Why We Chose It: “All’s Well”

“All’s Well” by Margaret LaFleur appears in the Summer 2023 issue of The Kenyon Review.

Short stories are not, on the whole, a particularly cheerful genre. I have participated in my share of online conversations where teachers, editors, and readers plead for recommendations of funny short stories, happy short stories, stories that feature at least as much light as darkness, and, crucially, do so in convincing ways. In the speedy span of a short story, a happy ending can feel too speedy, tacked on or false, as if the author were trying to tie everything up in an artificially tidy bow. In future crowdsourcing, I’ll eagerly recommend Margaret LaFleur’s story “All’s Well,” which arcs beautifully and meaningfully towards the rare ending in which all is indeed more or less well.