Saturday, August 22, 2015

“Letter from an Unknown Woman” by Stepan Zweig

This is an insanely depressing collection of short stories, all dealing with forgotten or unknown loves. Let me explain.

-“Letter from an Unknown Woman”-featuring a guy who gets a letter from a woman that he doesn’t know saying that she has worshipped him from afar for years and has met him a few times and sends him flowers every year on his birthday and has had his son. Of course, the only reason he is getting this letter now is because her son just died and she is about to die herself. I’m definitely not crying.

-“A Story Told in Twilight”-everyone in this story is an idiot and that’s really all you need to know. This boy is out for a walk when some girl starts making out with him (without consent I might add) and he thinks it’s the wrong girl and messes up the whole situation.

-“The Debt Repaid Late”-this one was ok, a woman runs into an old beggar that she idolized as a girl and tries to improve his life. It was actually pretty cute.

-“Forgotten Dreams”-short and sad, about a woman telling an old lover of hers that she’s marrying for money and not love.

Why don’t people tell each other that they love them? I mean I know why, I tend to observe quietly from a safe distance, but that’s not real love, that’s just stupid. Real love is letting them know and taking a chance. (But what so I know, I never do that, I’m just as bad as the rest of them.)

Also the real thing about “Letter from an Unknown Woman” that bothers me is that could be happening to anyone and they wouldn’t know it! We could all have secret loves and never hear about it until they’re dead and I want to know because I would probably love you back or at least be friendly or something.


People make me mad. And sad. That’s all. Which I guess means that this collection made me think, which is the whole point of art after all.

No comments:

Post a Comment