The Third Dumpster

‘The few things he said were like ever darkening peepholes into fathomless depths. You don't know what old is, he said sometimes.’

Taken from ‘The Third Dumpster’ by Gish Jen in Granta 120: Medicine, in Granta 120: Medicine, available for download here and in bookshops.

Illustration by Robert Hunter.

You can also see Gish Jen at the following events:

The Art of Caring: A Granta discussion
18 September, 7 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

When the only option is to care for your elderly parents at home, what do you do? What happens when a mother used to caring for her autistic son finds out she has cancer? How does our society support us or let us down? In conversation with a Granta editor, Medicine contributors Gish Jen and Linda H. Davis explore these themes in fiction and memoir.

Brooklyn Book Festival: Medicine
23 September, 11 a.m., Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Free.

Join Granta associate editor Patrick Ryan and contributors Gish Jen, James Lasdun and others for readings and discussion about their work in Granta 120: Medicine.