The Necklace by V.S. Pritchett, 1958
The magic trick:
A narrator who knows less about his life than the reader does
Hmm, what to say of this V.S. Pritchett oddball story?
It’s an amusement, for sure. Our narrator, a humble English window-washer, is too simple and innocent – or too busy playing soccer with his friend – to notice that his wife is a pathological liar.
The reader sees that before he does, and that inherently is funny.
But the story offers very little that I can see in the way of major themes or human truths. So its “funny factor” becomes its key selling point, and, frankly, if it’s only funny, I don’t find it nearly funny enough.
Not my favorite Pritchett by a long shot.
Anyway, the story employs a clever structure for revealing the truth about the narrator’s wife. It begins at a police station. A couple of police officers are trying to figure out the truth behind this necklace. They ask our narrator some questions. The narrator starts to explain the story to them. That’s how we hear the whole thing. It makes the reveals especially amusing.
And that’s quite a trick on Pritchett’s part.
The selection:
“And you say you found it at the corner of Alston Street and the Promenade on Saturday?”
“That’s it. I just told you,” I said.
“Just checking up. We have to check up on all lost property,” said the older one. And the young one must have had a nod from him, because he got up and left the room. I looked up at the dark-green, glossy walls and the frosted window; and then I heard Nell’s voice and her heels on the floor outside in the passage.
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