Week Thirty-Five Short Story Selections

Day Two Hundred Thirty-Nine: "Otter" by Jill Peacock
Day Two Hundred Forty: "Gotta Dance" by Jackson Jodie Daviss
Day Two Hundred Forty-One: "Prance Williams Swims Again" by Matt Devens
Day Two Hundred Forty-Two: "Believer's Flood" by Richard Currey
Day Two Hundred Forty-Three:
Day Two Hundred Forty-Four:
Day Two Hundred Forty-Five:

Week Thirty-Four Short Story Selections

Day Two Hundred Thirty-Two: "The Fly" by James Pendergrast
Day Two Hundred Thirty-Three: "The Juggler" by Ursula Hegi
Day Two Hundred Thirty-Four: "A Letter to Andrei" by Benjamin Dean
Day Two Hundred Thirty-Five: "The Vote" by David Long
Day Two Hundred Thirty-Six: "How to Electrocute and Elephant" by David Edgerly Gates
Day Two Hundred Thirty-Seven: "A Voice from Somewhere Else" by Benjamin Anastas
Day Two Hundred Thirty-Eight: "Address Unknown" by Kressman Taylor

Day Two Hundred Thirty-One: "Why do They Lie to Me?" by Rohini Gupta

A link to the story online is here: http://www.everydayfiction.com/why-do-they-lie-to-me-by-rohini-gupta/

Day Two Hundred Thirty: "Llado" by Stephen Skipp

Eccentricity.

A man has a conversation and relationship with a painting. The man is clearly an artist, perhaps one who is going mad. This story was quite brilliant and at times, the reader forgets that this is not a story about two people.

The line "You’d be surprised just how comforting a frame can be, when a frame is what you need" is perfect and is a line that not only defines this piece but is a great BIG picture sort of statement about life. This was a well written and clever piece that I would recommend to curious readers.


A link to the story online can be found here:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/llado-by-stephen-skipp/

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Nine: "Helen's Hands" by Taran Burns

Wear.

A woman recounts all of the things she has used her hands for over the course of her lifetime and she regrets at the end of her life all of the things her hands never got to do. This was a short and sad look at a woman's life from childhood to senior adulthood. There is a loneliness to this story that draws the reader in from the beginning. I also think it was the perfect length. A longer story would have felt "telly" but this was just right.


A link to the story online can be found here:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/helens-hands-by-taran-burns/

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Eight: "The Cleaner" by Timothy Barrera

Fear.

A man gets involved as the "cleanup" man for the murders and accidental kilings of a punk of a mob family. How he got there, he doesn't know. There is a part of this story where the narrator contemplates his situation but overall, it's mostly about the WHAT that has happened as opposed to the WHY and I think that is what makes this story less literary somehow but yet, more effective.

I wish this piece had had more to it. Otherwise, I have no complaints of any kind. A link to the story online is here:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-cleaner-by-timothy-barrera/

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Seven: "Back to the Garden" by Elizabeth Beechwood

Change.

A woman recounts meeting her love, a hippie, and how that love evolves into a family with a daughter who, despite being the offspring of love and peace and freedom, takes to popularity, and politics, and the restrictions of the law that her parents had fought against. It is the story of a mother and how she comes to terms with who and what her daughter has become and how, through grandchildren, she can almost, even if in her own mind only, start again. Brilliant!

A link to the story online is here:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/back-to-the-garden-by-elizabeth-beechwood/

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Six: "Formation" by Kim Chinquee

Conformity. Pain.

A group of young adults, male and female, react to being forced into a combat situation. There is fear, compliance, and a subtlety about the way in which the youngsters respond to the commands presented that make this piece much deeper than its brevity in word count implies.

This was an interesting read. I have a feeling it would take me a few times to really grasp what is happening here even though on the surface this story seems very simple.

A link to the story online is here:

http://flashfiction.net/2012/07/flash-reprint-kim-chinquee.php

Week Thirty-Three Short Story Selections

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Five: "Corruptionists" by Ethel Rohan
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Six: "Formation" by Kim Chinquee
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Seven: "Back to the Garden" by Elizabeth Beechwood
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Eight: "The Cleaner" by Timothy Barrera
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Nine: "Helen's Hands" by Taran Burns
Day Two Hundred Thirty: "Llado" by Stephen Skipp
Day Two Hundred Thirty-One: "Why do They Lie to Me?" by Rohini Gupta

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Five: "Corruptionists" by Ethel Rohan

Prayer.

Daughters pray for their mother's healing and realize only too late that the prayer was misguided. Their mother is in pain, is a burden on others and herself. There is nothing to do but acknowledge the mistake. The rest is reality. It's brutal but it is what they have. A brilliant story if you ask me. Nice job!

A link to the story online can be found here:

www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http://flashfiction.net/2012/06/flash-reprint-corruptionists.php&ei=-TE8UPe7CobU9QSv2YCoCQ&usg=AFQjCNF_ScQbzsdHZ1nKYkZBQ6tI_gBnmg&sig2=DoFtnPQLwdYlMlebIkHoKg

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Four: "Moving House" by Pawel Huelle

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Three: "The Greatest Thing in the World" by Norman Mailer

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Two: "New York is a Girl" by Robert Sand

Day Two Hundred Twenty-One: "A Death in the Woods" by William Gay

Curiosity.

A man and his wife get involved in the investigation of a man found dead in the woods by their house. Was it murder? Was it suicide? What did his life mean if it meant anything? Why? The overarching question was "why"?

I liked this story in that it moved quickly but at times it was hard to follow since it lacked many dialogue tags. Several times I had to go back and make sure I knew who was talking and that for me is just too distracting, particularly in a short story like this where I don't have hundreds of pages of a certain voice to develop my own recognition upon reading. I do admire what the writer was trying to do with this but in the end, it made me not want to keep reading and I lost interest about halfway through it.

This makes me sad because I had high hopes for this writer. Maybe a different short story would yield different results for me. I'll try again to see if I can't be persuaded...but I won't be trying right now.

Day Two Hundred Twenty: "Every Tongue Shall Confess" by ZZ Packer

Secrets.

Drama unfolds in a southern church where women are obviously looked down upon and objectified and where secrets are kept about them and between them in order to protect a few of the elders of the church.

This short story was a bit long for my taste, particularly when I didn't feel that the length did anything to add to the story necessarily. However, the use of voice was wonderful here even if the story itself lost my interest. I'd give this author another chance just for that.

Day Two Hundred Nineteen: "Jellyfish" by Danielle Evans

Waiting.

A girl waits for her father in a cafe and he is running late, late as usual, and while she waits she recalls various moments from her last week or so of her life. There is heartbreak, disappointment, happiness, all full of the reality that she knows her father still can't face, a reality he is always running late to get to.

The language used in this story was refreshing and the pace was steady, pulling the reader in. I can see why Ms. Evans is getting so much attention as a young African American writer. A fresh perspective never gets old.

Nice job!

Day Two Hundred Eighteen: "You Can't Kill the Rooster" by David Sedaris

Chemistry.

A man recalls his brother's relationship with their father, a relationship that should have been strained at best because of the conservative nature of the father in comparison to the gregariousness of the brother, the one who refers to himself as "the rooster."

The depiction of this loving and strange family dynamic is full of vivid details and is easily readable, bordering addictive. Anyone who hasn't read Sedaris could start with this story and not look back, wouldn't be able to.

Well done!

Week Thirty-Two Short Story Selections

Day Two Hundred Eighteen: "You Can't Kill the Rooster" by David Sedaris
Day Two Hundred Nineteen: "Jellyfish" by Danielle Evans
Day Two Hundred Twenty: "Every Tongue Shall Confess" by ZZ Packer
Day Two Hundred Twenty-One: "A Death in the Woods" by William Gay
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Two: "New York is a Girl" by Robert Sand
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Three: "The Greatest Thing in the World" by Norman Mailer
Day Two Hundred Twenty-Four: "Moving House" by Pawel Huelle

Day Two Hundred Seventeen: "Letter from the Understudy" by Kathryn Simmonds

Focus. Disturbed.

An understudy writes a letter anonymously about how he gradually poisoned the actor he was shadowing in order to get his shot at the spotlight. It works at first but just when the understudy is about to get his chance to really shine, the night when critics will be there to see him, the actor himself decides to perform despite a fever. This is when the story turns dark and the understudy resorts to a more obvious form of violence, taking a bat to the actor in order to keep him from performing.

Of course, the irony is that the actions of the understudy result in him going into hiding and thus stripping him of the very opportunity he had been seeking. This was quite a sinister and well written story and unlike any I've read so far.

Nice job!


A link to the story online is here:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LettUnde.shtml

Day Two Hundred Sixteen: "Red from Green" by Maile Meloy

Price.

A young girl goes on weekend camping and fishing trips with her father and uncle while they prep witnesses for a big legal claim. The star witness is clearly taken with the teenage daughter of his attorney and as the story progresses, the reader gets a sense of how quickly one's innocence is shattered and how terrifying and tantalizing the prospect of losing that innocence can be for a girl at a certain age.

The conclusion to this very nicely written story is contemplative and yet realistic. There is no idealism to this. It is strangely a black and white sort of tale in its own way. The point: Some things you don't mess with. Some things really are too good to touch.

I loved this story. I won't be forgetting this one.

Day Two Hundred Fifteen: "Blind" by Ann Fischer

Reversal.

A woman marries a man that she loves even though not really in love with him. He makes sense, is a good match. He inspires her. However, shortly after their marriage, he seems to fall apart. He quits his job, flounders from one endeavor to another and when he finally seems to find his niche, operating an interior design business, he closes shop and retires to bed.

The wife works more. He sleeps more. The marriage is on the rocks when the story ends but the reader gets the sense that things will turn around eventually...or perhaps, the reader is as blind as the narrator to the truth of the matter. There may be no turning back.

A link to the story online is here:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Blin.shtml

Day Two Hundred Fourteen: "Big Alabama and the Chained Refrigerator" by James Valvis

Survival.

A girl whose parents are worried she is gaining too much weight chain their refrigerator shut and then cut out their daughter's lunch. But...she doesn't lose weight. It doesn't make sense. The family is perplexed, convinced she must be stealing lunches from other kids at school. But one night at dinner, her brother figures it out. The dog food is being devoured at an alarming weight. His sister's cry for help a simple frown across the table. How sad a story...such desperation that cannot be discussed and as equally cannot be explained.

A link to the story online can be found here:

http://www.upthestaircase.org/issue18jamesvalvis.htm