Holiday Gatherings

Sorry, Anne Taylor Fleming, I don’t buy it (“Turkey-in-Law, Step-Cranberries and Half-Pumpkin Pie,” Commentary, Nov. 27).

Fleming’s account of post-divorce holiday conviviality sounds much like a family of my acquaintance. They insist that there are no hard feelings left among them, but one can’t help notice the prodigious amounts of alcohol that lubricate their recombinant get-togethers. The matriarch of the group would never say a word against her ex-husband, nor the younger woman he left her for, but simply ate herself into gross obesity, kidney failure and death, smiling sweetly all the while. Subsequent mates in this situation are relegated to “junior spouse” status by the maintenance of the shadow form of the original family, but they too must smile and be gracious. Clenched jaws unlatch just long enough to take another drink.

Fleming’s account sounds so good, so civilized, but there is nothing wonderful or progressive about our culture’s broken families.

PAULI CARNES

Woodland Hills