"Big Blue Eyes" by Morgan Shaffer

Morgan Shaffer’s story “Big Blue Eyes” was interesting and slightly disturbing. I had not known about the news story of Casey Anthony, so I was confused at parts. Having read it without knowing the story, it seemed that the daughter in question was still alive and just in the other room playing house and the “crime” that kept getting mentioned was unclear. If Anthony was convicted of a crime, then why was she not in custody? And if she wasn’t convicted then why does the interviewer keep referring to it as a crime?

I liked the set up of the story and even not knowing the story it stood alone well as a completely different story where a mother loses her child for a month somehow and is an all around horrible person.

Having now read the original news story, I think it would be beneficial to change the name of Anthony and then make the story very obvious as to what it is about. A fictionalized story about a woman who kills he child then gets away without despite insurmountable evidence would be a great read. I didn’t know that T.C. Boyle’s story was a fictionalized news story until after I had read it, and standing alone and having not known that news story either, it was still a great story and an interesting read.

One more thing for improvement would be to include more characters. By developing just one more person, like the grandmother or the boyfriend, Shaffer could take control of the story by fictionalizing that character far more than she would have been able to fictionalize Casey. Another character and more story dynamics would help the story be more rounded off and full, instead of feeling like it is just a different approach to the same news story.