'How To Eat Fruit' is a strangely atmospheric story of which is simultaneously profound and simple. It ventures into the importance of experience, and the sensuality of living; without the need to use too many words, learn names and look too deeply into the aesthetics of things around you, whilst holding onto that feeling for as long as you can before it vanishes, like the dying leaves of autumn. Speaking of which, the use of seasonal change and their ups and downs as well (as the change in the woman herself) in this story is a metaphor I found to be very powerful - my favourite line in the story has to be “…he and the woman ate their slow summer fill of each other.” as the atmosphere give by such a small segment of the story was incredibly warm, very powerful and perfectly in theme with the rest of the story. I could almost feel the humidity from the summer air leap off the page.
The fruit, in my interpretation anyway, being metaphorical of experience was brilliant - the banana seemed a rather unattractive image just like the woman was originally deemed, though the others mentioned gave a very attractive sense of feeling, just like the experiences Jacob and the woman shared, learning their way through touch and taste through the summer on a more abstract level, than merely seeing and judging.
Jacobs failure to grasp one of the woman’s lessons as she shook her head after his compliment to her did not seem lost to me as I read the description of her home, was he so intoxicated with her presence that he failed to contemplate how unattractive her home was? I like to interpret that though he believed he failed, he actually succeeded and just didn’t realise - which is ironic in a way as by not noticing this, he learned successfully how to feel and not just see.
Each description, image and short piece of dialogue was perfectly relevant in this short story and
I do feel that it is simple enough to understand without shaking ones head and having to re-read the last paragraph, even if I’m unaware of where the knife came from (her bag or was it already on the café table?). Simplicity is important in a piece of prose, yet just as I hoped this story uses it in such a cryptic way, it goes far deeper than just a story - the emotions jump off the page and demand to be related to, that’s what I like to see in a story.
I hope I have interpreted this story in the way it was meant to be interpreted, but even if I haven’t it is still a very well written piece.

I give this story 5/5 :)