The Proxy Bride

The Proxy Bride
By Maile Meloy

A friend of mine posted this short story on facebook from the New Yorker yesterday, and he made it sound like it would be really heartwarming. I guess it could be in some ways, but I'm a little undecided on whether or not I love it.

I did like the writing style and the story concept. I'd never heard of a proxy marriage before, though it makes sense as something that would be useful. 

Maybe what I didn't like about the story was that it was primarily about unrequited, frustrated love, and I guess I sort of empathize more with that. While some aspects of the dedication that unrequited love embodies is admirable, looking at it from an outside perspective, it's hard not to get irritated with the person who is not responsive. I waffle between understanding that someone might just not recognize the feelings another person has and thinking that it really is willful ignorance and insensitivity. I suppose when you're young, you might not have the experience to know what's really going on, and you're already so egocentric anyway. Since that is the age of the characters in the story, maybe I should cut her some slack. And the way the author wraps it up at the end maybe is a more human and realistic love story than the perfect happy endings of most stories.