‘The Best Of Everything’ by Richard Yates

The Best Of Everything by Richard Yates, 1954

The magic trick:

Hope as cruelty

I’ve been reading a lot of Richard Yates lately. And of all the Richard Yates stories out there, I would call “The Best Of Everything” the Richard Yatesiest.

Oblong in its story shape. Brilliant in its bringing characters to vivid life. And unflinchingly brutal in its sad reality.

I love this story. It really knocked me out.

In it, we meet Grace and Eddie. They’re getting married. Everyone is happy for Grace – everyone but her roommate. Her roommate thinks it’s a bad match. Grace is offended and hurt by her judgment. As the story goes on, though, we see that Grace is also inclined to think her roommate may be right.

It’s awkward. It’s difficult to read. Your heart hurts for Grace.

And then Yates does this thing, this cruel, cruel – but painfully real – thing. Grace looks at the fork in the road and elects to embrace her decision to marry Ralph. She makes the leap into love. She lets go of the doubts and puts her chips all in on this man.

So what’s so cruel about that from Yates? He’s given his character strength and courage of her convictions. Right?

Well, that’s just it. That strength and courage and hope only set the stage for an even deeper level of heartbreak. Honestly, it’s difficult to keep reading, you’re cringing and hurting for her so bad.

And that’s quite a trick on Yates’s part.

The selection:

But Ralph had persisted all through the summer, and by fall she had begun standing up for him. “What don’t you like about him, Martha? He’s perfectly nice.”

“Oh, everybody’s perfectly nice, Grace,” Martha would say in her college voice, making perfectly nice a faintly absurd thing to be, and then she’d look up crossly from the careful painting of her fingernails. “It’s just that he’s such a little – a little white worm. Can’t you see that?”

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.