"after such a long time (and in celebration of Maria's remission) they'd expected to have more interesting things to tell one another, deeper things, but they were entering dessert territory now, a cake was on the table, and only superficial topics had been broached: Ervin's promotion, Jane and Burt's move to the suburbs, Katherine's recent purchase of a metabolism-tracking device-a pen-shaped item and the cause of Debbie's rant."
"The cake presented a challenge, it sat there taunting them, and Debbie knew this, that you couldn't serve cake to a group of fortysomethings without causing ripples, but what else could she have done? Not offered dessert? She got it, no one wanted to put on weight, but this was a gorgeous princess cake, just gorgeous, she'd had to drive all the way to Andersonville to get it from that Swedish bakery everyone talked about."
Six friends reunite for dinner celebrating Maria's remission after her diagnosis. Conversation remains superficial, touching on promotions, moves, and Katherine's metabolism-tracking device. Debbie rails against the group's fixation on journeys and self-discovery, mocking therapy, vision quests, birth charts, and metabolic data. Katherine declines cake, and the untouched princess cake becomes a visible test of appetite, restraint, and etiquette. The group has already overeaten and drunk too much, heightening private plans to atone and intensifying the social dynamics around indulgence, health knowledge, and performative expertise.
Read at The New Yorker
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