A Blind Corner

The common themes of class discrepancies and fitting in are the struggles in Macy’s short story collection. The title story starts with an American tourist couple in Italy, discussing school options for their future children; throughout the week, the wife has a list of complaints with the Italian accommodations. The story ends with her screaming at the landlord about a problem that she herself created; out of a sense of righteousness, she shames him for not doing anything about a dog that she accidentally hit with her car. She is like many characters in this collection, blind to her hypocrisy. Most of Macy’s protagonists, who range from teen to middle age, are concerned with and/or confronted with social status; they experience status guilt, or status inferiority complex. In “One of Us,” Frances wants so badly to belong that her feelings of inferiority are the motivation to be accepted socially by a group of friends who turn out to be less than ideal. In “Residents Only,” the protagonist is a tourist in Mexico whose guilt and uncomfortable superiority cause her to overcompensate and be taken advantage of by agreeing to babysit.