Mona Simpson on the Dissonance Between Reality and Memory
“Maybe a person is everyone she’s ever been, not just who she is at the present moment. With those we love, we see overlays of their best selves.”
Editor’s Note: Read Mona Simpson’s new short story “Second Life.”
“Second Life” is a new story by Mona Simpson, adapted from her forthcoming novel, Commitment. To mark the story’s publication in The Atlantic, Simpson and Katherine Hu, an assistant editor for the magazine, discussed the story over email. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
In your short story “,” a young man named Donnie ends up in rehab, at the same hospital where his mother has been staying for some time. At one point, Donnie
