Weekly Read: “Almost Theides” by Manini Nayar
BLR’s Weekly Read brings you one outstanding story, poem, or essay from our archive. This week’s read is “Almost Theides” by Manini Nayar, from BLR‘s “Dis/Placement” theme issue.
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Ammu has never known anyone who died. Not a grandparent or a rickety neighbor or anyone struck by what Ammu’s tightlipped mother, Nina, referred to (after six months of her own successful chemotherapy) as the C word. Ammu’s mother swatted away death as if it were a mosquito and marched forward into a robust if unchartered future.
“Some things need tablets and pills,” she announced to Ammu, believing a firm explanation fortified the spirit. “Some things just need a strong will.”
Ammu’s mother waved death away out of a window, saw it buzz off into the ether.
Why this story?
“Beautifully written in a child’s voice, ‘Almost Theides’ captures the multitude of thoughts that run through one’s head while waiting in a bus depot.
Although the mother’s sickness doesn’t take center stage, the story masterfully conveys how illness and hardship in the life of the parent affects the child.
Not only does this story give insight into a child’s perspective, but it explores the assumptions that we make of others in our daily encounters. It is a story chock full of moments that make one think and reconsider life.”
– Adele Dummermuth, former BLR intern
More from Manini
We sat down with Manini after her book Being Here—which contains her BLR story “Almost Theides”—was selected for the New York Times Shortlist Story Collection review in 2022.
Manini Nayar on how her story collection came about: I first wrote these stories as stand-alone pieces that grew out of random moments of awareness. Unexpected things spark sensations — shifts of light, a child splashing in a plastic pool, a candy wrapper. I think of a line to describe this moment, and the words carry that feeling into paragraphs, into events and characters. I rarely know how a story ends until I get there. A story has its own life, and I am immersed in it and on the margins at the same time, both participant and recorder.