A day-in-the-life story from Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff's story, Brawler, in the current New Yorker is perhaps set in Florida, like all of the stories in her most recent collection, though unlike her other recent works this one does not make much of a poiont of setting or locale; from my reading, it looks as if this story could take place in just about any American community (though probably in the South or West). It's really a day-in-the-life story, a study in character and situation, in particular of the title character, actual name Sara. As we meet her she's getting ready for a swim meet, at which she is part of, in fact the star of, the diving team; we see immediately that she arrives late for the meet and that this is typical. We also learn that she's in some kind of trouble in school, where she is being punished (for "brawling" - we never learn more about that except that it establishes her tough demeanor and outlaw behavior) or even educated in a special program for troubled teens - not clear - but we do see that she jumped out of a window to get out of detention and to get to the meet. She's does her dive but is DQ'd because she hit the board on her descent - scratching the back of her neck but (surprisingly) not seriously injured. The we learn about her sorrowful home life - mother chronically ill and malnourished, money is tight, we see her shoplifting 2 frozen dinners to bring home for her and her mother, we see the scorn that others in the community direct toward her, we see her on an emergency visit to the hospital w/ her mother and the dr. being very kind and solicitous though in response she, for some reason, seems to hate him. That's about it - the story is a snapshot of a young woman trapped and in despair; in a way, I'd say it begs for more - we want to know more about her life and fate - but I know it's stupid to ask of a story more than it can give: Sometimes it's good to complete a story and wish there were more to it.