The Forks (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: J. F. Powers
- First Published: 1947
- Type of Work: Short story
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Communism or communists, 1940’s, Manners or customs, Ambition, Money, Priests, Automobiles, Silverware
- Locales: United States
In “The Forks,” Powers depicts two very different kinds of priests. On one hand is Monsignor, a snobbish man very much at home with the things of this world. He wears a Panama hat, uses Steeple cologne, and drives a long black car. Doomed to remain a monsignor now that all his intercessors are dead, he determines to live as comfortably as he can. He orders for himself the luxury of a medieval garden with a spouting whale jostling with Neptune in the waters of the fountain. He has no intellectual pretensions and maintains his mental calm by either ignoring or condemning innovations...
[The entire page is 809 words long]
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