"As Big as Light" by Robert Mort

The piece "As Big as Light" by Robert Mort seems to be about Adrian Huxley, a young man trying to follow his heart while his mother was suffering from a terminal illness. The story is told from the view of Dean Overstreet, caretaker of the Huxley's estate, and centers around a conversation Dean and Adrian have after the young man has had a fight with his alcoholic father. The conflict is that when Adrian calls out to Dean, looking for comfort, he also refuses to accept it - Dean's well intended words are met with a wall. But Dean refuses to be disregarded in that way, and Adrian is forced to face and speak about his own feelings. The two of them find comfort in a memory Adrian has of a time when he was young and his mother was well and reassured him.

The emotion in this piece was very well done, and not too heavy handed. The reader was able to access both Dean and Adrian on an emotional level through their actions, expressions, and words. The opening was also very well done, in my opinion; the opening before the actual story only took about a page an a half and didn't detract from the story. Instead, the reader was made to care about the narrator and drawn into the story. Likewise, details about the fight Adrian had with his father, without seeing the fight directly, was a great way of summary and didn't draw out the scene too long.

As a reader, I would have liked to know more about Adrian's mother. We see that she had a close relationship with her son when she was well, but what does Dean think of her? We get a sense that Dean wasn't particularly approving of Mr. Huxley's treatment of his son, but there's so little emotion in this memory that we get to see. Occasionally, he breaks in with narration to remind the reader that the scene happened a long time ago, but everything he tells us is matter-of-fact. Why is Dean Overstreet so detached from one of the few clear memories he has?