The Age Of Love by Mary South, 2020
The magic trick:
A funny premise that is more than just a funny premise
If you’re ever looking to explore the nursing home genre of short stories, “The Age Of Love” pairs very nicely with Jonathan Escoffery’s “Independent Living.”
Mary South builds this one from a surprising idea. An employee at a nursing home is recording some of the residents’ calls to a phone sex line. The reader, you may be excited to learn, gets access to some of these transcripts.
It starts as a surprise. Then it’s funny.
But soon it’s more affecting – sad, touching, and ultimately the mechanism that drives the narrative.
And that’s quite a trick on South’s part.
The selection:
“What’s wrong with all of you?” Unbeknownst to us, Chloe, one of the head nurses, had come into the break room. “Don’t you realize that our convalescents are human beings who have needs and feelings the same as you? If I hear of any more eavesdropping on their phone calls, disciplinary action will be taken.”
“I guess that puts an end to that,” I said after she left.
“No way, I’m not stopping,” Wally replied. “We’ll just have to be more careful.”
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