This story is about a young American man travelling on a train in Italy. An old man and his accomplice try to swindle the boy, but he is one step ahead of them. I think that the story is conveying a message that you shouldn't underestimate people. The boy talks about how old people romanticize their youth and forget what it was like. The old man underestimated the boy, who, as he says, is neither blind nor ignorant.
There is a lot in this story that is working. It builds tension well and conveys it in the right places. As readers we begin to feel uneasy when we hear the creak of the leather. The ending also was very satisfying. It was funny, but it wasn't a simple punch-line. What I love the most, though, is the keen observations the writing makes about everything from tourist-native interaction, to the relationship between the old and the young. I think the story explains both sides well, but that we come out routing for youth over old age.
My biggest complaint is that I was unclear about how the dialogue was working at first. When the boy answered the old man in Italian, even though the old man (with his accent) obviously asked the question in English, I assumed that the rest of the conversation was essentially a translation from Italian for the readers. Not a big deal except that we get moments later on when the old man is searching for the right word to use. It confused me on the first reading is all. This brings me to my next issue, though. The old man's vocabulary seems to fluctuate. He's fairly eloquent about the boy's "dangerous idea", but he has to search for the word "lessons", among others. I understand that 'lessons' is really what this story turns on, so I would say to dumb down the old man's vocabulary elsewhere. Have him struggle to get abstract points across.
Overall I think this story was very well done. It seems to tell us just what we need to know, and it tells it well. It was a pleasure to read.
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