"Settlers" - A Short Story by Rebecca Lee - From Bobcat and other Stories (2013)

My Posts on the Short Stories of Rebecca Lee

"This old house, belonging to my friends Lesley and Andy, had been built in 1904 in a neighborhood that pretended it was on solid ground—old, Victorian homes with pillars and porticoes—but if you stepped through the screen door into the garden out back, you could feel the sand under your feet, and despite Lesley’s beautiful mazes of trees, you could tell the ocean had been here not long ago, and would be again." From "Settlers" by Rebecca Lee

A while back I read and posted on two short by Rebecca Lee.  I really liked both of these stories, I was able to read them online.  I wanted to read more of her works but I could not find any more of her work online.  I hesitate to buy collection and anthologies of short stories as I am kindly given way more collections than can ever read and I keep getting more.  I suppose I could turn the offers of free books down but I like free books to much to do that and any book could be a masterwork.  I do look at every book I am given and I post on what works for me and The Reading Life. 

Yesterday I found that Rebecca Lee's collection Bobcat and other Stories was marked down from $10.95 to $1.95.  I have learned these mark downs are often short term so I bought the book.  I will be reading and perhaps posting on the stories in the collection I have not yet read.  

Lee writes about educated urban often academically employed people.  "Settlers" focuses on the relationships of two women, over the course of a few years.  As you can see in the opening paragraph i quoted above, it is about living on shifting sands.  In "Settlers", set in 1998 in New York City, people write essays  about the rock opera Tommy and are experts on Vietsmese cooking.  The dissect the personalities of all those they knew.  Lee conveys a great deal in a few pages. 

I read this story twice and greatly enjoyed it.  

Mel u