Andy’s Gift

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Andy’s gift I have been reading “Andy’s Gift”, which is a short story by Michel Faber, published in PROSPECT, January 2001. The story is about a man called Andy. One day Andy woke up to find himself alive. The day was a miracle. For five years Andy has been mental sick but now his life has changed. He was disturbed by what had happened to his face. It was very much older in one way, with hard, rubbery folds and wrinkles, but obscenely young as well, like a chimpanzee infant. The staff of the nursing home told Andy his wife was coming to visit him. He was looking forward to she his wife Bromwyn again. He wanted to tell his wife the good news. When she came as the nursing home she had a surprise for Andy. She had brought him some doughnuts and a can of soft drink. Andy and his wife were living the nursing home together. They were going home. The house was a single mother's house now. Everything of his had been removed. He did not much mind. Nothing he had ever owned had been quite what he wanted anyway. Andy wasn't looking forward to meeting his children, though. His wife seemed hell-bent on taking him through a guided confessional tour of what had changed, and why. Andy is the main character in the story. He has been mental sick for five years. He lived at a nursing home with other sick people. He had been a drooling imbecile for long time. He had contracted a rare disease, survived it, but lost his mind. He gathered he'd been very difficult to care for, gibbering convulsively whenever the nurses tried to shave or wash him, waking the other patients up at nights with dog-like howls. His howls, in fact, could be heard several streets away. His face was older, with hard, rubbery folds and wrinkles, but obscenely young as well, like a chimpanzee infant. For five years he has been called Andy but it is not his real name. He did not like to be called Andy.
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