The Best Policy — A Reader’s Guide

Marriage as a Business Proposition

The first story, "An Incidental Comedy," frames marriage as the catalyst for Harry's financial planning. Flower writes that if a man has "any thoughtfulness and consideration," marriage brings it out: "he begins to plan." This is not romanticized; it is a practical shift. Isabel is described as "unreasoningly impractical," treating household troubles as jokes—a maid's recalcitrance leads to dining out and theater. Harry's willingness to "kiss the cook" in the kitchen is presented as charming but also a symptom of their shared avoidance of saving. The narrator's tone is affectionate but pointed, noting that Harry "had not passed the stage" of such domestic play. The story establishes a central dynamic: the wife's lightness versus the husband's dawning seriousness, a conflict that will recur in later episodes.

The Art of the Negotiation

Flower excels at writing negotiations that are really power struggles disguised as polite conversation. In a later excerpt, insurance man Murray and a doctor travel west to appease Mrs. Tucker, who has outmaneuvered them in a stock scheme. Murray's complaint—"when a woman decides to make things uncomfortable for a man,—well, the man might just as well resign himself to being perpetually uncomfortable"—is delivered with comic resignation. Mrs. Tucker's replies are layered with irony: she claims to worry about her husband's health while simultaneously revealing she has acquired company stock. Her line "I did want your insurance company for a sort of belated wedding present" turns business into a personal gift. The dialogue moves through feigned concern, mock surrender, and strategic concession, with each character using politeness as a weapon.

Repetition and Variation in Structure

The twelve stories share a structural pattern: an "incidental" event—a question, a favor, an error—triggers a complication related to insurance or finance, which is resolved through wit or compromise. This repetition creates a rhythm, but Flower varies the tone. "An Incidental Comedy" is light; "An Incidental Tragedy" presumably darkens. The excerpts show a preference for scenes built around a single, extended conversation, often between a man and a woman. The setting shifts from domestic interiors to western ranches, but the focus remains on verbal sparring. The author's habit of labeling each story with its "incidental" nature signals a self-conscious structure, inviting the reader to compare how different moods play out within the same framework.

Diction and the Voice of the Narrator

Flower's narrator uses a dry, understated diction that avoids sentimentality. Phrases like "the feeling of responsibility that came to him with marriage gradually took practical form" are typical: abstract nouns do the work of psychology. Dialogue is more colloquial, with characters using contractions and exclamations ("Oh, dear, n—"). The narrator occasionally steps back with a wry comment, as when Murray says "I have reached the limit of endurance. All I want is peace, peace, peace." The repetition of "peace" undercuts the seriousness. Flower also uses physical details sparingly but effectively: a character's letter is scribbled across the top, a doctor is willing to concede a man will "live to be three thousand years old." These small touches ground the comedy in the tangible.

Readers will find that The Best Policy rewards attention to its dialogue, where much of the plot's movement and humor resides. Flower's characters rarely say exactly what they mean, and the pleasure lies in watching them circle toward agreement or advantage. The stories are best read as a sequence, noting how the same couple's relationship evolves across different "incidental" pressures. The book offers a period-specific view of marriage and commerce, but its sharp exchanges remain entertaining on their own terms.

That rainy April afternoon, the Beckfords’ banter kept me warm, their calculations of risk feeling less like business and more like the quiet arithmetic of holding a marriage together. When the cover closed, my hand drifted sideways on the shelf and landed elsewhere—a different household, a doctor’s wife with her own careful ledger of secrets. The Doctor's Wife: A Novel — Inside the Classic carried the same afternoon light, dim and patient, through another window entirely.