Horton Foote (1916–2009)

This might be the best short story I have ever read. Up until now, I would have named [b:A Rose for Emily|2984286|A Rose for Emily|William Faulkner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348758685l/2984286._SY75_.jpg|62090508] if asked for Faulkner's best short story, henceforth, my answer will be Tomorrow.

I cried at the end of this one. I cried for how cruel life can be and how the best instincts of a man can be used against him. And, I wondered if it was show more better to have loved and seen what Fentry had seen or never to have known love at all, for any other human being on earth.

Faulkner was in his best descriptive form:

We followed him to the gallery, where a plump, white-haired old lady in a clean gingham sunbonnet and dress and a clean white apron sat in a low rocking chair, shelling field peas into a wooden bowl.

Can you not just see both the woman and the gallery on which she sits?

And, he was at his best philosophically, as well:

But Uncle Gavin says it don’t take many words to tell the sum of any human experience; that somebody has already done it in eight: He was born, he suffered, and he died.

That might make a headstone for any of us. show less

It's like a collection of playwright tropes; a marriage on the rocks, a death in the family, older man loses his job, health troubles, racism (implied in this case); LATW puts on a compelling performance of unoriginal material that spins its wheels to boot. This is the most slice of life it gets, and like life there are no big lessons, shit just kinda happens. The good performances save the play but I can't for the life of me understand what won the Pulitzer here.

Unable to find access to the movie, I decided to read the screenplay (which was available at the library). Reminds me of how much I've enjoyed Horton Foote on the screen (big or small) and the power of "small" and "quiet" stories in the right hands. Plus, it's another notch on my Pandemic Reading List. Apparently, though many have noted the silence around the 1918 pandemic, at least one family carried the stories across the generations.

A beautiful story about aging and one's desire to return to a past that is long gone. Horton Foote, who also wrote Tender Mercies and the screenplay to [book:To Kill a Mockingbird|2657], nailed the sense of yearning of an elderly woman far from the home she identifies with.