The Greyhound Eulogy

"The Greyhound Eulogy" appears in Matrix, #74, Montreal, QC, Summer 2006.		 I can't remember who, but someone said, Gordon Lish maybe, that you can't write an unsentimental story about your grandmother, no matter what you do. The Greyhound Eulogy was a hell of a hard story to write. My thanks to these unsentimental readers: Kate Sheldon, Ibi Kaslik, Lilly Kuwashima and Amy Hempel. And much thanks also to Matrix editors Rob Allen and Jon Paul Fiorentino.

Here's an excerpt from The Greyhound Eulogy
"What do you call the family gathering before the funeral? A bunch of strangers, in from out of town. Looking at the floor, anywhere but at each other. Waiting for a ride out to Astoria Boulevard, anxious for the funeral to be over, not thinking yet of the burial or the shiva or their long drives home. My grandmother was the only one everyone else was still speaking to. Without her, no one knows quite what to say."

J. R. Carpenter

Read: The Greyhound Eulogy



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