Suzanne

Peter Westlake · 07 May 1998, 15:25 · from urth-v0010.mbox · original

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From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Subject: Re: (urth) Suzanne
Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 16:25:00 +0100
Message-ID: <urth-v0010-0105 at digest.urth.net>
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At 12:00 1998-05-07 -0400, Alice Turner wrote:
>Peter,
>
>We don't allow for spoilers here--in other words we simply assume that
>everyone has read everything, and let the unwary reader beware. What you
>found in "Suzanne"--I assume it's different from mantis's discovery of the
>Proust connection (which was amazing enough!)--do tell.

Well, I'll start with a couple of hints, and then put the spoiler
right at the end.

First, why do we see Suzanne's daughter? I think she's there to tell
us what Suzanne looks like. I would have been surprised if she had
been a tanned redhead, for instance. We don't meet Suzanne herself
because that would be too much like the Stoppard parody of Waiting
For Godot - "there he is now". It would undo the plot.

Second, the narrator wonders if Suzanne belongs to any cliques.
I think she belongs to at least two: the Pie Club, and one other
group of people, mentioned in the story.

Final hint: what's the problem with looking for Suzanne in the
picture of the Pie Club?

Okay, last chance. ** SPOILER follows **

Here's the sentence, and in particular the phrase, that still
gives me the shivers:

   Suzanne is listed among those "Unable to be photographed".

And the girls in the Pie Club photo are too loosely grouped to
be identified easily. But I bet they wouldn't have looked that
way at the time .... when you could see Suzanne.

Peter.

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