"Eleanor Rigby," by John Copenhaver, in Happiness is A Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter, Down and Out Books, 2023.
I have a story in this book.
One of the interesting things about themed anthologies is how different authors choose wildly different approaches. If the theme is a song, do you riff on the plot (like last week's story) or take a completely different approach?
Jimmy is married to Clark, a successful writer. The relationship works pretty well but Jimmy feels Clark has secrets, things he can't really know. "It's like staring at a bright-flecked pet goldfish. You admire it, feed it, clean its bowl, but you can't quite reach it. After all, you breathe air, while it breathes water. That's what you sign up for when you marry a writer."
I hope my wife doesn't think of me as a goldfish, but that's neither here nor there.
One day Jimmy sees Baxter, a former friend of Clark's, leaving their apartment building. And he learns about a secret those two share, not an infidelity, but something much worse.
How does that relate to the song "Eleanor Rigby?" Ah, that's the cleverest part of the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment