Fare Thee Well

A Story

by Samantha Peale
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A fine portrait of these two, Ms. Peale. I enjoyed it thoroughly. You pulled me in quickly. I felt the bitterness and disappointment each character had nurtured over the years, and I appreciated the detail of the setting. I especially liked Maria's observation seeing one of her works in its home. Thank you for the tale.

Deft and subtle, wounded animals and wounded adults. "Fare Thee Well" avoids many of the clichés about ambition and art to instead focus on the small daily connivances and quittings of adult life. The story also conjures up some rather "masculine" images more usually seen in music and film: Springsteen at the end of "Jungleland," essaying the poets who write nothing at all and who wind up wounded but not even dead, or Fincher’s Fight Club, a generation raised to believe they'd all become rock stars and movie gods dealing with the emasculation and depression that result from the accrual of everyday failures.

It seems to me that the need for painting was nothing more than a ruse to relive a life that both of them missed more than they'd realized. Maybe with the aid of hindsight they can see that life together is far better than life apart. She's got to return the painting anyway, eh? Good story, Samantha.

A beautiful sense of tension between the risk-taking, obsessed artist and the cautious art professor. Well done.