A Cake Just Like This

The reviewer of this story is Nenad Spasic, 17, from Valjevo, Yugoslavia

You can read A Cake Just Like This in Story, Spring 1994, F&W Publications, Cincinnati, OH, USA. It is written by Daniel Hayes, an American writer who has published stories in various literary magazines including Tri Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Epoch, Western Humanities Review and whose work was also selected for the Pushcart Prize XV collection, "A cake just like this" is one of the extremely funny American stories, and can now be found in almost all American magazines.

An old white woman in her fifties, surrounded by lots of people in a bus, tries to get on with "absolutely dreadful black faces" in order to arrive to another part of the town and give an already prepared anniversary cake to her brother and his wife. She becomes really upset when a young black man sits on her long precious cake and squashes it. The cake is nearly flattened, and she gradually starts to cry. No one seems to pay her any special attention, and she feels increasingly terrified. A man across from her is wondering whether she would be willing to sell her cake. She momentarily refuses to do such a thing and they continue to joke with her. The next moment, he grabs the cake off the seat and starts to eat its lemon frosting. She begins to scream again. Then two young men get on. One of them sits next to the man and tries to start a conversation. The old lady is quite interesting to him and he provokes her. She's frightened of him and she gets no interest in talking to him. He is certainly in a right mood, and interested in ridiculing the woman. He takes the squashed box with cake and finds the string and starts picking at the knots. He runs the string around the box a couple of times and ties a bow. Then he says:" Nobody suspect".

The story is, in fact, really entertaining, absolutely riveting with an amazing concept and a large number of imaginative and funny moments. Some situations could drive you mad.

I would recommend this story to those who like stunning scenes with exceptionally portrayed characters and to someone who has had a very boring day.