Cold Little Bird, Inept Big Birds

Ben Marcus had a good idea for his story, “Cold Little Bird,” that appeared in the Oct. 19, 2015 edition of The New Yorker: the power a child can come to have over his or her parents, perhaps earlier in life than expected.

Rather than the more typical teenage rebel, Marcus paints a picture of a 10-year old boy who recoils from the need his parents, but particularly his father, feel for frequent physical contact.

“I’m not a baby. You have Lester [his six-year-old brother]. Go cuddle with him,” Jonah tells his parents one night when they attempt to perform an affectionate bedtime routine that his father, Martin, says demonstrates their love for him.

“I don’t love you,” Jonah declares and then sets out to prove it.

Attempting to deal with that development strains the marriage of Martin and Rachel when they don’t agree on how to proceed. Further complications arise as a result of a blow-up between father and son over what it means to be Jewish when one’s family isn’t religiously observant.

The most poignant moment in the story, and one that could be a nightmare for other parents, comes when Jonah threatens blackmail.

“Jonah, what are you talking about?” his father asks at one point.

“About you touching me when I don’t want you to. I don’t want to have to mention that to anyone at school. I really don’t,” Jonah replies.

While the story is an interesting read, it doesn’t completely hold together. First, the nature and extent of the cuddling Martin and Rachel seem intent on bestowing seems inappropriate for a 10-year-old. But since Jonah is presented as not just precocious, but exceptionally well-informed, it would have been difficult to make the character any younger.

For instance, at one point during a joint therapy appointment with his parents, Jonah accuses the doctor of wanting to prescribe a treatment that could result in “suicidal ideation.”

And the flap over Jewish identity really belongs in a different story than this one. It unnecessarily distracts readers from the central issue: the necessity for behavioral change on the part of parents as children mature and the severe strains that can develop in family life when one or more of the parties fail to make the necessary adjustments.

Lastly, the ending, like that of a pervious New Yorker short story (“The Grow Light Blues”), by Ben Marcus, was less than satisfactory. It just tailed away, leaving readers to imagine what the resolution, if any might be.

“In the editing process, we went back and forth a bit on the ending of the story,” New Yorker Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman observed in the process of interviewing Marcus for the digital edition of the magazine (a statement indicative of the author’s current difficulties when it comes to short-story endings). “Do you imagine the situation staying as it is or getting worse after we fade out?” she asked.

“Worse. I think the family has entered a new normal, and, even if it’s quiet, it’s not pretty. Perhaps there could be another story about the loveless ways of a family that has had to adapt to something like this, a family tiptoeing through some kind of bleak aftermath,” Marcus responded.

Then again, things could get better as opposed to staying the same or getting worse. Jonah may be just going through a certain stage of his development, from which he will emerge. It’s certainly not unheard of.

Alternatively, his parents might learn how to treat their son more as a person than a child, and clean up some of their counter-productive behavior – and language – in the process. Thinking back over the piece, it is not at all difficult to find one’s sympathies rest more with Jonah than with Martin and even Rachel.

If you are interested in the writings of Ben Marcus, you might want to take a look at my reviews of "Notes from the Fog" and "The Grow Light Blues."