Kage Baker's "The Hotel at Harlan’s Landing": Outstanding

There is not much sf in this story, but it's outstanding nevertheless - primarily because of lazy & easy language. My grandmother would have loved it, if she could read English. And I do too. That should tell something about it's appeal!

Story summary.
This story is a first person reminiscence by a very practical woman who ran a little hotel in a nearly dead logging town somewhere on the sea side of California. Story begins in 1934, describes the old ways, & then the transformation of town into a modern one when the woman is old.

Briefly, in the middle of the story, some humanoid aliens appear. A gang that doesn't think well of humans, other that does. But that is just to spice up the story, & get it classified as sf. And they don't really steal the rythm of the tale.

Her command over language is outstanding - gives just the right touch. Sample these:

1. "Uncle Jacques brought me a radio he’d tinkered with, he called it a wireless, and I don’t know if it ran on a battery or what it had in it, but we set it behind the bar and we could get it to pull in music and shows."
2. "I wondered how the radio had switched itself over to the marine band, but it was Uncle Jacques’s radio so I guess it might have done anything."

Fact sheet.
The Hotel at Harlan's Landing, short story, review
Author: Kage Baker
First published: 2002 in her short story collection "Black Projects, White Knights"
Genre: Reminiscence
Rating: A
Publication history.

This story is included in the following collections.

1. "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection". Anthology edited by Gardner Dozois.