Summary

In “The Spy,” the narrator and her siblings did not cry at their mother’s funeral. They felt free after her death, but as time passed, they started to feel uneasy. While they were traveling together months later, they felt her presence as if she were still alive.

G was a film reviewer, writer, and filmmaker. He worked under various pseudonyms, so his mother never knew about his work. He, his brother, and their two siblings grew up “in a bourgeois country town” (157). As the eldest, G was heavily impacted by his parents’ “customs and beliefs” (157). He broke away from the family, giving his siblings the right to do the same. His brother also lived in the city and was part of a group of outspoken queer artists. He “wrote philosophical articles advocating for the sexual liberation of children,” which embarrassed G (159).

The...