Ok, so I didn’t realize this was a set of short stories
until I got the book home from the library.
I don’t remember where I saw this book, but the title was what attracted
me. Dictation. I transcribe letters in my job as a
secretary, thus the intrigue for the title.
I have now learned that I am an amanuensis (and saying it fast sounds
like I’m a nuisance!)
Dictation, Actors, At Fumicaro and What Happened To The Baby
are the titles that make up this quartet.
Four short vignettes, that involve married couples, babies, and
chambermaids. Two of these stories
appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic magazine. The author is a recipient
of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Rea Award for short stories.
Dictation took a while for me to grasp, but basically these
2 amanuensis’s are transcribing for competitive authors and one of them decides
to slip a paragraph from her authors book into the other authors and vice
versa. The authors completely trust
their transcribers and the amanuensis feel this is they are rightly justified
to make this switch because they otherwise would not get any recognition for
their work!
No comments:
Post a Comment