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Jan 16, 2023·edited Jan 16, 2023Author

What a clever story! Talk about masterful set up and establishing of stakes ahead of the big reveal where husband and wife exchange gifts. For the most part, I enjoyed the narrative voice and the descriptions of place that reinforce mood, e.g. 'Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard.'

The story length just right, any longer and I would have wanted there to have been perhaps a parallel story line and not simply a tale of the willingness of both characters to make a significant sacrifice in order to present their partner with a gift they'd cherish. Speaking of length and the ending, it lands so well with the juxtaposition of the wisdom of the magi with the foolishness, at least on the surface, of Della and Jim.

The only aspect that didn't work for me is the self-aware tone of the narrator ('And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children ...') as I have a deep dislike of meta narratives, but being a short piece, I'll forgive it.

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