A friend suggested I read this story by John Barth because she was really impressed by the turnaround in the ending. Since I had just received the collection via UPS about fifteen minutes prior to her phone call, it took me until last night to pick up the book and start the story. I’d read Barth in a collection of stories (Literature and its Writers) for a CW class long ago, couldn’t remember which story but knew that I’d liked his writing.
Well, it’s definitely different. There is an intimacy that Barth draws you into surrounding an older couple, Dick and Susan Felton as they consider their golden years, their home, family, friends, and wills. While they have made all arrangements and have come to accept their position in life, Susan appears to be more upbeat about things while Dick–older by several years–starts worrying about the little time they have left.
With these attitudes in mind, they accept a new neighbor’s invitation to a Toga Party, mostly out of curiosity to see the lavish home and lifestyle which, while their’s is certainly comfortable, would be quite a bit more upscale than their own. They put together outfits complete with sandals, crowns and for Dick, a machete attached to a belt tied around his waist. Determined to go and have a good time, they also, upon learning from a friend that the host and hostess are lawyers, plan on asking about a clause in their own will that states, "each presumed to have survived each other," which their own lawyer had insisted upon in lieu of their splitting their properties.
Barth takes us through their lives, their thoughts, up to the evening of this party very gently so that we are comfortable enough and feel as Dick and Sue must in meeting new people. There are several neighbors there that they do know, and as they mingle, they keep an eye on one friend in particular, a widower whose wife had died exactly one year ago. He’s not handling his loss as well as he’d like, and given the date, is taking advantage of the opportunity to get quite smashed.
Barth is clever at giving us a vivid image of his characters and their surroundings even as he invites us in to make us a part of it all. Very nicely done; I found myself even reading apace with the goings on and thus was just as shocked as they when everything turned sour.
After reading Toga Party, I know I’m looking forward to Lost in the Funhouse, which has been sitting on my shelf for close to a year now.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology