We like the spareness of this story’s telling, the nodding at the theme of human connection, but the stepping back from it, just as the events themselves do. We like the quirky details of Klein and the wonderfully timed line about the half-full glass; Klein’s pressing his face against the screen; his sudden and mysterious death; and the ghostly ending. This is the kind of story that signals to readers that they’re getting something other than the usual civic-oriented news. But it’s also the kind of story, we think, that can make readers feel they belong to a readership—especially, in this case, if they’re urban and, perhaps, young.

Read “A $65 Table, and a Tale to Tell Around It,” by Andy Newman

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