‘The Joker’ by Maeve Brennan

The Joker by Maeve Brennan, 1952

The magic trick:

Characters who complicate over time so that they move from targets of satire toward targets of sympathy

Well, I enjoyed our weeklong visit to the Maeve Brennan Herbert’s Retreat stories last week I just had to return.

Not quite Herbert’s Retreat for today’s Christmas gem, but it’s similar, as Brennan takes aim at upper-class suburban New York mid-century society here in “The Joker.”

“Takes aim” isn’t really fair, though. Certainly it’s a pointed story, and she, as ever, is a writer with a critical bent. But it’s also funny, and, most notably, it’s a story that forgives its characters.

I guess that really is the magic here – and throughout her catalogue. We get to introduced to the characters in a way that feels like satire. They veer between sadness, desperation, and obliviousness.

But by the end, we feel more kindly toward them. They haven’t been redeemed, or anything so obvious as that, but they have been made more complicated, and complicated is always more sympathetic.

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

The selection:

It was different with the Christmas waifs. For one thing, they were not only outside society, they were outside organized charity. They were included in no one’s plans. And it was in the spirit of Christmas that she invited them to her table. They were part of the tradition and ceremony of Christmas, which she loved. She enjoyed decking out the tree, and eating the turkey and plum pudding, and making quick, gay calls at the houses of friends, and going to big parties, and giving and receiving presents.

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