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God’s Work
Original Fiction, Short Story:
“Where is the holy part of him? He can’t find it, only sin.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...
“Where is the holy part of him? He can’t find it, only sin.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...
- GenresShort Stories
20 pages, ebook
First published March 28, 2016
22 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Canty
26 books107 followersKevin Canty writes novels and short stories. He is a faculty member in the English department at the University of Montana at Missoula, where he currently resides. He received his Masters degree in English from the University of Florida in 1990, and M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arizona in 1993.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 30, 2016
Though he is shamed by his suit and awful haircut, Sander accompanies his mother as she peddles her religion through the neighborhood.
She thinks the men and women and children in these sleeping houses will lose the chance to live life as God intended unless they take the message she brings them in the pamphlet. Sander thinks she is lovely and brave and admirable. Every day, she tries to save strangers. Selfless.
But, it is summer, and Sander is a teenage boy, and the girls . . . they are so scantily clad.
But he must keep his mind on God’s path.
What's a boy to do when temptation up and joins his church?
She thinks the men and women and children in these sleeping houses will lose the chance to live life as God intended unless they take the message she brings them in the pamphlet. Sander thinks she is lovely and brave and admirable. Every day, she tries to save strangers. Selfless.
But, it is summer, and Sander is a teenage boy, and the girls . . . they are so scantily clad.
But he must keep his mind on God’s path.
What's a boy to do when temptation up and joins his church?
December 6, 2020
The anguish of having religion all around you and in your home and yet not being religious. The girl wants light and really already has light but the others mess it up. The mother is dogmatic. The girl’s father is profane and rude and thinks he’s doing some kind of noble duty... and Sanders is confused.
Great Story. Eye-opener.
Read more of Kevin Canty
Great Story. Eye-opener.
Read more of Kevin Canty
April 6, 2016
SPOILERS
Aside from two images which I felt were not very strong (the laughing portraits of the President's in his dream, and the final "shaft" and "penetrate" (we get it, just trust your reader), this is a wonderfully crafted story.
Canty uses language, not as a blunt instrument, but finds words that can take on many, confused meanings. My favorite was "Yolked" from the hymn song title: I imagined eggs, reproduction, fragility, runniness, eggs in a basket. He then repeats the egg imagery by calling the congregation "hens and chicks". Later we get the word "stalky": Sander "hangs around the edge of the room like a curtain, a piece of furniture...", like a stalker with shady intentions, but also like the growing yellow flowers his mother planted: unsure, unready, green. And he later mentions planting seeds (of faith) but implying sex, too.
One line that I wasn't able to interpret was when Sander says to his mother about Clara and her father, "But the two of them... " What does this mean? I immediately thought incest, but it's left unresolved.
I loved this messiness of language, of confused faith in Sander who Clara turns to for genuine help but who can't help her. He's helpless, as is she, but at least she can have pleasure.
And in the end I felt as if he had been cast into that oblivion his faith believes in: "Still eight weeks of summer left", and without Clara. An eternity for a 15 year old.
Aside from two images which I felt were not very strong (the laughing portraits of the President's in his dream, and the final "shaft" and "penetrate" (we get it, just trust your reader), this is a wonderfully crafted story.
Canty uses language, not as a blunt instrument, but finds words that can take on many, confused meanings. My favorite was "Yolked" from the hymn song title: I imagined eggs, reproduction, fragility, runniness, eggs in a basket. He then repeats the egg imagery by calling the congregation "hens and chicks". Later we get the word "stalky": Sander "hangs around the edge of the room like a curtain, a piece of furniture...", like a stalker with shady intentions, but also like the growing yellow flowers his mother planted: unsure, unready, green. And he later mentions planting seeds (of faith) but implying sex, too.
One line that I wasn't able to interpret was when Sander says to his mother about Clara and her father, "But the two of them... " What does this mean? I immediately thought incest, but it's left unresolved.
I loved this messiness of language, of confused faith in Sander who Clara turns to for genuine help but who can't help her. He's helpless, as is she, but at least she can have pleasure.
And in the end I felt as if he had been cast into that oblivion his faith believes in: "Still eight weeks of summer left", and without Clara. An eternity for a 15 year old.
May 12, 2016
The author gave an interview on this story:
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews