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Dec 2, 2022Liked by Mek

Hello! Thank you, Mek, for hosting a short story chat. I love the idea. 'The Darling' for me is pretty interesting bc Chekov seems to break half the rules we've learned in creative writing. I'm always here for rule breaking.

I found the time-management interesting, the way the story skips over vast durations, and pretty much names them (3 months later, 6 years later). It was a jolt the first time ('He proposed to her, and they were married.') but after that, I started to enjoy the conceit of it. It's a risky move, you really need to be on board as a reader for it to work, I think. Otherwise, I will have fallen out of the story.

I noticed that the narrator commentates on the actions and goings on, which is something I've been pulled up on as a writer. But as a reader, I really enjoy seeing the presence of the narrator and negotiating the duplicity of voice between the narrator and the characters. Of course, this story is mostly the narrator telling a story, rather than immersive (would you call it observational 3rd person POV?), but there are still these moments where I think the narrator shows their hand more prominently. E.g., in a phrase like this: 'Evidently her best years were over, past and gone, and a new, dubious life was to begin...' And here: 'There was no unhappier creature in the world, she felt.' The narrator's qualification here, 'she felt'... is such a wonderful intervention, rich with meaning. Kristen (from PWE)

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