The New Yorker: "The Stain" by Tessa Hadley

November 7, 2011: "The Stain" by Tessa Hadley
Here's another story by Tessa Hadley, the third this year. Ilike Hadley's work, and this story is terrific most of the way, but goes offthe rails at the end, in my opinion.
It's the story of Marina, a working-class woman, the wife ofGary and mother of Liam. Gary's business isn't going so well, so Marina needsto earn some extra money. She is hired by Wendy to take care of her father, wholives alone in a big house in their village. Marina is familiar with the house,having passed it often when she was a child, always wondering what it was likeinside. Now she knows. It's dark. It's unrenovated because the old man didn'twant to change anything—and so there are still the outlines of pictures on thewall that the previous owners have removed.
Wendy and the old man have moved from South Africa, althoughWendy's accent is nearly gone. Marina takes very good care of the man, whobecomes very fond of her. He tries to give her money and other gifts and evenwants to give her his house. Gary wouldn't mind if she accepted something—theycould use the money or they could put it aside for Liam's education—but hemostly understands why she won't. She is briefly in conflict with Wendy andthen with Wendy's son over the old man's desire to be generous with her.
So far so good. There's nice tension over the conflictbetween Marina and the old man and his family. The house is describedbeautifully. The old man plays with Liam in the garden when Marina brings theboy, and we get a detailed portrait of the character of the old man and Marina.Or at least we think we know the old man. Near the end, the old man's grandsonreveals something about his grandfather—the "stain" of the title—and then thepiece is over in a huge rush. Too much of a rush, and that spoiled the storyfor me.
Check out the Conversation with Tessa Hadley.