SOURCE: “Persons,” in Short Stories for Study, Harvard University Press, 1953, pp. 272-77.

In the following study of “Nuns at Luncheon,” Kempton offers two interpretations of the satirical story: as a tale within an anecdote which is a fiction that ends as a polemic, and as a straightforward realistic piece that is no less satirical for being objectified and held in control.

The story sparkles. Several technical instruments and factors in the management of content contribute to the display. The immediate scene in the restaurant gathers together and unifies for a single effect a number of told immediate scenes and a multitude of details widely separate in space and time. There are two narrators. The more important because more prominent is, of course, Miss Penny; but the function of “I” should not be underrated or misunderstood. “I” describes Miss Penny, contributes suggestions and a long descriptive scene, spurs on...