The New Yorker Summer Fiction Issue: “Slide to Unlock” by Ed Park

130610_2013_p154Slide to Unlock” by Ed Park

Clever. We don’t know why until the end of the story, but the narrator (in second person) is reviewing his life in passwords, all the life events that he might have used to come up with an unforgettable password. “If you could type out all your passwords, their entire silent history, they could fill a book you could read in a minute.”

I won’t say why this is happening, except to say that the ending might actually justify the use of the second person here, which I normally detest. Here, though, the narrator could very well be looking at himself as if from another plane of existence, so maybe the POV works. It’s a fun, fast read.

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

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