Dear Zoë Heller,
How lovely to open my copy of the Times Weekend Magazine and discover an excerpt from your contribution to the Ox-Tales Short Stories Collection for Oxfam! And how serendipitous! You see, normally I read the Saturday Guardian and forgo Sunday papers entirely – there's really no substitute for the New York Times, is there? – but since I spent Saturday discussing post-Communist liberalism, I didn't have time to pick up the Guardian. I don't particularly relish the Observer, so London Times it was and (quelle surprise!) there IT was – your story.
I must congratulate you on the sparkling wit, the incisive, detailed observations – in your portrayal of an American family on vacation (forgive me, holiday) in the Caribbean, I think you may have attained a previously unglimpsed apotheosis of meta-parody. Everything was on display: provincialism, puritanical attitudes to sex, bad taste in resort wear, souvenir consumption, over-emotionalism, over-eating! Only one thing would have made it better – if only you could have set it somewhere reachable by ferry from mainland America. Not only does the island setting give Americans credit for a) owning passports and b) flying (though, to be fair, we could be in Puerto Rico, which would negate point a), a location to which Cheyenne (the perfect name!) and her family could have driven would have allowed the introduction of an iconic pièce de résistance – a McCain/Palin bumper sticker. How could you not?
But, Zoë, perhaps you did. I'll just have to run to Oxfam and buy your story as soon as I mail off a contribution check to the RNC, hoist the Stars & Stripes over my London flat, cover my davenport with plastic slipcovers and make another batch of freedom fries.
Yours, etc.
Becka McFadden
Preorder Ox-tales at: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/books/books_oxtales.html
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