1990

1990s

Now we move into my decade. I was a 90s baby, although you wouldn't know it to look at my childhood (me being homeschooled and all), but I digress. We had three stories this time around, by Pam Houston, Lorrie Moore, and Carolyn Ferrell. We discussed the Lorrie Moore and Carolyn Ferrell stories at length in class, so I am going to focus this blog on the Pam Houston one, "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had."

Like the other stories of this decade, "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" focuses mainly on relationships. Not just romantic relationships, but all types--parent and child, husband and wife, woman and lover--many different kinds. It also deals with the topic of unrequited love, as all of the characters in the story are dealing with some form of it. The main character, Lucy, talks at length about the relationship with her parents, her father especially. There's a scene in particular where Lucy is talking about a car ride with her parents that illustrates this perfectly (pgs 783-784). She is driving, and gets pulled over. Her father proceeds to totally humiliate her in front of the officer.

Another scene, on page 781, explains her childhood. She describes 16 car accidents she was in with her parents, and how they would fight so much that a young neighbor girl took Lucy and refused to give her back, even when the police came with a warrant. There is something very strong about how it's written, something realistic, and when we look at Pam Houston's biography, we realize that it is realistic. Houston's life directly reflected what she wrote. Houston was in upwards of 15 car accidents with her drunken parents, and would be thrown from the car only to have her parents stand and fight while she cowered beside the wreckage. This is all illustrated in her story, all of it.

In my opinion, out of all the stories we read, this one demonstrates the import of biographical criticism the best.