Several of the stories from Hazzard's collection
Cliffs of Fall ( Knopf, 1961) center around house guests, visiting friends and relatives encroaching on everyday routines for weekends or weeks on end. The general awkwardness of sharing one's home with anyone not a regular resident is conveyed vividly in the slightly bitter little tale "Weekend". Third-person narration equalizes all parties here - a single sister (visitor) and her brother, his wife and infant son (hosts) - as their pettiness and peeves compete. Behind each character's dismissal of the others' life choices lies a gentle understanding and tolerance, and if nothing else, this brief piece suggests that those who choose to share living quarters (if only for 2 nights) already hold a dearer place in our hearts than the rest of humanity: everyone in the story sighs most contentedly when dinner guest neighbors drive off with their pair of ill behaved pups.
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