This is a story about the power of story and stories: the power of telling them, of withholding them; the weight they bear in families; the power they have to heal, bring resolution. In this story French writes about his father, a watch and a mystery. But the piece is really about French himself and his quest to get the story down, to understand. The key to the success of the piece is that even as it is in essence about the author himself—and even as the approach is post-modern—the narrator is not self-absorbed. French’s details are concrete, well-reported and engaging. The themes are universal, the stance detached, the structure compelling. This is an unusual and creative piece.
Read “The Saboteur and His Son,” by Thomas French