{"id":29954,"date":"2022-10-10T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=29954"},"modified":"2023-02-02T23:36:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T03:36:33","slug":"david-gilbert-come-softly-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2022\/10\/10\/david-gilbert-come-softly-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"David Gilbert: \u201cCome Softly to Me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Come Softly to Me”<\/strong><\/span>
\nby David Gilbert<\/span>
\nfrom the October 17, 2022 issue of\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[\/fusion_title][fusion_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”#003366″ hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” text_color=””]I[\/fusion_dropcap]t has been a few years since we’ve had new fiction from David Gilbert, but that’s been the norm. It seems we get a new one every couple of years. I always enjoy them. Here is how “Come Softly to Me” starts.<\/p>\n

Upstairs, the sisters prepared by putting on their dresses, while down in the yard everyone drank Mott\u2019s apple juice and snacked on Ritz crackers squared with Cheddar. Afterward, they\u2019d have a proper meal. Lily had brought six pies. Eleanor, pasta salad and lentils with sweet potatoes. Louise\u2019s son Charlie would man the grill. There\u2019d be enough to drink, that was for sure, and maybe something to smoke thanks to the dispensaries in nearby Great Barrington. Come night, Jasper, Lily\u2019s grandson, would play guitar. And Lewis, the son of Benjamin, the sisters\u2019 cousin, would light the bonfire, once his father\u2019s job. Oh, Benjamin. He\u2019d been cremated with his healing crystals still clenched in his hands. The bonfire nowadays was confined to the copper fire pit at Louise\u2019s house, but they\u2019d manage to get the flames up high. Then they\u2019d shoot Roman candles and bottle rockets, brought by whoever had travelled from, or through, a firework state. Jasper would pick up his mandolin, and Philip, Lily\u2019s son, would grab Jasper\u2019s guitar, and Louise would sing, and then Lily would sing, and Eleanor would never sing but she might yowl and grab her crotch, and maybe this place would start to feel like the old place.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I know this is going up out of order, but if you’re interested in posting thoughts on this story, please always feel welcome!<\/p>\n

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This week’s New Yorker fiction is David Gilbert’s “Come Softly to Me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"I'm finally going back and making posts for the New Yorker fiction of October, a month where I was too busy to do it! Here is David Gilbert: \u201cCome Softly to Me\u201d","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,94],"tags":[1435],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-29954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-david-gilbert","category-new-yorker-fiction","tag-2022-new-yorker-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Come-Softly-to-Me.jpg?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-7N8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29958,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29954\/revisions\/29958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29954"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=29954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}