Ten-Year Affair by Erin Somers, 2021
The magic trick:
Rooting its conflict within the context of both short story history and social history
This story is notable for being genuinely funny, which is no easy task. But that’s not the magic trick I’d like to spotlight here.
This story very self-consciously nods its head toward its forefathers of extramarital affair fiction – your Cheevers, your Updikes, your Richard Fords. The narration even says it outright: no, not in this generation, we don’t do that, we don’t have sexual affairs like that. You did that and didn’t even seem to feel too guilty about it. But not now.
And it’s that accusatory pride slash repression slash depression, whatever you want to call it, that drives the rest of the story. I just really appreciated the social historical context.
And that’s quite a trick on Somers’s part.
The selection:
They were silent. Their generation did not take off its clothes, did not put its keys in a bowl by the front door. Sex between men and women had become taboo in their generation, where everyone was striving, not incorrectly, to be an equal. Even the word affair had the ring of obsolescence, like a cigarette or an ad man or a chaise lounge.
“I’m kidding,” he said at last.
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