SOURCE: “The Question of Chronology in Paley's ‘Two Short Sad Stories from a Long and Happy Life,’” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 29, No. 4, Fall, 1992, pp. 583-86.

In the following essay, Greiner examines the reversed chronological ordering of the companion stories “The Used-Boy Raisers” and “A Subject of Childhood.” Greiner draws attention to the motif of the Jewish Diaspora in both stories and contends that their backward ordering suggests a return to historical origins, birth, and unity.

Recent commentaries on the two narratives within Grace Paley’s “Two Short Sad Stories from a Long and Happy Life” offer mere outlines of the curious relationship between these stories: “The centricity of men and subordination of children changes with the two stories …” (Eckstein 128); “Husbands and boyfriends, although often welcome, are unreliable and transient. Children are much more constant family members …” (Taylor 80); “though the action of the stories foregrounds the comings...