story: “The Weeping Child”

author: Jane Gardam

year: 1963

where: Burj al Salam, Dubai

note: I just ordered her collection. I love the ending of this story, because it doesn’t follow the conventional rules of short stories. “A ghost of somebody who is still alive”–amazing!

a line: “I saw only the housekeeper who was a slut and kept a television set going–with the sound turned down–the whole time I was with her. All the time she looked at it.”

theme(s): Mother daughter, ghost story, colonialism