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I rather like this story by Zadie Smith. It is narrated by the daughter of Hanwell and reaches back in time to the sketchy relationship between her father and his father, Hanwell Sr. The men were estranged, Sr. having walked out on Hanwell’s mother, but the daughter by this time has learned a great deal about them both and their infrequent contacts. It also turns out that the narrator’s brother was estranged from Hanwell, history repeating itself. “It happens that in the course of my professional duties I am often found making the statement ‘I don’t believe in patterns.’ A butterfly on a pin has no idea what a pretty shape it makes.” But there is an implied caveat that the pattern is inevitable.
May 14, 2007: “Hanwell Senior” by Zadie Smith
