What Can You Do With A General by Emma Cline, 2019
The magic trick:
Tucking an interesting, complicated story underneath a clichéd premise
The family is home for Christmas. Dad can’t really understand their ways and their world. He finds solace in the predictable, familiar holiday movies and traditions of the past.
It’s not a particularly original premise or set of characters, is it? Well, hold on. Framed like that, no, it’s not particularly original. But that isn’t everything that’s going on here in this story.
Beneath the surface level of the premise, there is a whole of complicated emotion. Anger, resentment, fear, pain. So if we go back to that premise: Dad can’t connect with his children anymore. It’s the why (not the what) of the situation that makes this story so interesting.
And that’s quite a trick on Cline’s part.
The selection:
When John opened his eyes, he saw Sasha on her phone. The impulse to grab the phone, smash it. But best not to get mad, or Linda would get mad at him, they would all get mad. How easily things got ruined. He refilled his wine, served himself some pasta. Chloe kept reaching down to feed Zero scraps of rotisserie chicken.
Sasha poked at the pasta. “Is there cheese in this?” She made a show of not taking any. There was only wet lettuce and some shreds of chicken on her plate. She sniffed her water glass. “It smells weird.”
Linda blinked. “Well, get another glass then.”
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