Short Story review: "The Breeze" by Joshua Ferris

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*spoiler alert* “The Breeze” was originally published in The New Yorker Sept. 30, 2013 and was part of The Best American Short Stories 2014. The story opens with Sarah standing in the “brig,” her word for their small balcony, as her husband Jay comes home. He asks the all-important question: “What do you want to do tonight?” Sarah has no idea, other than she doesn’t want to do what Jay wanted to do, which was to see a movie. He’s already bought the tickets. But everything Sarah wants to do ends up badly. The wait at the restaurant is too long. The hostess can’t even promise them a table. They’re already tipsy from the drinks they’ve had at the bar. The picnic was nice, except they were on a traffic median and it was awfully loud. Jay is patient and goes along with whatever Sarah proposes until they get to a certain Italian restaurant. He won’t even go inside. The naughty little tryst in Central Park goes awry. This back and forth goes on and on and on and on and— Perhaps this was as wearying for the characters as it was for me as a reader. I wanted to pop a bottle in both their mouths and put them down for a nice long nap. Really? Finding how to entertain themselves was the great difficulty in their lives? There’s hardly a mention of a job for either of them and no other significant character is brought into the story. Until I got to the end. I make it a point when reviewing something not to give away the ending, but I’m going to break that rule now. Things only went right when she agreed to do the one thing that Jay wanted to do, that is, go see a movie. All is right with the world when the little lady, who can’t make up her mind, finally listens to the man in her life. I doubt the author intended this, but I found this chilling and had to wonder why this was published in The New Yorker (other than the mention of New York places) or how it made it into the “Best of” collection. Perhaps there’s something I’m missing? Nah, I don't think so. I'd recommend give this one a pass. ______ Title: “The Breeze” Published in: The Best American Short Stories 2014 First Published: The New Yorker Sept. 30, 2013 Author: Joshua Ferris Text of the story: