“[T]his was my first time making strawberry jelly,” says our narrator-protagonist. And the measurements need to be just right. Vicki Wilson’s “Jelly” opens with emphasis on deliberate and careful measurement. But as we’ll soon discover, there’s more at stake than making a common spread for toast. “If the jelly set, it was a sign that my mom wasn’t mad at me.” This recipe and its progress from harvested ingredients to set jelly is the metaphorical vehicle by which the reader is transported through generations in this family—past, present, and… future.
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Pauline Shen 