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I don’t have much sympathy for Ed, an out-of-work writer in Hollywood who doesn’t seem to know where to turn. He’s about to lose his house, there’s barely enough to feed the kids, and so of course he’s suicidal. Except he doesn’t seem to have the courage to go through with that. Earth to Ed: Get a Job! Or ask your buddy Muldoon (once down on his luck, now a successful director) for help. But stop crying! (Like many New Yorker stories, I found this one to be too subtle; the moment at which a crucial decision needs to be made is about to happen and we’re not going to see it, but in my view that’s exactly what the story should show us and so it’s disappointing when it isn’t there.)
April 30, 2007: After the Movie by Richard Rayner
>Yup, agree with you on this one, Cliff. The story just wasn’t there, as far as I could tell. And I looked hard.
>That’s exactly what I thought: Where’s the story? The whole piece reads like the prologue to the real story. Could this be a novel excerpt?