THE MAGIC BARREL AND OTHER STORIES
The least successful of the three is Stanley Elkin’s “Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers.” In it, Jake Greenspahn, a south-side grocery-store owner, comes to terms with the loss of his 23-year-old son Harold, who has just died. For Jake life can’t just go on; his dammed-up grief over the son he idealizes poisons everything around him. Constantly on edge, he’s furious that life continues just as before. He begins to suspect his employees of ripping him off or fornicating during the lunch hour. He snaps at customers and drives them away. With the cruel objectivity of the bereaved, Jake now sees the other neighborhood shop owners as either complainers (criers) or as kidders, cheaters, and braggarts (kibitzers); they all need each other like a fix, but bitter Jake needs nobody.
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Moving from an ungirlish giggle to synthetic tears, marvelous Marge Kotlisky plays this merry widow spider with a delicious indulgence worthy of Bessie’s melodramatic self-pity, plus a cunning smile and a middle-aged ogle to die for. It’s a gem of Daumier-sharp caricature.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jennifer Girard.
