Lynda Sexson's "Turning"

Short story “Turning” by Lynda Sexson is like weird and shifty poetry written with such care for description it makes her convoluted world most pleasing to experience. I feel I’m in a quaint English suburban house, with the kind of lace curtains that would have been a wedding gift to the couple who would have lived there in 1936. I’m immediately transported to the present when a taxi pulls up in front of the house. I can smell the freesia as the old ladies exit the car, their worn out bodies of old age preceding their still youthful spirits. How does Robert know them so intimately and yet still only just as three sweet old ladies? (He doesn’t trust the idea the presents he receives were made by the same “bleached, brittle twigs” that so deftly button up his sweater). And then a story within a story: I’m pulled deeper into her strange use of language by a prince without skin seeking the answer for his condition in his future bride’s ability to solve riddles. I feel a little unnerved knowing the characters are sharing this story with young Robert but then again life is often awkward and is going to sometimes make us shift uncomfortably in our seats. We are all familiar with proverbs and advice such as ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’ or ‘a stitch in time saves nine’; however, Sexson is not afraid to let her imagination take over and produce by far the most delightful allegories to puzzling life lessons.

“Turning” can be found in Sexon’s collection of short stories titled “Hamlet’s Planets: Parables” and “Birthday Stories” a collection of unusual birthday stories assembled by Haruki Murakami.