Lily King's "Timeline:" A Story of Manners, or Who Are We?

 It was more or less by chance -- browsing through the latest Lit Hub email on a slow pandemic morning -- that I read "Timeline" via a link to "OprahMag."  There it was identified as a new short story by award-winning author Lilly King and as "the perfect romantic drama." On the that score, readers can decide for themselves, but I hope not.

The story mainly got me thinking about why one reads fiction.  Well, most fiction is written for entertainment and in the interest of providing a living for the author. Some books eventually fall into what is known as "the canon" and one then reads them  in the interest of "becoming cultured." This notion actually plays a role in "Timeline."

But over the years, the reason I personally have read fiction is to get a better understanding of social values, both here in the U.S. and in other countries.  When I worked in Japan for five years, for instance, I mainly read Japanese novels in translation.  And when I worked in England for eight years, I mainly read English literature. In most cases these were, at least loosely, novels of manners, which is to say books about how people interact with each other in normal, ordinary society.  

"Timeline" is a short story of manners, and in that vein, serves to illuminate the nature of present day American life. It's not definitive of our current culture, of course, and I'm sure Ms King would be the first to say so. But it may well be all too representative of certain currents now running within it. As such, it is worth a read.

A Story of Manners That Calls To Mind Graphic Novels

I'm going to stay with the Dec. 21 & 28 New Yorker for the moment and talk about Tim Parks' concise short story called "Bedtimes," which I like for two reasons: first it is essentially a story of manners -- that once popular genre that few writers seem to view as a suitable subject for contemporary fiction.

Novels of manners -- Jane Austin, of course, immediately comes to mind -- concern how people behave toward each other in conventional social situations, or, to put it another way, in ordinary life.

Second, I like this story because it is written in prose so straight forward it reads like an ever-so trendy graphic novel. All that is missing is the pictures, but the nature of the story is such that one can easily imagine them.

"There is a willful simplicity and a mechanical, monosyllabic repetition to the prose. Almost as if it were written for children, in places, as if everything were terribly simple and clear, when in reality none of the important or complicated things are being said," Parks explained in an author interview.

What important or complicated things? A marriage has stagnated, but perhaps not terminally, and neither spouse wants to take the issue on. Among other things, there are children in the picture.

To say more would give it away. It's only two pages. Read it and see what resonates.