Yvette Benavides and Peter Orner discuss “Lonesome Road,” a story by Gina Berriault.
If Berriault’s stories are not so well known to most, this one might never have registered–if not for the unapologetic ardor that her fans–Peter Orner and Yvette Benavides among them– feel for her.
The “Lonesome Road” of the title remains a little enigmatic once you read the story–because that is the nature of things when a relationship ends and happenstance–or something like it–brings you face to face with a person you used to know–used to love.
Things change. Relationships end. We move on–and when we move on, we travel along a road made lonesome by the realization that we are utterly alone in trying to figure out what it was all about, what it meant–what it can still mean a dozen years later.
Gina Berriault is the author of “Lonesome Road.” It can be found in the collection Women in their Beds published by Counterpoint–with an introduction by Peter Orner.
Peter Orner is the author of seven books, including the story collection Maggie Brown and Others. His essay collection Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin was a finalist for the 2023 Pen America PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. He holds the professorship in English and Creative Writing and is the director of creative writing at Dartmouth college.
Do you have a question or comment or story suggestion? Send me an email at yvette@tpr.org.
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