Happy Endings is a short story of sorts by Margaret Atwood. You can read it online here. It begins,
John and Mary meet.For the rest, keep reading at that link.
What happens next?
If you want a happy ending, try A.
A.
John and Mary fall in love and get married. They both have worthwhile and remunerative jobs which they find stimulating and challenging. They buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they can afford live-in help, they have two children, to whom they are devoted. The children turn out well. John and Mary have a stimulating and challenging sex life and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations together. They retire. They both have hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually they die. This is the end of the story.
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And they say Margaret Atwood is a Canadian National Treasure. Oh this was a bleak story but it's oh so true - we have a birth date & we have a death date - it's what we do with the dash between the dates that is so important, so fun, so dreary, so ....
ReplyDeleteShe is a treasure :) I liked the concept here. We all die, but the story in between is what's hard to write. Most authors never get that far, I guess coz we all know that's where it's all heading.
Delete...everyone enjoys a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteHope springs eternal :)
DeleteReading all the iterations of the story was quite fun, even if the endings were all the same 😺
ReplyDeleteYes!
DeleteWell that was different!
ReplyDeleteThe discussion of whether or not this actually is a short story would be fascinating.
DeleteMargaret Atwood is a very talented writer. I'm not sure I always feel comfortable with the way she handles stories-like the Handmaid's Tale. But that is talent. Not just telling a story but getting us to feel it, good or bad!
ReplyDeleteI think Oryx and Crake is my favorite of her books, but that's been so long ago...
DeleteF. John and Mary marry. John enjoys making Mary miserable. After several break-ups and reunions filled with John's false promises, eventually Mary is free of John. John marries Madge. Madge feels immensely superior to first wife, Mary. Mary gets her heart broken a few more times, decides she's had enough of men and lives happily for decades with her cat. Madge becomes an alcoholic. John enjoys Madge's misery. They will all die. LOL!
DeleteLoved the story...stories. Sad, funny truths. ;)
"Life is hard, and then you die," as they say... It'd make an interesting activity for a group to write their own story as an extension of one of these.
DeleteYup! That was mine. Or a small part of mine--LOL! Kind of funny when you look at your life from that perspective in short sentences. ;)
Deletelol, yes, it's interesting the variety of lives that can emerge from "They lived, and then they died" lol And how some people make peace with the past while others never do.
DeleteI wasn't all that enthused about this. Life and death. So much of that right now.
ReplyDeleteIt's all there ever is ;)
DeleteGood one! I love Margaret Atwood. Have a great weekend, Valerie
ReplyDeleteShe's able to write a variety of types of stories well.
DeleteIt's kind of sad we race to the end but the ends are all the same, enjoy where you are .
ReplyDeleteYes! "Be here now," as they used to say. We can't do anything about the past and not much about the future... My patio-watching is a good teacher on that subject :)
DeleteShe a wonderful writer and so diverse in her writing from poetry to fiction to non-fiction 😁. Thanks for the recommendation! Hugs, Jo x
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it. This one is quite different!
Deletethis was good,errr, different. but I enjoyed the read. thank you.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely different! Not what I expect from a short story at all, but it's an interesting look at what makes up a life. Or a story.
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