‘The Last Pilgrim’ by Laurie Colwin

The Last Pilgrim by Laurie Colwin, 1976

The magic trick:

Using a thin storyline to dress up what amounts to an essay about the nature of love

“The Last Pilgrim” finds Colwin in the mode of philosopher as much as, if not more than, storyteller. There is a plot here. Our narrator recalls her life when she met her now-husband. She recalls the man she loved before that, too. But mostly, she’s pontificating about how longing turns into happiness and whether happiness can exist without longing. It’s more of an essay in that way.

And that’s quite a trick on Colwin’s part.

The selection:

You long for someone to love. You find him. You pine for him. Suddenly, you discover you are loved in return. You marry. Before you do, you count up the days you spent in the homes of others, in kitchens, at dinner tables, putting other people’s children to bed. You have basked in a sense of domesticity you have not created but enjoy. The Lone Pilgrim sits at the dinner parties of others, partakes, savors, and goes home in a taxi alone.

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