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Commentary on “The Blue Book”

Don J. Rath

“The Blue Book” was inspired by a bit of exam-cheating folklore I heard while I was an undergraduate at Yale, decades ago, as well as a news story about a former activist who participated in a bank robbery and was caught 25 years later, living a quiet suburban life raising her family. I wondered what it must be like to commit a crime or misdeed, be able to choose to get away with what you’ve done,  but then have to live with it. There are still consequences, but the punishment is self-administered, and the sentence may last a lifetime.

In “The Blue Book,” Ethan Warwick desperately wants to please his demanding father and yet be himself. He learns those two things are, unfortunately, incompatible. The story also raises moral questions about privilege and integrity that we see in contemporary academic experience. 

“The Blue Book” is part of a linked short story collection primarily about young men damaged by a single life-altering event — a moment of weakness or carelessness, a bad decision, a white lie. These events are sometimes more than mistakes that result in temporary setbacks. They can become internalized, part of our identity, and shape how we view the world.

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Don J. Rath holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. A recently retired finance executive, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes short fiction and creative nonfiction, focusing on themes of identity, race, family, and LGBTQ+ experience. His work has been published in Musepaper (New Millennium Writings), Hynopomp, Scribes *MICRO* Fiction, Blood and Bourbon, and the upcoming 42 Word Stories Anthology.

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