A Thoughtless Yes

A story can make a quiet “yes” impossible. Helen H. Gardener asks what lies behind the rules and customs that decent people accept without question—and who pays for that acceptance.

In this late-nineteenth-century collection, Gardener turns stories and sketches toward the social, religious, economic, and legal assumptions shaping ordinary lives. Roland Barker, a man of tender heart, finds himself nearly driven mad by the systems that bind the poor and thwart even those who want to help. Elsewhere, poverty, charity, women’s status, and the force of authority become questions rather than settled truths. Gardener offers no final prescription; she wants readers to think for themselves, and leaves many tales deliberately open. Once the familiar answers are questioned, what might a more just answer look like?

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