Girl in the Cafe (Melrose) - 5 Versions - Table of Contents

I had a "Girl in the Cafe" moment recently, and it's memorialized as retold in the voices of five authors.  Case study essayists Irving Yalom (psychiatrist) and Oliver Sacks (neurologist).   And authors Joan Didion (American), Julian Barnes (English), and Thomas Mann (German).

The title Girl in the Cafe (Melrose) is a nod to a 2005 HBO movie with Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald..  Two strangers are seated together in a crowded London cafe, and from there, the story.   It's not available on a major streamer, but the DVD is a few dollars at Amazon and a number of full length copies are on YouTube (here).


The synopsis of the Melrose story - 

  • Synopsis - The Encounter
  • If you have a dog, you get twenty quick interactions with strangers a week – “What’s your dog’s name? Nice dog.  Have a nice day.  Bye.”  
  • On a Sunday evening, after ordering family takeout at a café, I sat down to wait.  Another dog owner came in, ordered takeout, and the two dogs interacted.  The conversation started, “What’s your dog’s name?  They seem to get along.  How old is your dog?’   But since we had fifteen minutes, the conversation spread down a range of pathways.   Then the orders came up and we went our ways.
    • Hear the first and last versions (as seen below) read aloud at YouTube here. 

Irv Yalom version here

And...

Oliver Sacks version here

Joan Didion version here

Julian Barnes version here

Thomas Mann version here

   And, the story Revisited, the Woman's Perspective, by Irving Yalom, here.

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