The Mechanics of Falling

Catherine Brady reads "Slender Little Thing," a story from her new book The Mechanics of Falling and Other Stories, about a mother and daughter's changing relationship. (Running Time: 30:23)

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"Slender Little Thing" tells the story of Cerise, who has worked all her life in menial jobs, and her daughter, Sophie, a high school senior who's applying to college. But both of them betray this joint project: Sophie is afraid she'll be abandoning a mother who has been dependent on her since she was very small, and Cerise isn't sure she knows how to set her daughter free. The story is constructed so that the "whole story" is offered in the first paragraph, and then each sentence in this paragraph is repeated to begin each section of the story. Repetition is deterministic, and Cerise's life can be defined in a deterministic way, so this formal barrier stands for the intangible barriers in her way.

About the Author:

Catherine Brady: Catherine Brady is the author of three short story collections, including Curled in the Bed of Love, winner of the 2003 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the recently released The Mechanics of Falling and Other Stories. She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.