Reading Tomorrow

“Helen Remembers the Stork Club” by Esther M. Friesner
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct/Nov 2005
Nebula Award nominee for Best Short Story

Helen — the Helen, as in “of Troy,” as in getting lots of boats on their way with her face, that Helen — is thousands of years old and living in a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan (her long life a by-product of being the daughter of Zeus). World-weary doesn’t begin to describe how she’s feeling lately, and now that time is finally, finally starting to take its toll on her legendary beauty, she frankly isn’t thrilled with the way people have started to treat her. She pays for a date with a handsome, vapid escort-for-hire, but spends most of her time missing the past. Most of all she misses the Stork Club, a long-gone hotspot on East 53rd street where once upon a time Helen hobnobbed with the celebrated and the powerful, back in a time when the world, like Helen, was more beautiful.

A nice little study of a fascinating, if not altogether likeable character. Although the narration is third-person limited, it seems mostly Helen’s internal monologue. As such, it is one of the strongest elements of this story, because Friesner gives her such a distinctive voice and a powerful memory. In a relatively short time she creates a very well-drawn portrait of this woman. She spends a lot of time in catty, less-than-fond reminisces of her Trojan War contemporaries and divine relatives. Her “date” provides a framework for the actual events, such as they are, of the story, but what plot there is is slight indeed. Mostly, this is a strong depiction of Helen of Troy at 3,300 years old or so. Friesner also seems to be grinding a bit of a personal axe regarding how the aging and less-attractive are treated in modern American society; it’s hard to argue with the premise, although I’m not sure I sympathize entirely with Helen’s reactions to such things, understandable as they are. There’s a cute little twist at the end that nicely undermines all the cynicism that precedes it.

All in all: Strongly written and enjoyable, if a tad on the depressing side in a tempus fugit kind of way.