The Wait (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Rick Bass
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The late twentieth century
- Setting: Houston and Galveston Bay, Texas
- Principal Characters: The narrator, Kirby, Jack
- Genres: Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: United States or Americans, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Friendship, Fishing or fishermen, Animals
- Locales: Houston, TX, Galveston Bay, TX
The Story
The unnamed narrator's girlfriend, Marge, has recently left him, so he goes from Montana to east Texas to fish with his friend Kirby and Kirby's friend Jack. As they drive through downtown Houston in the early morning rain, the narrator sees the buildings as “like tall jails . . . the shutdown of a life.” Depressed, he feels unable to measure up to the Texas myth that “the world can be tamed—it's a bull that can be wrestled, and with strength and courage and energy you can lift that bull over your head and spin it around and throw it to the ground.”...
[The entire page is 1439 words long]
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