Editor’s note
There are precious few lines from novels still quoted in the course of everyday conversation—in fact, I can only think of a dozen or so, and most of those have been whittled down to their opening phrases: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . The quote I hear referenced most often is surely Tolstoy’s observation about family, from Anna Karenina—that all happy ones are alike, and each unhappy one unhappy in its own way. I suppose, like all aphorisms, this observation has endured these many years because it is so universal—nearly everyone belongs to a family, or once did—and yet it opens the door to any number of individual interpretations. Though we were not reading submissions to New Letters with an eye toward any particular theme, once again we find ourselves with a collection of work that seems cohesive. What we have here in this issue might be considered a compendium of Tolstoy’s “own ways.” Nearly every piece has something to say about a specific brand of familial unhappiness (though, never fear, it’s not just the unhappiness on display, but often what lies beyond it—growth, understanding, sometimes even redemption). These writers consider family from many common vantage points—from the perspective of young children trying to understand their parents, of older children caring for aging parents or mourning their losses, and hardest of all, of parents grieving the loss of children. But the strength of these pieces comes down to their specificity, the particular ways these characters and speakers stand in relief against