"The Breeze" by Joshua Ferris (September 30, 2013, The New Yorker)

The New Yorker's A Summer in the Archives event is a tremendous gift to short story lovers.  Through it I read my first works by two of America's highest regarded short story authors, George Saunders and T. C. Boyle.  This morning I read my first work by another award winning American writer, Joshua Farris.

"The Breeze" is about a young New York City couple living in an apartment so small they call it "The Brig".  On the Spring day on which the story occurs there is just a wonderfully lovely breeze.  They both have off work that day and they discuss what will they do.  The wife wants a picnic in the park but the husband has already bought movie tickets.  She defers strongly insisting they always go to the Central Park and have a picnic.  The story is about what happens on their outing.  We see them argue, have two minutes of sex in the backwoods of the park, fight over where to eat, and end up at the movies.  

"The Breeze" is a very well done married love story.  The couple feel very real.

You can read it here 

http://www.newyorker.com/collection/love-stories-from-the-archive

The Archives are just open for the summer.

Joshua Ferris is the bestselling author of three novels, Then We Came to the End, The Unnamed and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. He was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and was named one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40”writers in 2010. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, and Best American Short Stories. He lives in New York.

 

 

 From the aurhor's webpage.

http://www.joshuaferris.com