The Year of the Feast is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the December 1984 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
Summary[]
In the Union Club, a discussion about holidays leads Griswold to recount a recent case involving a friend, a black lawyer named John. John was representing a client, the owner of a small toy business, who was the illegitimate son of a wealthy man from a prominent family. The client's mother had recently died, and on her deathbed, she revealed the identity of his father, who had also passed away. The client sought financial help from his half-brother, the current head of his father's family, to fund his children's college education. The half-brother was willing to help but required proof of their relationship.
The only piece of evidence was an undated love letter from the father to the mother. The letter, signed "Strephon" to "Amaryllis," referred to a turkey dinner they had shared "yesterday" and was written in December. John believed if he could prove the letter was written in December of the year before his client was born, it would provide the necessary justification. Griswold examined the letter and identified the year.
He deduced that the mentioned "yesterday's turkey" was a Thanksgiving dinner. He knew that before 1941, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday of November, which could fall as late as November 30th. A letter written in December referring to a turkey dinner "yesterday" would therefore point to a year when Thanksgiving fell on November 30th. The last time this occurred before 1941 was 1939. Knowing the father was born in 1916 and would have been 23 in 1939, an age appropriate for the affair, Griswold concluded the client was conceived then and born in 1940. This reasoning was accepted by the half-brother, who established a trust fund for the client's children.
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Baranov
- Jennings
- John (the lawyer)
- The Client (the toy manufacturer)
- Amaryllis (the client's mother)
- Strephon (the client's father)
- The Half-Brother
Historical Figures Mentioned[]
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (F.D.R.)
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov