Charles William Bruce, otherwise known in la casa de Maud as the great-grandfather who killed a man with a hay hook, has always been one of the most compelling characters in my personal deck of Notorious Ancestor Playing Cards. And now he’s the second forbear — his wife Rindia being the first — to whom I owe an apology. June . . .
Granta’s Fathers issue includes nine writers’ recollections of their fathers. For Granta.com, the magazine has invited newer writers, including Jim Shepard, Gary Shteyngart, Rabih Alameddine, lê thi diem thúy, and me, to reflect on a photo of their dad. My contribution is up today; here’s the first paragraph: Exactly how long the prostitute, unbeknownst to my father, stayed at our . . .
My mother didn’t know most of the many women her dad married, but in email last year casually referred to a shooting. Of her father. By one of the wives. Next (I think) he married a woman named Evelyn, and, believe it or not, they lived on Daniels Avenue on SMU campus right down the street from my sorority house . . .
My mother claimed to see demons lurking in corners, hiding behind TV anchors’ smiles, sitting on cashiers’ shoulders. The devil’s minions were always hovering, she said, waiting to leap the second you gave them an opening, which was easy to do. Letting a stranger touch your head, listening to rock music, or falling asleep with the TV on were just . . .
Whatever I paid to search the Dallas Morning News archives last month allowed me access to something like 50 articles, but only for 24 hours. So after I found what I was looking for (confirmation that one of my mom’s father’s wives really did shoot him), and had exhausted all possible searches on the subject, I typed in other Texan . . .