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Close Reading

 Katherine Heiny’s new book ("Games and Rituals") begins with a joke:


Colette has been a driving examiner for twelve years—she’s thirty-six—and yet it only occurs to her today that Ted Bundy had had a driver’s license. And that means that some driving examiner had taken him for a road test. Think about it: some driving examiner had willingly clambered into Ted’s VW bug and driven off with him. Maybe the driving examiner had even been a woman. A woman who never knew she had ridden next to Death, never knew she had docked Death points for improper clutch control.


Why has Colette never thought of that before? But she thinks of lots of things lately that she hasn’t thought about before.


So much about this is admirable. The arrival of Ted Bundy, in the first sentence, makes a reader “lean in.” Then the choice of words shows care and thoughtfulness: “VW bug,” “clambered in,” “improper clutch control.”


The final twist establishes a kind of mystery: Why is Colette thinking of things, lately, that she hasn’t thought about before? (You have to wait until the last page until you get your answer, and the answer is satisfying.)


Heiny conveys a sense of wonder about the planet—a place large enough to hold both the DMV and the concept of death. The banal and the deeply strange can exist together in one world. 


Like a good poet, Heiny spots things that anyone else might miss. It’s a treat to see everyday life through her eyes.


https://electricliterature.com/chicken-flavored-and-lemon-scented-by-katherine-heiny/

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