Issue 22. March 2012 : JOHN HAGGERTY The Other Half of Graceland

A teenaged girl narrates John Haggerty's "The Other Half of Graceland," describing a trip to the eponymous home of Elvis along with her mother, who is looking for what the magazines call more pizzazz in her life. Armed with a make-up kit, an expertise for matching blush to skin tone, and a keen eye for adult behavior, Lisa steers them through their pilgrimage and tries to mediate the relationship between a young man they meet there and his father. As Lisa manages her mother's own delicate emotions, Graceland becomes the setting for the revelation of flaws and for the discovery that some flaws are only imagined. "The Other Half of Graceland" is read aloud by Megan Biglow.