COPING STONES SHORT STORY REVIEW

COPING STONES SHORT STORY REVIEW - This is a story is about an older widower, a doctor from Maine.  He is informed by the town hall about required fixes - a wall on his property.  The wall surrounds a cemetery, dating back to eighteen hundred.  Throughout the story, the protagonist constantly deals with a neighbor’s escaped dog.  The protagonist is alone, he thinks about the ways his love for his family was lost.  He also comes to learn about his tenant; a man he considered in greater regard than his own family - daughter or wife.  The tenant is under custody for molestation of a minor and the story is on all the newspapers.  The protagonist deals with his demons:  humanity, deceit, mortality, allegiance, betrayal, permanence and reputation. A quote from the story: “tending your garden seems to me now like a young man’s game. When you don’t have the inclination or the energy or the . . . optimism to tend it anymore, the weeds rush in.”  The author has several stories in the New Yorker including Starlight, The Rabbit Hole As Likely Explanation and Zalla.