Sophie doesn’t love her brother’s new girlfriend as much as he does.

(from Ploughshares, Spring 2005)

I try to talk to her but it is just me asking questions and her answering them. My questions get longer, her answers shorter. Still I don’t quit. I’m like a gambler who keeps thinking, Maybe the next hand.

I knew from the Talking Headsian title that I’d dig this story. It’s warm and kind but also funny and sarcastic and real. I love a snarky narrator almost as much as I love an unreliable one. Bank hints at the complexities of the sibling relationships without getting too much out in the open. Isn’t that how brothers and sisters interact? Caring without burdening each other with too much information.

One day soon I’m gonna go off on every other story I come across being set in New York City, but not right now. This story is good. It deserves better than that.

But please.

Keren Ann, “By The Cathedral”