book club, to live across the country in San Francisco with a mystery man. From an encounter with the woman's son and his male lover to an exploration into what made her friend leave in the first place, the narrator shows us that some things are not what they seem and that there is always someone out there who knows more about any given situation than you may think you know.

Falling in love with one's captor was an interesting thread throughout the story and Chernoff handles it by saying...there are all kinds of love...I suppose. It's that "I suppose" that makes the story work, lets the reader into the mind of the narrator and into the minds of her book club women. They were reading about Patty Hearst and now one of them has in effect become her. I wonder what book they'll choose next!

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