Gina spends an awkward summer at the beach house.

(from The O. Henry Prise Stories 2005)

The moments of young sexual tension and hope were okay, and the titular card trick was a neat little moment (and a hammer-to-the-head metaphor), but mostly I enjoyed Gina’s visits to the home of a supposedly famous and important novelist both as a young woman and an older woman. It’s not done with a flourish, more like an unfolding. Sneaky.