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The Storm at the Door by Stefan Merrill Block (view source)
Revision as of 19:55, 25 May 2011
, 19:55, 25 May 2011no edit summary
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The author, Stefan Merrill Block , is writing about members of his own family in ''The Storm at the Door''. The story opens at the end, if you get my drift. We see the elderly grandmother Katherine in a bit of a spot, wondering whether to open and then read a bunch of papers. These papers (these red-hot papers) are the words and thoughts of her husband Frederick from his time in a mental institution. If she opens them, then it will be opening a veritable can of worms. Does she or doesn't she?
We then turn back in time to when the young Frederick (he's never Fred or Freddie) has been newly admitted to this mental hospital/institution. Block takes time to give his readers a slow and steady build-up to that fateful day. A day that could have turned out so differently. And Frederick treats his first few days almost as a bit of a laugh, a bit of a lark. He most certainly does not belong here in amongst all these mad, sad people. It's all been some sort of mistake. Katherine will demand that her husband be released immediately, won't she?