"Some of Us Can Leave"

Today's featured story, "Some of Us Can Leave" by Sara Schaff is a recently published story from the Summer 2011 issue of Carve.

I chose this story because it grabbed my attention from the beginning, and it kept it. It begins with the lines, "People say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die, but it also happens when you find out you’re pregnant. And unemployed." That intrigued me. I wanted to know more about the situation and the narrator.

I also liked the story because I kept thinking about it after I had first read it, which obviously was recently, and I kept coming back to it.

Also, it may be that we're drawn to stories that speak to our life experiences in some way, and, as a mother, I can identify with the narrator. However, the narrator's life is also different from mine in many significant ways.

I also chose this story because I liked the way the writer used language. Her descriptions--like this one--were memorable: "I stare at his paunch. His beer gut is so rounded and taut that he looks like a woman starting her third trimester."

Here's the picture from the online cover of the 2011 summer issue of Carve. I hope you enjoy today's featured story.