“Better”: Why We Like It

What our carpet looks like now

Last week, while taking breaks from proofreading, we tore out our vaguely brown office-grade carpeting in order to prepare the floor for the Italian marble we’re hoping to get sometime in the next month (which, we’d like to say, will look fantastic with the gold-plated light fixtures and doorknobs we’ve ordered, but that’s another story).

How we imagine the office will look when we're done remodeling

However, as we peeled back a corner of carpet, we noticed that a letter, addressed to the people of the future, had been placed under the unlovely mat of man-made fibers at some unknown point in time. Upon further inspection, we realized the handwriting belonged to Jessica Vozel, a former CR volunteer. She had tucked away the missive shortly before ending her tenure at the review. It appears Jessica wanted to ensure that the citizens of the future would not forget how haunting and beautiful Victoria Lancelotta’s story “Better” (issue 5.2) was. We’ve reproduced the letter here, and we plan to enshrine it under the first marble tile.

Jessica Vozel: Victoria Lancelotta’s “Better” is a story of would-be saviors. Its characters aim to save but fall short, thwarted by misinterpretation and missed opportunity. Susan, whose thoughts we follow as events unfold, cares for her husband’s aging alcoholic father, Raymond, a once-bright history professor whose slurred speech retains the air of intellectualism but not the substance. No one demands that Susan attend to the details required of a dying man—“the blood pressure monitor, the laundry and groceries, fragrance-free detergent and high-fiber cereals, salt-free seasonings, antibacterial wipes and disinfectant sprays.” In fact, her diligence annoys both her husband and his father. Like the waitress with whom Susan shares a moment of kinship, “there is nothing left in her to save,” and so she turns her attention to aiding even those who resent her help.

The story is both complicated and deepened when we learn that her husband Michael missed by minutes the opportunity to save his first wife. When he found her on the bathroom floor, bloodied by slit wrists, he futilely attempted CPR and wrapped towels around her wounds. In his efforts, “he did not consider the possibility that someone unhappy enough to do such a thing might not want to be saved.” The story closes at a poignant, skillfully crafted moment when Susan comes to understand what her husband did not.

In “Better,” the details of a life deteriorating are wrenchingly rendered. Lancelotta encourages the reader to find beauty even in tragic moments with her poetic prose. Her descriptions combine corrosion and death with light and vivid color: beside rusted razor blades and tubes of Bengay and Polident, Raymond has arranged “a row of women’s perfumes, the bottles old-fashioned, glass heavy and faceted and golden, capped with stoppers meant to look like birds and ribbons.” Similarly, the scene of Michael’s first wife’s suicide is described in light-infused terms: the white tile floor, her long pale hair, the silver band on her finger, the sunny street where they lived, the lemon candy in her pocket.

Ultimately, Lancelotta’s exquisite story redefines what it means to save and be saved, and explores lives made better in unexpected ways.

Graduate Students

Tenure-Track Faculty

Arner, Robert D | Professor

Ash, Beth S. | Associate Professor, English and Womens Studies

Bogen, Don | Professor

Borah, Rebecca S. | Associate Professor

Braziel, Jana Evans | Professor of English; Affiliate Faculty in Africana Studies; and Affiliate Faculty in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Bryan, John | Vice Provost for Academic Personnel

Carlson, Julia S. | Assistant Professor

Chambers-Letson, Josh Takano | Assistant Professor

Chancy, Myriam J. A. | Professor

Clayton, Philip Terry | Assistant Professor

Corkin, Stanley J. | Professor; Charles Phelps Taft Research Center Fellow

Cummins, James V. | Professor and Curator of the Elliston Poetry Collection

Davis, Frank A | Associate Professor

Dean, Sharon G | Associate Professor

Debs, Mary Elizabeth | Associate Professor

Drury, John P. | Professor

Durst, Russel K | Professor and Department Head

Dziech, Billie | Professor

England, Amy Sue | Assistant Professor

Epstein, Grace A. | Associate Professor

Glaser, Jennifer | Assistant Professor

Godshalk, William L | Professor

Griffith, Michael | Associate Professor

Hall, James M | Associate Professor

Hall, Wayne E. | Vice Provost for Faculty Development, and Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Heller, Tamar | Associate Professor

Henley, Trish Thomas | Assistant Professor

Hogeland, Lisa M | Associate Professor, English and Womens Studies

Hughes, Jon | Professor, English and Journalism; Director, Journalism Program

Kamholtz, Jonathan Z | Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies and the Helen Weinberger Center for the Study of Drama and Playwriting

Larkin, Antoinette M. | Associate Professor

Martin, Barbara R. | Assistant Professor

Meem, Deborah T. | Head, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Professor of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Meloncon, Lisa | Assistant Professor, Professional and Technical Writing

Micciche, Laura R. | Director of Composition and Associate Professor, Rhetoric and Composition

Person, Leland S. | Professor of English, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Affiliate Faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Rentz, Kathryn C | Professor

Ridolfo, Jim | Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric

Rieke, Alison R | Associate Professor

Schiff, James A | Associate Professor

Sheehy, Michael W. | Assistant Professor

Slotkin, Edgar M. | Professor

Stewart, Leah | Assistant Professor

Summerlin, Laverne | Professor

Twomey, Jay | Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies

Vaughn, Gary | Associate Professor of English

Weissman, Gary | Assistant Professor

Wenner, Barbara | Associate Professor, 18th-Century British Novel, Jane Austen, Women’s Travel Narratives