Status Updates From Flappers and Philosophers

“The Four Fists”

This is the anatomy of a man named Samuel. Each fist is a time in his life where he was violently corrected in the process of overstepping his bounds. Each time he committed to introspection and corrected the behaviors that led to getting socked in the jaw. In the end, while he makes a poor “business” decision, he proves himself of such character that his firm’s trust in him eclipses it.

“Dalyrimple Goes Wrong”

A war veteran returns home and talks himself into living a life of crime while working a grueling dead-end job and railing at the nepotism he sees, robbing people in his hometown and finding a hollow elation after the thrill of the crime is over, rendering performative but remorseful gestures like returning mistakenly pilfered false teeth, one of the story’s best moments.

“Benediction”

The Catholic side of Fitzgerald blooms in this short story where a young libertine woman pays a visit to her brother, who has been training to become a priest for about as long as she’s been alive. The story has a weird undertone to my jaundiced 2026 eyes but I don’t think that it was intended to be anything but sweet, with some insight as to why people prefer priests of certain backgrounds.

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair”

Bernice just wants to be popular at the dances, so she takes notes from her social butterfly of a cousin, Marjorie. Everything’s fine until she gets the undivided attention of the one boy Marjorie has been stringing along for ages. The ensuing war has no victors, only victims. Well, I guess Bernice’s revenge is a… morale victory, I suppose.

“The Cut-Glass Bowl”

A weird story that is a parable about basically reaping what you sew. In this case, Evelyn was beautiful but cold as ice. A gentleman gives her a gift on being spurned and it’s pretty but it has a hand in the unraveling of her good fortune: the simplicity of her marriage, her husband’s temperance, her daughter’s ableness, and even the life of her soldier son.