Ruth Reichl “The Queen of Mold”

　　 As one of the guests invited to the party says ironically in The Queen of Mold, “I’ve never tasted anything quite like that before,” I have never read anything like this before. This is not an irony but an honest impression of the story. It is full of humor. 　　 Where does the humor arise? It comes from the mother’s unique way of cooking. She does not care about mold at all. She just scrapes the fuzzy blue stuff off the food before serving it. She mixes all the leftovers in the refrigerator, from cheese ends to squishy tomatoes, to make “Everything Stew.” 　　 The most humorous part arises when she holds a party inviting more than 150 people. She buys awful lot of food at a wholesale food company including fifty pounds of frozen chicken legs, industrial-size cans of tomato soup, and two cases of canned peaches. Moreover, she buys “everything” at the Automat for almost nothing. The writer worries about how to cook them, which bowls should they be served in, and whether the food will poison the quests, but her mother doesn’t care about it at all. The humor lies in the gap, as wide as the Grand Canyon, between the writer’s worry and her mother’s nonchalance. At the end of the story, even when twenty-six guests became sick from food poisoning, she doesn’t know why they became sick because her family all feel fine though they ate everything. 　　 Exaggerated expressions also add to the humor. The title, “Queen of Mold” is an exaggeration. “The Queen” is just the suitable word to call the mother. She knows everything about mold. She makes her husband “taste” it, wipe it out, or even hide it in her food. She can manipulate it in any way she wishes. She is more than the master of mold. She is the queen of mold. Some other exaggerations I enjoyed are: “My mission was to keep Mom from killing anybody who came to dinner,” “Mom…came back honking her horn loudly, her car filled to the brim,” “Steak tartare was the bane of my existence,” and “…cook those millions of chicken legs….” 　　 As I was reading the story, I visualized that Ruth Reichl was smiling as she was writing the story. Maybe she can be called “The Queen of Humor.” ********************************* Ruth Reichl - (born in 1948 in New York City) is an American food writer, co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth, and the last editor-in-chief of the now shuttered Gourmet magazine.

阿刀田高 「モンゴル模様」

　短編の名手だけあってお手本的な短編。出だし、展開、結末、小道具（短剣）、タイトル、全て非の打ちどころがない。 　しかし、でき過ぎな話しでもある。良助の出生を語る高瀬の無礼さ、良助のそれを聞いた時の心理描写の欠如。当然良助はそんな話を聞きたくはなかったはずだ。「お前の母と俺はいい仲だったんだ」と母の葬儀が終わって言う男に対して良助はただ「はい、はい」と聞いているだけということはあり得ない。著者はこの良助の心理をさらけ出すべきだ。この短編には良助の怒り、苛立ちが欠如している。 テクニック１ 　読者の疑問をひとつひとつ崩している。 　①　泰子を世話をしている人が心根が優しい人で、高瀬の存在を訝しく思わない。 　②　高瀬が泰子を訪れても泰子は気易く迎え入れる。幼馴染と言う設定にしてある。 テクニック２ 　高瀬の回想を劇中劇にしている

阿刀田高 「紅の火」

　最後に落ち（夫に裏切られた奥様が、実は美佐子の母親だった）が来ると思って読んでいたら、そうでもなかった。 　もう一度読み直して味わいのある短編だと分かった。ママの知っている若い奥様が、夫に浮気をされ、浮気相手の女を猛烈に愛している告白文を偶然読んでしまう。”それにひきかえ妻は何と醜いのだろう” と言うくだりを読んで、怨念に化身する。鏡の前で唇に口紅を気が狂ったように塗りたくり、唇は「さらに赤く、さらに大きくなった」。「口裂け女」から始まるこの短編はここでクライマックスに達する。 　話が多重構造になっている。美佐子の母のこと、美佐子のこと、ママのこと、ママの知っている奥様のこと。これらが間接的にかかわりあう。別々の女性の心理を総合的に捉える読み方をすると味が出る短編。 　気になる点。いつも「もの静かに」「寡黙な酒を飲む」常連客が、「ところがドッコイ、男のほうが思ったよりわるい奴で」と言う饒舌な受け答えをするだろうか。 　 テクニック１． 　通常改行しない文をどんどん改行している。美佐子の少女時代の生活を箇条書き風に描いている。告白文を読む場面も改行が多い。読者が読みやすいようにという効果を狙ったのか。 テクニック２． 　ママの話が、途中から劇中劇のように、客とのやり取りから、語りに変わる。

“Just Like a Tree” by Ernest Gaines

　　All the relatives come to Aunt Fe, one of the oldest women in the kin, to say good-bye to her when she is going to leave home. Seventeen people gather at her house. They all love Aunt Fe. Especially two women remember the days they spent with her. One is Leola, who says, “Poor old thing; how many times I done come here and washed clothes for her when she couldn’t do it herself. How many times I done hoed in that garden, ironed her clothes….” The other is Louise. She says, “How many times have I eaten in your kitchen, Aunt Fe? A thousand times? How many times have I eaten tea cakes and drank milk on the back steps, Aunt Fe? A thousand times?” At the end of the story, Aunt Fe dies as she was talking to Aunt Lou. The ending is moving, because Aunt Fe actually leaves her house not for the north but for heaven. The last scene is somewhat predictable because in the course of reading, I realized that the writer was using “leave” for “die.” 　　The story begins with a poem, “I shall not / I shall not be moved / I shall not; / I shall not be moved. / Just like a tree that’s / planted ‘side the water….” The tree is a metaphor for Aunt Fe. The poem is realized when Aunt Fe, a big old tree, finally “moves.” The story is unique because the plot does not develop in the continuous narrative way. Instead, it consists of ten narratives given by ten characters. Each character talks about what she or he sees, hears, and thinks. The arrangement of the story is good because the reader can get a deep insight into each individual. 　　However, the reader must build the plot based on the narratives given by the characters. Because each narrative is independent from others, grasping the whole picture of the story is not so easy as are most stories told in a chronological order. Moreover, since as many as seventeen characters appear in just a 20-page story without clear description about the relationship among them, it is difficult to grasp their relationship well enough to continue reading the story. 　　A reader may find difficulty in the language they use. All the characters except the white woman, Anne-Marie-Duvall, speak black English. It does not conform to school English (“Pa hit him on the back and he jeck in them chains like he pulling, but ever’body in the wagon know he ain’t), and uses a lot of abbreviated forms (“yo’ tractor / ‘gainst you / ‘cause she part o’ the elements”) 　　This is the first time for me to read a story which consists of narratives presented by the characters. I would like to use the technique in my next short story. 　　　

山崎豊子 「女系家族」

　スリーラ―小説のどんでん返しに匹敵する結末に圧倒される。文乃が生んだ男子が嫡出子の相続の2分の1で６千５百万円相当であること、三姉妹が狙っていた山林の分配は振り出しに戻ること、赤ん坊が成人した場合は矢島商店の共同経営者になること、宇市の化けの皮を剥がす財産目録など、読者をとことん楽しませ読者の溜飲を下げさせる。特に最後の場面で、文乃が親族会に乗込んでくるページから最後のページまでの展開は息をつかせぬドンデン返し。その最たるものは墓場に眠る嘉蔵の嗤いだ。山崎豊子の小説作りの巧さに改めて驚嘆する。 　３姉妹（藤代、千寿、雛子）と叔母、宇市、良吉などの言動が、皆それぞれにぶれがなく個性的に描かれている。なんといっても圧巻は三姉妹、宇市、叔母の相続をめぐる権謀術数の数々と登場人物の心理描写の巧みさだ。情景描写も実に鮮やかな筆致だ。 　また、遺産相続に関して、山崎は相続法に関する法律や判例集を読み、文芸春秋社の法律顧問の講義を定期的に受けており、持ち前の資料取材とそれを消化し小説に生かす小説作りの手法はここでも徹底している。感服するのは相続財産に山林が含まれていることだ。山守の太郎吉や、藤代の舞踊の師匠の芳三郎を登場させ、山の財産管理についての専門的知識を縦横に駆使して物語を一般読者に分かるように展開している。 　さらに、登場人物が全て大阪弁を話すのは作品に独特の味をつけている。味付けと言えば三姉妹の着物、履物、帯、足袋、持ち物に至る細かい描写や、料理の品目の詳細な記述は一つの雅的豪華さを出している。 山崎豊子の「白い巨塔」「不毛地帯」「沈まぬ太陽」「大地の子」に共通するものは社会悪の暴露であるが、「女系家族」は人間の貪欲悪の醜さを描ききった作品だ。 （1963年　文藝春秋新社）