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Two Very Perceptive Studies
On February 23, 1946 the publication of the short story "Doctor and Mrs. Parsons." The New Yorker. Hellbox.
On February 23, 1963 the publication of the short story "Agatha." The New Yorker. The Hat on the Bed.
Doctor Parsons is an aging, overworked medical physician in a resort village during World WarTwo.
The younger Doctor Williamson returns from the War and re-establishes his practice. Doctor Parsons finds himself pushed out to pasture.
Agatha Child is a fifty-five or so thrice divorced spoiled society heiress living alone in her New York apartment. She reminisces about her husbands - her memories and her memory lapses ("She had been asleep, and once again she had gone to sleep with a cigarette burning...").
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Two different settings - a small village and New York; two different eras - 1946 and 1963; two different writing styles seventeen years apart, and two different people who really come alive.
THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY celebrates the life and works of John O'Hara, Pennsylvania's pre-eminent contemporary author and America's greatest short-story writer. The JOHS studies, publishes, and diffuses works by and about the author. Membership is free. For details, contact the JOHS's Corresponding Secretary, Richard Carreño, via Philabooks@yahoo.com. © MMXXIV John O'Hara Society.
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