Short Tastes - Your personal guide to the world of short stories
Writer: Jeffrey Archer
Year of Publication: 1980 (from the short story collection 'A Quiver Full of Arrows')
Genre: Humour
Plot Summary:
A struggling writer invites a famous socialite and publisher's wife to lunch in the hopes that she would speak a favourable word about him to her husband. The lunch costs him all his savings, but was it a profitable investment?
Excerpt & Comments:
She waved at me across a crowded room of the St. Regis Hotel in New York. I waved back realizing I knew the face but I was unable to place it. She squeezed past waiters and guests and had reached me before I had a chance to ask anyone who she was. I racked that section of my brain which is meant to store people, but it transmitted no reply. I realized I would have to resort to the old party trick of carefully worded questions until her answers jogged my memory.
And thus, begins the most hilarious and rib-tickling short story that I’ve ever read in my life. It is evident from the first paragraph itself how the writer wants his reader to perceive the narrator as well as the woman coming towards him. What follows is an extremely entertaining encounter, between a man and a woman of different classes and backgrounds.
The story masterfully manages to capture both the artistic humor as well as the psychological perceptions of Mr. Archer regarding the ‘elite woman’ and the ‘poor but talented author’.
Furthermore, for business students the narrative offers something extra. During our courses, we learn that networking is extremely important to succeed in life but this story here tells you how such an endeavor can sometimes lead you into hot water.
It also proves something else that I’ve always believed in namely: “NO ONE IRRESPECTIVE OF CLASS, STATUS, and MONEY EVER REFUSES A FREE LUNCH.”
Warning: Possible side effects may include a sudden urge to binge on junk food.
I have forewarned you, so please read this along with a packet of crisps or cookies, because the story not only entertains you immensely but it strangely produces an urge within you to binge on junk food. So don’t blame me when that happens. You have been warned. Cheers reading!
Adil Majid
Source of Image: http://www.orientalfood.com/gif/steam_wok.gif
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