The Toast by Rebecca Curtis, 2014
The magic trick:
Using the assignment of a wedding toast as a story structure
Much like I said when I wrote about Curtis’s “Christmas Miracle,” there is a great balance here between weird and normal.
The normal starts things off. We’re introduced to a couple of sisters. The younger one – our narrator – is a struggling artist with Lyme disease and a bunch of credit card debt. The older one is wealthy and getting married and altogether well-established in Colorado.
It’s an interestingly enough portrayed dynamic to keep us reading. But it’s not that interesting and certainly not original.
But then that weird part of the equation jumps in. Little bits here and there. Parts of our narrator’s childhood memories are a little bit odd.
What’s really well-done here is the story structure. The older sister has invited the younger one to her wedding and asked her to make a toast.
From there, the narrator gives us what in essence will be that toast.
It’s not exactly the light, comical fair that the older sister has requested. But it is a remarkably well-rounded and rich characterization of a family.
And that’s quite a trick on Curtis’s part.
The selection:
You, my brother-to-be, will have heard the story of how our mother’s mother died of cancer when our mother was ten and her father was put in a mental hospital. A boring story: when our mother was ten, her mother died, her dad went in the bin, and our mother and her sister were sent to the neighbors’. By the time my mother met Haven, she would have been living for two years with “Auntie Frances” — Frances who had four of her own girls and worked as a nurse and whom my mother has hardly spoken of since, not to me, not to Leala. She said, for example, of her childhood, “I spent most of my time at my friend Haven’s house,” not, “When I lived with Auntie Frances, I often spent the afternoon at my friend Haven’s.” There was no Frances.
She once said, “Haven’s family didn’t have much money, but their house was a fun place to be. It was always lively. They were always doing some project or other.”
A statement full of clichés and generalities.
As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.
Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.
Short Story Magic Tricks 