‘The View From The Kitchen’ by Maeve Brennan

The View From The Kitchen by Maeve Brennan, 1953

The magic trick:

Making the plot a joke

We’ve got another week of stories from Maeve Brennan. That’s the fourth weekly feature on SSMT if you’re keeping score at home. And why not? Her stories are so good, and they fit so nicely into weekly segments. This week it’s stories from her fictional NYC suburb of Herbert’s Retreat. These stories border on mean in their satire. And for that reason, I rank them below her Dublin stories, where we get so much heart mixed into the negativity. But these stories also are funnier and sharp. Well worth exploring. So let’s explore.

“The View From The Kitchen” is a great starting point. The first section is devoted to describing the Herbert’s Retreat setting. It’s also an excellent example of Brennan’s humor. The plot here revolves around a woman’s desire to have a river view from her house. The lengths she goes are the punch line. It’s almost veers into Wodehouse territory, the way the stakes are played up so high to the characters when the reader obviously understands that they are in fact so low. But whereas Wodehouse seems to adore his characters, one isn’t picking up the love here in Herbert’s Retreat.

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

The selection:

“He has a great look of a greyhound. Mr. God, I mean.”

“Oh, he’s a very elegant gentleman. Did you notice the pointy shoes he’s wearing. And the waistcoat with the little buttons on it. And the way he shapes around, imagining everybody is looking at him. He’d make you sick.”

“They’re coming in now. They’ll be looking for more drinks, I suppose?”

“That crowd takes care of their own drinks. Out of shame, if nothing else, so we won’t see how much they put down. As if I didn’t have to carry the empty bottles out. It’s a scandal. He makes the drinks. He stands up in front of the bar in there like a priest saying Mass, God forgive me, and mixes a Martini for himself, and one for her, and maybe an odd one for the husband. …”

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