Monhegan Light

       The third story I chose to read in this collection is called Monhegan Light. The story is about an older man, Martin, who has recently lost his wife, Laura, and just found out that Laura had been cheating on him. He finds this out because his sister in law, Joyce, sends him a painting that the man that Laura had an affair with, painted. Martin finds out that this man, the lover of Laura, in an artist. Martin tracks him down and decides to pay him a visit. Martin brings his current, young girlfriend, Beth, and goes to visit this man. Beth goes on hikes, and Martin goes and meets this man, Trevor. Trevor and him talk about Laura, and it's a very normal conversation. There doesn't seem to be any resentment, now that Laura has passed on. Martin learns that Trevor painted dozens of portraits of Laura, and has several of them.
       Although throughout the story you don't know many details about Laura and Martin's marriage you learn that Martin, a prestigious L.A. movie man, never found Laura "beautiful" and perhaps that's why Laura cheated. We never find out how Laura died or really anything about her, other than that she is dead and she cheated on her husband for 20 years.
       After reading three of Richard Russo's stories, I've noticed some trends in his writing. He creates a really intriguing main character, but he writes in third person. You feel really connected to the character, although it's in third person. He likes to tell stories within stories, in this one he does it through flashbacks Martin has of Laura. He writes sad stories, and there's never a shock or a twist, but it leaves you thinking, kind of haunted by his words. Lastly, he likes to end his stories with a really powerful quote or something. He likes to leave his readers slightly confused, and he likes to make his readers think about the story for a long time afterwards. In this one, he ends it with "Still, he couldn't have been more surprised when she took his hand there in the darkness, leaned toward him and whispered, without ever taking her eyes off the screen, "Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you." This ending confuses the reader and really makes you want to figure out what exactly happened.