My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead by Jeffrey Eugenides

'I started to realize that not only the love stories that I liked, but actually the love stories that everybody liked, had a certain bittersweet quality to them.

He points out that love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births, on dysfunctional families and matrimonial boredom - and, in short, they simply give love a bad name. In the centre of the table there stood, as sentries to a fruit stand which upheld a pyramid of oranges and American apples, two squat oldfashioned decanters of cut glass, one containing port and the other dark sherry.Writer Jeffrey Eugenides, who edited the new anthology, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro, takes a unique look at love through this short story collection. Between these rival ends ran parallel lines of side dishes: two little minsters of jelly, red and yellow, a shallow dish full of blocks of blancmange and red jam, a large green leafshaped dish with a stalkshaped handle on which lay bunches of purple raisins and peeled almonds, a companion dish on which lay a solid rectangle of Smyrna figs, a dish of custard topped with grated nutmeg, a small bowl full of chocolates and sweets wrapped in gold and silver papers and a glass vase in which stood some tall celery stalks.

A fat brown goose lay at one end of the table and at the other end, on a bed of creased paper strewn with sprigs of parsley, lay a great ham, stripped of its outer skin and peppered over with crust crumbs, a neat paper frill round its shin, and beside this was a round of spiced beef. It’s just as you were saying, there’s a geneti-” “I was saying what? I was saying nothing! I was only saying-” “Oh, dear!” Laurie exclaimed. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? Portia’s mother, Otto. We’ve always said that Viola is ‘ unstable,’ but, frankly, Viola is psychotic. She won’t send Portia a Christmas present. “Half the time Viola doesn’t even remember the child is alive! You watch. Other members of this family could benefit from a little of that quality.” “She can’t relate directly to people.” “Who can?” Otto said. As alienated.” “ There’s nothing wrong with being observant. “ It’s not the radio aspect per se that I’m talking about, it’s what that represents. You and Sharon were both so right not to have children.” “Excuse me?” Otto said incredulously. It’s what she’s playing that concerns me.” “What she’s playing? What is she playing? She’s playing radio, or something! Is that so sinister? The little boys seem to be playing something called Hammer Her Flat.” “ I’m sure not. She’s just playing.” “I know she’s just playing, Otto. I wanted your opinion on the matter.” “On what matter?” Otto said. The truth is, that’s one reason I was so anxious for you to join us today.

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead by Jeffrey Eugenides