Annunciation by Clare Sestanovich, 2020
The magic trick:
Showing the effect of two not particularly positive role models on our protagonist
This is the third Sestanovich story I’ve read, and I have to say it’s a distant third in my personal rankings. Where the other two – “Separation” and “Old Hope” – kicked along with a certain tension, “Annunciation” lies flat, failing to charm when it feels like it’s assuming it’s charmed me, failing to make me ache when it’s assuming it’s made me ache.
I do like the way the protagonist is given two female role models in the story. Her mother exerts less influence than you might imagine.
It’s Charlotte, the best friend, who really is the interesting role model. She is described in glowing terms. Charlotte knows all the best restaurants. Charlotte knows the right clothes to wear. And on and on.
Both women – the mother and the friend – are flawed and leave our protagonist flailing a bit. Maybe that’s why the story feels a little flat for me. It’s by design. Aimless is the point.
And that’s quite a trick on Sestanovich’s part.
The selection:
Iris’s mother is waiting at the airport. She’s wearing an elegant coat and boots with flower-stem heels, because she disapproves of people who travel in pajamas. The husband and wife tell Iris not to leave without saying goodbye, but she disappears while they’re waiting at baggage claim. She looks back once, while her mother walks ahead, the wheels of Iris’s suitcase clicking in time with her shoes, and she is surprised, seeing them standing together, that the woman is taller than the man. His arm is wrapped around her waist and she leans into him, her head resting gently on the top of his.
In the car, Iris tells her mother about the couple. She does not call them “my friends,” and this feels like losing something—like removing a pebble from her shoe, and missing the discomfort. To put the pebble back in would be crazy.
She mentions the baby just as a plane passes overhead, so close she can make out the wheels.
“What?” her mother says over the roaring.
Iris repeats herself.
“They should never have told you that.”
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