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fu&ijjairwit-A Xackt-LWareJANE STUART Born Jessica Jane Stuart in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1942, Stuart is the only child of the writer Jesse Stuart and his wife, Naomi. Her first published work, A Years Harvest , appeared in 1957 while she was still in high school. She subsequently attended Stuart Hall, a preparatory school in Staunton, Virginia, and Western Reserve University (now Case Western) in Cleveland, Ohio, where in1964 she received her A.B. with majors in Greek and Latin. Following her undergraduate degree, Stuart attended Indiana University in Bloomington, where she received master's degrees in classical languages and literature and a Ph.D. in Latin. She has taught and lectured at several colleges and universities, mostly in Florida. Her published work includes eight collections ofpoetry, among them Eyes oftheMole (1967); Transparencies (1986), which also includes some prose; The Wren and Other Poems (1993); Passage into Time (1994); Cherokee Lullaby (1995); and journeys (1998). Her novels include Yellowhawk (1973), Passerman's Hollow (1974), and Land ofthe Fox (1976). To date she has published one collection ofshort stories, Gideon's Children (1976). Like her father's work, Jane Stuart's poetry and novels concern themselves primarily with the Kentucky experience. Her short fiction, however, displays the urgency and immediacy so critical to the success of a modern short story. The stories in Gideon's Children are glimpses of the human condition and seem to depend upon a certain sense offamiliarity and the reader's recognition ofcircumstances and attitudes. "The Affair With Rachel Ware" offers the reader familiar suburban circumstances and a self-absorbed protagonist whose attitude is consistent with the era. Like so many modern short stories, this story reflects timeless questions concerning motive and the human capacity to connect with each other. • The problems all began with the woman next door, and they shouldn't have. That is, there shouldn't have been any problems, because life was just like that. Men and women, birds and bees. Springtime and the fancies of a first love always passed. After that came the summer, and, when people loved then, you just didn't talk about it. You assumed that they were old enough to know what they were doing and you left them alone. You didn't point your finger at the woman next door, and THE AFFAIR WITH RAcHEL WARE 187 snicker. You didn't wink knowingly at that woman's neighbor, either, implying that you knew he was getting it. You left them alone. You let them lie in their bed of summer roses, and if you knew, really knew what was going on, you kept your mouth shut. All that talking just showed that you were jealous, anyhow. Jealous, or impotent maybe, Harry thought with a shrug. Oh well, people were people. Everywhere the same. Ifthere weren't any problems, they'd find some. They'd dig them up from the past or make them up from right now. Life was, it seemed, intended to be one continuous soap opera. Sponsored by Brillo-pad minds and syrupy sweet whispers. Hush-hush words croaked out during the brief intermissions of what-was-going-on-next-door. Shit, Harry thought. What a mess he had made of his simple life. Or rather, what a mess they had made of it. Tried to make of it. Made of it. And all because of Rachel Ware. Maybe it didn't really matter, though, Harry thought, now that it was all over. What was over, though? What could ever really be over? What had happened had happened, and there was no way of erasing it now. It would be a part of him forever, his first stigma in small-town life, small Southern town university life. A cross to bear that they would assign to him forever. So that was Christianity, bearing a cross forever? Never being able to forget, never being forgotten? Whenever some new couple moved into the community and asked about the house next door, they'd be told, Oh, yes, the %lres used to live there. ... They moved, ofcourse. She was havingan affair with Harry Thomas. ... He still lives here. And then when he met the new people, the Jacobses or the lzaras or the Steins or whoever they would be, he would be pointed out as Harry, the one who had had the affair with Rachel Ware. Rachel. Had that really been her name? And had she really ever lived there? And had he been involved with her? He...

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