{"id":105379,"date":"2016-12-01T18:38:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T23:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=105379"},"modified":"2016-12-02T11:20:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T16:20:09","slug":"105379","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/01\/105379\/","title":{"rendered":"Marie Brings a Knife"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Edward P. Jones, California, 2004. Courtesy the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our new, redesigned website marks the debut of our complete digital archive: now subscribers can read every piece from The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s sixty-three-year history. Subscribe now<\/a> and you can start reading 0ur\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away; you can also try a free ten-day trial period<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re celebrating by offering a sample of some of our favorite writing from the magazine\u2019s past. Today, check out \u201cMarie<\/a>,\u201d Edward P. Jones\u2019s first-ever published short story, from our Spring 1992 issue<\/a>. It tells of Marie Delaveaux Wilson, an eighty-six year-old woman living in Washington, D.C., where she never leaves home without a knife. And when, sure enough, a young man tries to mug her, she puts it to good use, cutting his hand as he rummages in her coat pocket:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cYou cut me,\u201d he said, as if he had only been minding his own business when she cut him. \u201cJust look what you done to my hand,\u201d he said and looked around as if for some witness to her crime. There was not a great amount of blood, but there was enough for her to see it dripping to the pavement. He seemed to be about twenty, no more than twenty-five, dressed the way they were all dressed nowadays, as if a blind man had matched up all their colors. It occurred to her to say that she had seven grandchildren about his age, that telling him this would make him leave her alone. But the more filth he spoke, the more she wanted him only to come toward her again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou done crippled me, you old bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI sure did,\u201d she said, without malice, without triumph, but simply the way she would have told him the time of day had he asked and had she known. She gripped the knife tighter, and as she did, she turned her body ever so slightly so that her good eye lined up with him. Her heart was making an awful racket, wanting to be away from him, wanting to be safe at home. I will not be moved, some organ in the neighborhood of the heart told the heart. \u201cAnd I got plenty more where that come from.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read \u201cMarie\u201d in full here<\/a>; and subscribe now<\/a> for digital access to every short story, poem, portfolio, and essay from The Paris Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Our new, redesigned website marks the debut of our complete digital archive: now subscribers can read every piece from The Paris Review\u2019s sixty-three-year history. Subscribe now and you can start reading 0ur\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away; you can also try a free ten-day trial period.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[370,25912,10255,71,26009,26008,896,7845,26010,8141,800],"class_list":["post-105379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-back-issues","tag-digital-archive","tag-edward-p-jones","tag-fiction","tag-issue-122","tag-marie","tag-redesign","tag-short-stories","tag-spring-1992","tag-washington-d-c","tag-website"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNow Online: \u201cMarie,\u201d a Short Story by Edward P. 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