“You Tell Me”
by Clare Sestanovich
from the August 1, 2022 issue of The New Yorker

This is Clare Sestanovich’s third story in The New Yorker, where she is also an editorial assistant. I haven’t read much of her work (she hasn’t published a lot yet — her debut collection, “Objects of Desire,” was published a year ago), but what I’ve read has been excellent.

Here is how “You Tell Me” begins:

When her daughter’s husband called, Janet was in the parking lot of a store that sold everything: electronics and linens and huge plastic buckets of snacks. She was there to replace her TV remote, even though she didn’t watch much TV. Now that she was old—older, as young people said circumspectly—she had less tolerance for obsolescence: it was unpleasant to be reminded of her own. In her confusion at what her son-in-law was telling her, she pointed the remote at the old blue sedan, pressing Play to lock the doors.

I’ve got a few busy weeks in front of me, so I don’t know when I’ll get to read this one. But please feel free to comment with your thouhts below!

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