Yours

by Mary Robison

In his introduction to "Yours" by Mary Robison, Ben Greenman asks, "What is a life?" He means to define it "It’s a series of days laid end-to-end and given definition either proactively or retroactively—or, most commonly, through a mixture of both."

But what, then, he goes on to wonder, is a fiction life? "A fictional life is a narrower window that professes to see the whole landscape via powers of magnification...In “Yours,” Mary Robison solves this problem aggressively, by limiting herself to a single day." He concludes, "When a story proceeds with such unshakable, idiosyncratic confidence regarding what it should contain—and what should be left out to focus more attention on those contents—a better question might be What isn’t a life?"

About Recommended
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.

About the
Mary Robison is the author of four story collections and three acclaimed novels. Her most recent book, One D.O.A., One on the Way; was a New York Times Notable Book. She has been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1977 and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and an O.Henry Award. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, where she teaches at the writing program at the University of Florida.

About the Guest
Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of several acclaimed books of fiction, including Superbad, Please Step Back, and What He’s Poised To Do. His new novel, The Slippage, is out in May. He lives in Brooklyn.

Genres: Short Stories, School, Fiction

10 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Mary Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One on the Way. She has been categorized as a founding "minimalist" writer along with authors such as Amy Hempel, Frederick Barthelme, and Raymond Carver. In 2009, she won the Rea Award for the Short Story.

Reviews

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short really moved me. It’s not much, but it has a strong presence.

[kazia · Rating 3 out of 5]

read it for our analysis and it was short but holds so powerful how a life could still be meaningful even in death

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this story when I was student teacher and recalled really liking it. I thought about it every so often and finally decided to do an internet search.

I was a little disappointed. The story was not as powerful as I remembered.