THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS :

Vandevere's House Mark Helprin, 12.03.01, Forbes ASAP)

A year or two before Melissa left, Vandevere had fallen into the rhythm of making the house better, day by day. At first it had seemed that merely buying such a house would have been sufficient, splendid as it was in itself, but little things called out.

For its Winter 2001 issue, Forbes ASAP got a bunch of folks, including Andrew Sullivan, Reynolds Price, Barbara Ehrenreich, and all the living presidents, to contribute pieces about the "Pursuit of Happiness". Among them was this particularly fine short story by Mark Helprin--it's available on-line--who I was recently chastised (by a correspondent who shall remain namesless) for calling one of our best current novelists. The story strikes me as a metaphor for America and the discomforting upside of September 11th. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2002 11:38 AM