Do you know this short story?

[Kevets]

I am going nuts trying to find this short story ...

A boy goes to a river to get the special kind of clay or mud that he needs from there. He is making some bit of greek architecture for a school project (and that bit of architecture is the name of the short story). He has great difficulty, maybe he's attacked, but he gets back home and makes his project. His father comes home and destroys it.

It's a brutal story of paternal anger and abuse.

I was so sure this was a Wallace Stegner story, but I can't find any of his anthologies that has anything like it. Google has failed me. It's one of those that got under my skin 20 years ago, and I'd love to find it again.

Thanks!

[wessexgirl]

I am going nuts trying to find this short story ...

A boy goes to a river to get the special kind of clay or mud that he needs from there. He is making some bit of greek architecture for a school project (and that bit of architecture is the name of the short story). He has great difficulty, maybe he's attacked, but he gets back home and makes his project. His father comes home and destroys it.

It's a brutal story of paternal anger and abuse.

I was so sure this was a Wallace Stegner story, but I can't find any of his anthologies that has anything like it. Google has failed me. It's one of those that got under my skin 20 years ago, and I'd love to find it again.

Thanks!

Could it be Clay by David Almond? That's not a short story but a Young Adult book, but the boy gets clay from a river or pond or something to make a sculpture.

[Kevets]

No, but thanks.

It's definitely a short story. The title may end in something like "----estra", but that's purely a guess.

Funny thing is, I don't read a lot of short stories. Other than Stegner, the only other author that comes to mind is Andres Dubus. I would have bet $100 that it was Stegner, since the whole mood is so much like Butcher Bird in tone. But search as I might, I can't find anything like it. Although I will say, I can't find a complete list of titles for him (we need the literature equivalent of imdb!).

[bundle17]

when you figure it out, i'd love to read it. keep me posted!