The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

The setting is a small Oklahoma town in the early 1920s and the home of the Flood family. Here we find Rubin, a traveling salesman for a harness firm; Cora, his sensitive and lovely wife; Sonny, their little boy; and Reenie, their teenage daughter. The plot consists of a series of short stories — the fight between a husband and wife, the fear of an overly shy young girl on going to a dance, the problems of an introverted little boy who feels that the whole world is against him, the corroding marriage of Cora’s rowdy sister, and the tragedy of a military school cadet who suffers from the stigma of being a Jew in an alien community. There is dark at the top of everyone’s stairs, but it can be dissipated by understanding, tolerance, and compassion.