Go to "The Coat"
Go to "TheBaker"
A WORD FROM BRUCE TAYLOR
REGARDING "THE COAT"
"The story, 'The Coat,' has received much interest and praise. It's one of those stories that works not only for patients on the psychiatric unit where I've worked for many years, but -- well, for a lot of people who haven't ended up there as well.It works because it's sneaky and comes in the back door, slipping around the defenses. It is, like so many of my stories, metaphor, using the symbol of a coat to describe how we can be driven by unconscious processes that we are totally unaware of because they are so familiar to us that we can't see in ourselves what is so obvious to others. (The word familiar means 'of the family,' by the way).
However, here it works in reverse. We see in others what they can't see in themselves and that's why 'The Coat' works for so many -- who hasn't had that experience?
It also goes to show that Magic Realism is a perfectly splendid form of writing with which to talk about The Human Condition. Without saying what the story out-and-out means, we all sympathize with Little Nicholas Junior because so many of us come from dysfunctional families that it can be easily said of 'The Coat:' 'one size definitely fits all.' " -- Bruce Taylor
Go to Bruce Taylor's story, "The Coat"
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