The New Yorker subscription is proving to be a sound investment. They’ve put some old stories online for the holiday season.
Hack Wednesday is by Margaret Atwood, from 1990. Superficially, nothing much happens – the narrator goes to her newspaper office, has lunch with a younger colleague, comes home to her husband of many years. Tomorrow the adult children will be home for Christmas.
The story captures perfectly the sense of time passing, of being a small cog in a big wheel, of the compromises and complexities of a long relationship. There’s an ache to it that I think everyone except very small children gets around this time: in 2020 more than ever.
Just waving 