about exercise during the coronavirus pandemic

Small sets of people, forced out of the local boutique gyms and studios, take to the paved space beneath the overpass, at the east end of the neighborhood, to resume exercise classes. There, the people strain, lift hand-weights, pull on bands of rubber, keep fit under watch of the trainer. The riddle asks what does the trainer do; the trainer is the troll, and the price of a wrong answer is another 10. The rest of us continue on the path to where a routine is nothing we can't handle. 

something about Tom Perrotta’s "Mrs. Fletcher"

Tom Perrotta excels at combining middle-class drama and satire. His stories, including Mrs. Fletcher, sprout from small sagas in American suburbs. The titular character is Eve, a fifty-something divorcée and mother of an entitled, popular, teenaged son named Brendan. Brendan is starting college, and Eve is starting life in an empty nest. The coming year defies expectations because it is Eve rather than Brendan who begins to dabble and explore. Perrotta's easily digestible novel sets up tension between a mature woman starting a new chapter in her life and her immature son's struggle in a new environment in which he is no longer at center. This is an enjoyable story of contemporary sexual politics.


Notes:

• Mrs. Fletcher was published in 2017. The book was adapted recently into an HBO series.
• Here is a fair review in The Washington Post.