(She Owns) Every Thing by Anne Enright, 1991
The magic trick:
Providing only narrative snippets; letting the reader assemble the pieces themselves
This story hasn’t the energy nor the interest in silly things like narrative transitions. There is no glue here. Only stray pieces. It’s up to the reader to assemble the model themselves. And that’s quite a trick on Enright’s part.
The selection:
Cathy was often wrong, she found it more interesting. She was wrong about the taste of bananas. She was wrong about the future of the bob. She was wrong about where her life ended up. She loved corners, surprises, changes of light.
Of all the fates that could have been hers (spinster, murderer, savant, saint), she chose to work behind a handbag counter in Dublin and take her holidays in the sun.
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