“The best possible light” is written as a short story by Melissa Bank. The story was first published in Other Voices, 1999. The plot starts as a regular family get-together dinner, but turns out to be a slightly different thing; the family dinner has a purpose, one of the family members has a confession...
In the beginning we have an introduction of Barney, who shows up out of nowhere at his mother’s house (the narrator). On the outside Barney is good-looking and charming. “Barney is thirty-four but looks twenty-one. He is short and muscular, and has a great nose” (L.2-3S.1). He also has this gift; he makes everyone fall in love with him. But he is two-faced:
“I watch my son (Barney). I do not think I have ever seen him look so serious, but it does not seem real: it is as though he is imitating how someone responsible speaks.” (L. 104-106 S.3).
His own mother says that he is imitating responsibility. It is not the truth when he stands up and speaks words of goodwill. At this point the story takes a turn. Barney announces the pregnancy of two women, his fiancée Laurel, and Julie his ex-wife, and said that he would help them both out. He speaks of goodwill, but his own mother does not believe him, she sees it as unreal, a promise he cannot keep. This example shows us that we are reading the story form the mother’s point of view, which is explicit and only tells us what she registers. These two things give the short story a subjective point of view, the mother’s point of view.
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