Merritt Tierce, "Suck It"

A waitress describes the dirty druggy ugly secrets of working in a fancy-ish restaurant.

(from New Stories from the South 2008)

This one’s pretty great. I mean, it’s rugged and harsh and real and gritty and all that. Very swiftly told, too. We’re never really told why our narrator, an older waitress, is so willing to have sex with everybody, even if she hates them. That would’ve been interesting. (And novel.) But what we got made for a good read.

2 thoughts on “Merritt Tierce, "Suck It"

  1. Anonymous

    Patrick. Hello. I somehow by chance came across your Merrit Tierce note after reading that story just this morning myself. I’ve been thinking it over and I cannot really decide whether I ‘like’ it or not (whatever’s that’s ultinmately to mean). Your description is quite apt and I liked your point about swift or quick or however you put it. But, at the least, I find myself wondering about and wanting to know more of, the author – who is she really, why this was so written, and, in the back of my mind somehow, (frankly and here shamelessly)actually wondering about and wishing to know her own sexuality. Somehow it seems too much of a powder-keg story to be completely hetero. Please don’t take offense, these are just me ‘right now’ thoughts.

    reach me at njabate@aol.com

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    Gary Introne

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  2. John

    There’s an interview with the author on the Bat Segundo podcast. The short story has been incorporated into a book. She discussed both on the podcast. Not sure of her sexuality – she has three kids but looks somewhat masculine (haircut at least) in a picture I saw. She attributed the promiscuosness of the restaurant workers in the book as a desire to be served after serving others all day. She’s also a pro-choice activist to some degree. The story was quite noir and ugly and I guess that’s all I can say.

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