Approximations (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Mona Simpson
- First Published: 1984
- Type of Plot: Coming of age
- Time of Work: The 1960's and 1970's
- Setting: Illinois, Nevada, and California
- Principal Characters: Melinda, Carol, John, Jerry
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Self-discovery, Parents and children, Adolescence, Teenagers, Gambling, Gender roles, Friendship, Midwest, Beauty, Fathers, Money, Ice skating
- Locales: California, Illinois, Nevada
The Story
Melinda imagines a scene in which her parents are holding each other closely as they dance to music. She has had this same fantasy since she was four years old, when she learned that the man in the black-and-white photograph was her father. She has no real memories of her father, only this fantasy. When Melinda once asked her mother where her father was, her mother replied vaguely, telling her that her father was gone but would be back sometime. Melinda remembers other people asking about her father, but she has never met him.
Melinda's mother, Carol, refuses...
[The entire page is 1532 words long]
