52 Short Stories and Poems: John Barth
I learned from Wikipedia John Barth is a novelist, essayist, short story writer born in 1930. He lives in Maryland. Barth's short story "Toga Party" is the part of The Best American Short Stories of 2007 edited by Stephen King. I found the book at a library sale and it is worth every penny. "Toga Party" is about the Feltons, a comfortable, retired couple who live in an gated upper-class development on the eastern shore of Maryland. Married over forty years, life for them has been full, rich and mostly happy, but as they watch friends get sick and die, both are concerned about the future. The Feltons know it is only a matter of short time before they too succumb to the inevitable and they are not sure what to do about it. Their friend Sam lost his wife to cancer in the past year. Sam is doing his best to hold onto life and not display his grief and loneliness. At eighty Sam still plays tennis with seventy-five year old Dick Felton. Sam, Di...