Something there is that loves a wall: "Foster" by Bryan Washington

There are some stories that wear their themes on their sleeves. They're not trying to hide what they're about in any way. In fact, they're screaming out to the reader, "This is what the story's about!" "Foster" by Bryan Washington is that kind of story. It's about a guy who puts up walls in his relationship so he doesn't get hurt. His friend at work even tells him that, and when the protagonist snarks that this isn't exactly a profound observation, his friend says that this is true, but there are really only so many reasons why a person does what they do, and this is the protagonist's reason. 

So why does he eventually let in his boyfriend, Owen? Because of a cat, essentially. And here's where I have to ask: am I the only one who's going to draw a comparison between "Foster" and Breakfast at Tiffany's? I'm not saying the story is derivative or anything. I'm just saying that this is a story about someone who doesn't want to be a part of a family or to belong to anyone because of his own painful family history, and because of that he's reluctant to even name a cat he's taking care of. There's even an important supporting character who is Japanese, although thankfully not a horribly racist caricature. I thought of Breakfast at Tiffany's almost immediately. I figured it's something everyone would say about it, but so far, I'm the first person who's talked about this story on the Internet who's drawn the comparison. 

Because the story essentially does its own detective work for us, there's not much for me to say here. A character has had a past that makes him mistrust family, so when his partner, although a good person, suggests they form their own type of family, he resists his partner. The cat pushes through his emotional walls the way he pushes through bathroom doors and makes him decide to care. Draw the curtain. 

And so we've come to the end of BASS 2022. I might eventually do a wrap-up, although I think I need some time to reflect before I do. I know I've terribly half-assed some of the analysis I did this year. My heart wasn't in it. I feel pretty certain now that the literary fiction world doesn't have any room in it for me, so that makes creating my own little part of the community less appealing. I'm going to go spend a few months doing totally non-literary things.