‘The Stone, Hot-Water Bottle’ by Maeve Brennan

The Stone, Hot-Water Bottle by Maeve Brennan, 1954

The magic trick:

Satire that never lets up

These Herbert’s Retreat stories sit neatly in a continuum of comedy alongside P.G. Wodehouse and J.F. Powers.

Consider today’s feature, “The Stone, Hot-Water Bottle.” Conflict arises when Leona gives her rich aunt, visiting for the weekend, the fancy hot-water bottle she’d previously gifted to a theater critic friend who she likes to have around the house for parties and fashion advice. So, you can see we have Wodehousian-level comical stakes. (A hot-water bottle even plays a prominent role in arguably the funniest of all Wodehouse stories: Jeeves And The Yule-Tide Spirit.”)

Brennan also analyzes the leverage games being played between her characters, among these overstuffed stakes, in the same way that Powers does in his stories of petty priests.

However, I’d argue that Herbert’s Retreat stands alone as an original. Though there are connections to Wodehouse and Powers, these stories are so much angrier in their delivery.

Wodehouse, of course, is pure, joyful comedy. Powers leaves me with a true sense of human sadness behind his comedy.

Brennan? Her Herbert’s Retreat stories feel like vent sessions for her, ripping through her hit list, taking names and crushing souls. She doesn’t just mock her characters for caring about the petty things they care about. She plays out the conflicts and lets us see how the characters respond to losing the game. Their reactions – predictably even more comically over-the-top than they were at the outset of the narrative – make them look even worse.

It’s like satire on top of satire.

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

The selection:

Trembling, Leona sat down and patted her face nervously until her glance caught her own dim, ghostly reflection in the dark glass of the window. Then she put her hands in her lap and turned to Bridie and said, “I want you to help me. No, wait a minute, this is going to be difficult. You’re going to have to be very, very careful.”

This is the best yet, Bridie thought as she listened to Leona’s instructions. Wait till I tell the girls about this. Oh, Lord above, this is the best yet!

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