Although very different stories in theme and tone, “It’s Bad luck to Die” and “No one’s a Mystery” share some striking similarities. Both begin with a relationship between a young woman and an older man. However, in “It’s Bad Luck to Die” that relationship eventually cultivates itself into something long-lasting and meaningful, while readers of “No One’s a Mystery” understand that no such happy ending is possible for its characters. The way the two authors navigate word choice and the focus of the narrator creates the tone for each story. The young girl’s lust in “No one’s a Mystery” is apparent when the narrator describes in detail the jeans and zipper of her lover. She comments very little on his personality and virtues throughout the story but instead focuses on the physical. The opposite is true for “It’s Bad Luck to Die,” in which the author chooses to focus the narrator’s attention on Tiny’s personality. She notes, and reflects fondly on, his many quirks and admirable traits. The only physical trait she focuses on is his height and perhaps oldness, neither of which I would consider very alluring. But using this method of description, the author is able to convey that this is a relationship of many years and much love, not physical and temporary. The author also begins the story with the narrator reflecting on their time together so the reader is aware they end up married as they begin to read how they met. Doing so, I believe, softens the blow of the age difference between the characters. It helps to know they work out. Knowing that the characters of “No one’s a Mystery” won’t work out makes that age difference painful.
Both stories also explore the power dynamic of age-gap relationships. The older man’s control is slightly more obvious in “No One’s a Mystery.” Jack clearly controls the narrator; it is obvious that he is sexually and emotionally dominant. He tells the narrator that she’ll remember that he taught her about sex and basically dictates what he expects that she’ll write in her diary. The power dynamic isn’t nearly as tangible in “It’s Bad Luck to Die.” They could be interpreted as an artistic couple that expresses love through drawing or being a canvas. But there is a part in the story where we see the narrator is a little hesitant to receive his tattoos, after he destroys her book and when he wants to tattoo a musician on her. She ends up being covered head to toe in tattoos of his design and creation, without one of her own ideas. He essentially claims her body. It’s only at the very end of the story does she get to return the favor.
I think there is also something to be said for the parallels between the diary given to the narrator in “No One’s a Mystery” and the diary the narrator of “It’s Bad Luck to Die”‘s skin becomes.
I just haven’t figured out what that something is.