“Autumn at The Automat”, by Lawrence Block, took me as a reader on a bit of a ride before settling on its final theme. This is not to say that the author struggled to find one – the author, instead, took the reader on a journey and essentially made us work for the story. They did this by slowly giving the reader information to questions we get at the beginning of the story – why was this woman at the Automat? Who is Alfred? Once we learn that this is the woman’s late husband, it makes the reader question what he taught her? Why does she watch people – is it just her own amusement? But then why was she taught to watch from the corner of her eye?
It’s not until the very end of the story that it’s revealed to the readers that the woman was planning to weasel her way into some money by allowing herself to be accused of stealing silverware from the Automat. When it’s revealed that she brought her own and did not, in fact, steal, she was paid off to prevent her from going to her nephew lawyer (which did not exist). What I really liked and appreciated is that we weren’t told of her motives until the very end, when she returns to her hotel room and pays off her rent. This is when we as the reader learn that our narrator has done this several times in the past, all to different automats, and plans to do it again.
I really enjoyed how the author sewed seeds from the very beginning of the story and slowly revealed the meaning of it all by the end. I like how you say he made the reader “work for the story” — I see it that way too.