I was going to wait for a female or male perspective to appear on this but so far nothing and I kind of misjudged what it seemed like it was about in the beginning. “You have to be careful with a man who’s better looking than you,” is the only line that could help me think about what this story was all about. So it is a bedtime story but is it a fairy tale from the viewpoint of a girlfriend looking towards a decent marriage to a man who is more good-looking than she? Or is it the fairy tale from the viewpoint of a handsome admired art history major guy who Rollerblades or is it this beautiful lady who Rollerblades into him? There seems to be the fairy tale of a man finding a woman who looks physically on a par with how he looks running into each other. And there is a tension between the woman finding a man who looks a little better than she does but their children will have a more equitable chance because at least one of the parents could be considered to be good looking. How does the wife compete with the attractiveness of this actress look alike who the future husband has made an “art film nude short subject something” containing very little if any plot? I liked the little details of having Queens instead of Kings preside over the Medieval Times tournaments all though the “wenches” serving mead or drinks with basic grub would remain so as not to undo the patriarchal social order. The girlfriend later wife takes no chances financially while the guy though poor is up on Rollerblades (which are never connected to solid ground or solid marital reality versus over the tumultuous topsy turvy of the top frivolousness of partners more desirous than tolerant of each other at least over any long term). This seems like one of those weird triangles mostly seen in Italian or English or French escapades of the heart or mind or body or some such collection of all three. Sort of simple in the beginning but heightened up into the cosmopolitan search for the perfect partner. I like the simpleness although much of the ambiguity aludes me. Also liked the juxtaposition of the Asian seeming lady martial arts heroine who looks slim, short and radiantly beautiful who has the perfect martial arts moves that destroy any man she does not want to be associated with in any way. These are hybrid women heroines that most people would doubt exist anywhere in Western culture let alone anywhere in Asia and our triangle here does not believe the film at all being able at all to justify any part of the story because all the blood and guts takes away any believability. It’s a nice conflict of lasting domesticity versus the unpredictable flying along at top speed of 5 to 6 bladed wheels capable of going any direction at full blast. This is one of those stories that could use a female perspective to unravel it’s complexities. There are simple things that are evident but others that have a perplexing ambiguity. Often New Yorker stories have a complexity that is difficult to understand unless you attended private school in NYC or know someone who did who can explain. And there are some people who are really sharp who never miss anything and think everyone sees what they see. And they will graciously explain. I tend to wait for other comments to kind of spill the hidden beans although sometimes very people write about their response because maybe they assume many people can have the same reaction. But it is great to have a woman centric story that is not overtly polemical but looks at how certain things happen that though fictional have some sort of tie to reality. How does this work? The best thing about ambiguity is it deals with what can actually be there but isn’t always very easy to see. Larry

Well, this bedtime story didn’t have a particularly happy ending, or beginning or middle for that matter. What I saw as I read it was a woman who is trying to convince herself that she is special and essential to her husband, while everything we read is telling us that, yes he loves her, but in an abstract way. He’s a guy who does what he wants, loves attention, and when he’s thinking about proposing to her one of these days, he is not going to get down on his knees. He can’t seem to remember whether it was she who was with him for various events, or someone else. And, as we know, he is better looking than his wife. The author does an interesting trick with the point of view, switching it to the wife’s imagined story of her husband’s experience. How he allows Meg, who is no richer than he, to pick up the tab. Sounds like she’s got his number there.
When the incident with Meg comes to light, my impressions are confirmed. The line “on his sweating face was the naked look of fear that comes with having let someone for a long time,” threw me off a bit, because I questioned the depth, or perhaps the reciprocity, of their relationship. Was this wishful thinking on the wife’s part? Or simply that he loves her in his way, as unsatisfactory as that might look from the outside? It’s unclear to what extent she is fooling herself about her marriage and what extent she sees the imbalance accepts it as her due. At the end she reveals herself to be dependent, submissive, and perhaps delusional. This story did not brighten up my day, but I guess it is some people’s cup of tea.

Callie,
Thanks for providing much appreciated clarity especially concerning the wife’s point of view. The infidelity I found troubling because the husband didn’t seem to value the wife because to him she was just a good wife and mother but nothing more. He just wasn’t giving her the respect she should have demanded of him which is why some women would rather bring up their kids without a father if the mother is not getting minimal respect as regarding her role or she has decided what she will or will not tolerate in a or her husband. Why should she suffer the indignity of a man who is a bit indifferent towards her finds her too ordinary compared to some other woman? Yet what he craves in the other women seems so superficial, even the capricious way she gets him over to her apartment. It’s a little more ambiguous but he seems a little unknowing of how much she is craving him almost more like the needfulness of a man or that the intensity of a woman’s lust for a man is never as total as a man’s for a particular woman.

I can see Ken’s viewpoint as it being a relatively small infidelity that maybe the husband hadn’t intended on committing and at least he doesn’t sleep with her though she seems to fervently want it going in that direction. He sort of vaguely senses himself becoming a bit aroused. Shakespeare sort of talks of this by indirection, direction found in terms of where it is all leading. Also I can see Ken’s viewpoint that the guy at least behaves responsibly domestically as regards his family duty to his children and their mother so he is not necessarily a bad husband.

It’s very shrewd of Shun-lien Bynum to note how the older child seemingly better understands aspects of the truth of things and situations his father might not be fully aware of as he tells the bedtime story. Which possibly suggests that the son will at some point understand the disrespect of his father’s mild (at least as much as we know) betrayal.

Will the son feel more for the mother or more for the father? Will he see her as having been shortchanged by not a huge amount so it is okay because her husband mostly delivers as a father? But maybe the son might feel his mother shouldn’t have settled for so much less than she might have found in a little better man. Maybe the husband only being capable of only very ordinary interest in the qualities of the mother of his childrenis acceptable.

Maybe Ken’s viewpoint is that any time and in any way that the family relationship heads more toward optimal than dysfunctional that that is not to be undervalued especially in these times.

The fairy tale aspect of the story is that the family might have lived happily ever after. The irony is that it does have a bit of that aspect but there are challenges. The idea of a completely happy family crumbles a little bit. I really like how the disparity that the wife vaguely perceives doesn’t seem to fully emerge in her mind until maybe at the end of the story.

Trevor and Betsy —

In connection with this story, I read Mavis Gallant’s story, “The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street.” It has several sections of long dialogue. You are both reading Alice Munro’s stories. Does she have any stories with such extensive dialogue?