David Lodge story: Oubliette

David Lodge's story Oubliette in the current Nee Yorker is one of those unusual stories that is pretty short but covers a long spam of time. This technique is difficult to accomplish successfully because stories by their nature tend to build upon a single event or conflict and tend tonnage only a few characters (not always ann Beattie being a notable exception). Lodge tells in a few pages the life story of a young girl who has a conflicted relationship with her mother and over time as her mother gets I'll she learns to care for her mother and finally to grieve for her. Lodge succeed by keeping the characters to 3 the father being the other - he says that Ther were no sins or friends or relatives - a bit of a stretch but it serves his purpose in telling. Vast story efficiently. Like most stories this one does have a single central event - the day in which the mom gets irrationally enraged and locks daughter in the attic. Hence the title - however this odd event let's daughter and dad realize the mom is very ill (Huntington's it turns out) thus the 2nd meaning of the title. From this one event -the breakdown and what everyone learns from it - Lodge builds the strands for his whole story. It was a single event that had repercussions across a lifetime. It's mYbe not a great story - Lodge tries to give the story a New England setting but it feels generic it really could take place anywhere - still a very impressive feat and it truly feels like a complete story And not like a peak at a longer work in progress or in proofs.

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