{"id":118495,"date":"2017-11-23T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=118495"},"modified":"2017-11-24T12:42:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T17:42:27","slug":"the-nexus-of-all-despair-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nexus of All Despair"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><i>The Paris Review staff is off in a\u00a0tryptophan-induced haze,\u00a0so\u00a0we&#8217;re reposting some of our favorite Thanksgiving pieces. Enjoy your holiday!<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"width: 1047px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/frances_brundage_thanksgiving.jpg\" width=\"1037\" height=\"825\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frances Brundage, <i>Thanksgiving Day Greetings<\/i> (detail), ca. 1913.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve always thought that Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday, based solely on the fact that I adore turkey. But if I were to remove turkey from the equation, I would probably realize that this holiday, for me, has been nothing but one hideous thing after another.<\/p>\n<p>Why Thanksgiving is the nexus of all despair is a mystery. But to prove that it is, here\u2019s a short list of some of the things I remember.\u00a0<span id=\"more-92343\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>1956, New Haven, Connecticut<\/p>\n<p>The table is beautifully set in the dining room of the gracious colonial house on Trumbull Street, where my aunt and uncle live. I am ten years old, and my older cousins\u2014Eric, seventeen, and his sister, Willa, thirteen\u2014are my teen idols. After the family takes a few snapshots of all of us smiling, the food is spread out on the table and the shit hits the fan. Uncle Henry makes a snide remark about Elvis Presley, who has just been on\u00a0<em>The Ed Sullivan Show<\/em>, and cousin Willa flings herself from the table in a histrionic fit. The whole table erupts into a pro- and anti-Elvis fight. The dinner is ruined, no one is hungry, and the gravy curdles as \u201cAll Shook Up\u201d blasts from the phonograph in Willa\u2019s room behind the slammed door.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/25\/the-nexus-of-all-despair\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read More &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Paris Review staff is off in a\u00a0tryptophan-induced haze,\u00a0so\u00a0we&#8217;re reposting some of our favorite Thanksgiving pieces. Enjoy your holiday! &nbsp; I\u2019ve always thought that Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday, based solely on the fact that I adore turkey. But if I were to remove turkey from the equation, I would probably realize that this holiday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":906,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4393],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-person"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Nexus of All Despair by Jane Stern<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you take the turkey out of the equation, does Thanksgiving turn out to be just one hideous thing after another?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Nexus of All Despair by Jane Stern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 23, 2017 \u2013 The Paris Review staff is off in a\u00a0tryptophan-induced haze,\u00a0so\u00a0we&#039;re reposting some of our favorite Thanksgiving pieces. Enjoy your holiday! &nbsp; I\u2019ve\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-23T14:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-24T17:42:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/frances_brundage_thanksgiving.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane Stern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane Stern\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jane Stern\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66900ad8f1a0e93b2eafc7ce916c4920\"},\"headline\":\"The Nexus of All Despair\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-23T14:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-24T17:42:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":262,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/frances_brundage_thanksgiving.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"First Person\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\",\"name\":\"The Nexus of All Despair by Jane Stern\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/frances_brundage_thanksgiving.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-23T14:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-24T17:42:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you take the turkey out of the equation, does Thanksgiving turn out to be just one hideous thing after another?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/frances_brundage_thanksgiving.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/frances_brundage_thanksgiving.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/23\/the-nexus-of-all-despair-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Nexus of All Despair\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. 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