As a comparatist, one of the highest compliments I can give a piece of writing is to say "This reminds me of…." Delicate Edible Birds, a 2009 collection of short stories by Lauren Groff, prompts me to reminisce on several of my favorite writers.
The first story, “Lucky Chow Fun,” is redolent of Margaret Atwood, especially her own collection Bluebeard’s Egg: they share the same fascination with fairy tales, and with the fates of young women. Lollie, the main character, is at that liminal age between high school and college, much like Atwood’s Stephanie in “My Last Duchess,” from the collection Moral Disorder. The narrator looks back on herself as a young woman: how oblivious she was! Young girls “work” at a Chinese restaurant; the protagonist’s little sister goes birdwatching with the richest man in town. But which situation is actually dangerous?
The story of “L. DeBard and Aliette” reminds me of F. Scott Fitzgerald's “Head and Shoulders,” itself O’Henryesque. In the Fitzgerald story, a man starts off earning a living with his head, but switches to his shoulders (as a gymnast), while his beautiful dancer wife takes the opposite route, becoming an intellectual. Here in Groff's story, a precocious girl whose legs have been weakened by polio strengthens them with the help of her swim coach and eventual lover, who gives up swimming to become a renowned poet. I’m still scratching my head over their son’s name, Compass.
“Sir Fleeting,” with its impoverished but seductive aristocrat, reminds me of the many unsanctified relationships in Anais Nin’s erotica: aristocrat and agrarian, in this story, but also young woman and older (“Fugue”), or young man and boss's daughter (“L. DeBard and Aliette,” “Majorette”).
Finally, the title story is a retelling of Guy De Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif,” or “Ball of Lard.” Maupassant’s story takes place during the Franco-Prussian war. The title character in the French story is a prostitute with a heart of gold, and a well-fed stomach. She and others are fleeing the Prussians in a coach, and she is the only one who has brought food, which she kindly shares. The haughty passengers have no qualms partaking of her picnic. When the Germans catch up with them, Ball of Lard refuses on principle to sleep with the German commander. The others pressure her until she breaks down, then disparaging the woman who generously fed them -- and freed them.
In Groff’s story, the protagonist Bern is a female journalist during World War II with a reputation for “giv[ing] it away for free.” She and four male colleagues are fleeing Paris in a Jeep. She’s not the type to pack a picnic but she did “liberate” a bottle of whiskey. When they run out of gas, they stop at a farmhouse. Unluckily, the farmer is a Nazi sympathizer, and Bern reminds him of his dead wife. He locks the group in a barn waiting for Bern to succumb. Will it play out the same way as Maupassant’s cynical tale?
