cynthia ozick

save my child! "Puttermesser put up a notice in the elevator. 'Companionable Russian emigree, intelligent, charming, lively, willing to clean house, babysit, general light chores. Reasonable. Inquire 3-C from 8 P.M.' "Then she blotted out 'Russian emigré' -- it was too literary, and smacked of Paris or Berlin in 1920 (she thought of Nabokov) -- and wrote instead, 'Soviet newcomer.'"

• Thanks to Akiko Nakata for this entry.

• "Save My Child!" can be found in Best American Short Stories 1997, and also in The Purtmesser Papers.

• More information on Cynthia Ozick.