Day One Hundred Sixty-Two: "The Bully" by Roger Dean Kiser

Karma-esque.

A man in a diner winds up in a discussion with a former classmate, a classmate who was a bully to him when they were in middle school. As it turns out, the bully is now in a wheelchair and has trouble maneuvering around the restaurant, ultimately requiring the help of his classmate, the narrator.

This could have read like a story about karma but instead it exuded forgiveness and compassion. I like to think I'd behave as this narrator did but I'm not so sure. If anything, this story got me thinking and counting my blessings.

A link to the story online is here:

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

Week Twenty-Four Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Sixty-Two: "The Bully" by Roger Dean Kiser
Day One Hundred Sixty-Three: "The Thief Who Stole the Melody" by Naguib Mahfouz
Day One Hundred Sixty-Four: "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
Day One Hundred Sixty-Five: "Moe Simon's Victory" by Marisa Samuels
Day One Hundred Sixty-Six: "Mornings, with Teenage Genius" by Jakob Drud
Day One Hundred Sixty-Seven: "Big Inches" by Ralph Robert Moore
Day One Hundred Sixty-Eight: "Rat Beach" by William Styron

Day One Hundred Sixty-One: "The Worst Girl's Best Day" by Susan Rukeyser

Concessions.

The reader watches as a young girl goes from being the "pig" mascot at a supermarket to finding herself, leaving her life behind where she is alone and an outcast. She takes to the road and hopes for the best but in the end, the reader doesn't have the hope that she does. On a stylistic note, this story is rich in details and a very enjoyable read.

This tale is about starting over...the belief that starting over can make a difference. I'm not convinced but I still feel for this character. I want her to be more than this even if I don't know what her future holds.

Day One Hundred Sixty: "PS" by Jill McCorkle

Confession.

A woman writes a letter to her therapist explaining her mania and why she feels her therapist is the cause of it rather than the cure. Told in the first person, the voice in this story is convincing and original and it keeps the reader engaged from the opening sentence of the letter as addressed to Dr. Love:

"By now you have gotten several letters from me and this will probably be the last."

This story absolutely doesn't stop. It's funny, disturbing, sad, and engrossing. I'd read more of these letters if there were more to read.


A link to the story online is here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/08/ps/7540/

Day One Hundred Fifty-Nine: "Black Box" by Jennifer Egan

Direction.

A woman lists the requirements to satisfy her "designated mate" and reflects on the need to reflect on her situation. It was an interesting read and told entirely in the second person which is rare and made the story come off as choppy but still entertaining in parts.

I'm not sure how I really feel about this story but I admire what the author was trying to do with playing with form and voice. A link to the story online is below:


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/jennifer-egan-black-box.html

Day One Hundred Fifty-Eight: "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway

Empathy.

Two waiters discuss the plight of a local drunkard and the rationale behind his nightly ritual of drinking until 3:00 in the morning. The story explores the dark and scary side of failed suicide and its implications for the life that remains but at the same time the story doesn't try to explain anything. It simply poses questions. The reader is not given any answers which I quite liked.

A link to the story online is below:

http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html

Day One Hundred Fifty-Seven: "The Vibraphone" by Rita Dove

Infatuation.

A young vibraphone player searches out the musician she most admires. He has abandoned music himself, exiled to a distant city when this young woman finds him. She listens. She hears his music, his complaints, his history that includes seducing and marrying a woman much like her. There is a quality to this story that was enticing and for a poet, I was very impressed by Dove's prose.

A link to the story online is here:

http://people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/Vibraphone.pdf

Day One Hundred Fifty-Six: "The Ascent" by Ron Rash

Neglect.

A young boy dealing with drug addict parents finds an abandoned airplane in the mountains of North Carolina and scavenges the dead bodies for jewelry, not knowing that revealing his discovery to his parents will result in them pawning off the jewelry for more drug money. When he realizes what his parents have done, he finds his way back into the snow covered woods and climbs into the plane to "save them" as if he has the ability to do that when he can't help his parents at all.

Talk about a sad and frightening look at what it must be like for a child to watch his parents in the grips of addiction. This story reflect neglect at its most unnerving. This boy was destined to be lost.

Day One Hundred Fifty-Five: "Feeling Lucky" by Michael Knight

Week Twenty-Three Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Fifty-Five: "Feeling Lucky" by Michael Knight
Day One Hundred Fifty-Six: "The Ascent" by Ron Rash
Day One Hundred Fifty-Seven: "The Vibraphone" by Rita Dove
Day One Hundred Fifty-Eight: "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway
Day One Hundred Fifty-Nine: "Black Box" by Jennifer Egan
Day One Hundred Sixty: "PS" by Jill McCorkle
Day One Hundred Sixty-One: "The Worst Girl's Best Day" by Susan Rukeyser

Day One Hundred Fifty-Four: "This is a Voice from Your Past" by Merrill Joan Gerber

Mistrust.

A woman hears from an old classmate who, as it turns out, is freeloading after failing at his attempts at becoming a writer. He is a con artist of the worse kind and while she suspects it, the reader sees this woman trying to believe him, to trust him, and ultimately, keep him in her life. But she has made a mistake and by the story's end, the woman is paranoid and this man, her old friend, is haunting her. He is there in every unanswered phone call, in every knock at the door. It was a mystery story in its own way from start to finish and I could NOT stop reading.

I'd read this author again for sure. The flow and the feel of the story was fantastic!

Day One Hundred Fifty-Three: "A Family of Breastfeeders" by Starkey Flythe, Jr.

Pride.

A young boy recounts having heard about being from a family of breastfeeders. He knows every story, every analogy, every euphemism, and it's hilarious to watch his observations on the page. I personally loved this story because I could relate to the explanations and the rationales given by nursing mothers. There is such a sense of pride that is conveyed in this story that is done perfectly and not overtly. I very much enjoyed this read. The dialogue was spot on and the details entertaining, keeping the story moving from humorous comment to humorous comment.

Day One Hundred Fifty-Two: "You Don't Defriend Them" by Jeanne Holtzman

Hurt.

This story shows us a woman who is monitoring her ex-lover's facebook page. She sees when his profile pic changes, notes how he seems to have changed too. The simple way in which the reader sees the narrator react to the appearance of "gummi bears" on her ex-lovers Facebook page is enough to make this story worth the read. But the ultimate conclusion of course, that you don't dare "defriend" him...well, it's brilliant. This was such a unique read and extremely relevant in today's social media crazed environment.

And talk about the hurt. Every reader has felt this...THIS! What a surprise of a story.

Day One Hundred Fifty-One: "Black Dog" by Walter Mosley

Appearances.

A black man on trial for assault is helped by a woman who runs a local animal shelter. She is the daughter of parents who were Civil Rights activists and who have shown her that race is just a label. She steps in to defend the man after he is accused of attacking a driver who struck and almost killed a dog and winds up coming across, ironically, as more of a source of shame for him. The life behind bars is one he knew, understood, had spent nearly 30 years coming to grips with. But the new labels, the new chances, the newness period seem to frighten him.

I thought this story was well written and it has so many layers to it that my review here is only scratching the surface I'm sure. I'd read more of this author for sure.

Day One Hundred Fifty: "A Last Fling, Like" by Richard Yates

Conceitedness.

A young girl returns from Paris after taking one last trip before her marriage and shares her exploits with a girlfriend over coffee. This story was a combination of testing the limits of what women were allowed to do in terms of "finding themselves" particularly in relation to what was expected or allowed of men, and also, it was a great exercise in voice. The entire story was told in monologue, the narrator the only one speaking. There is clearly another woman in the story but the woman is silent and the reader is left to imagine or cringe at what the woman must be thinking. I quite like how Yates put these two women in the story and made me equally as interested in both despite never hearing from one of them.

As I suspected, I wasn't disappointed in Yates with this short story. I'd read more.

Day One Hundred Forty-Nine: "And the Greatest of These" by Louis Gallo

Loyalty. Selflessness.

An apparent homeless man shows up on the doorstep of a man's house but it turns out, the homeless guy is the man's wife's uncle. The story then becomes an observation by the reader of how the man takes in his wife's family, how he nurtures him despite clearly not wanting to. He wants his freedom and time alone with his wife but it's family. Blood. There is a reference to blood several times that reiterates this point. Ultimately, the story concludes with the husband and wife deciding that the uncle needs to go but then, there's a storm and the uncle is scared. They all three pile into one bed and everything is made better. The world, the night, is okay for a change. There is hope after all.

WHAT A WONDERFUL READ!!! I'm thrilled to have discovered this author. The description, the flow, the general atmospher of this story could not have been more real. Loved it!

Day One Hundred Forty-Eight: "Breathing" by Danit Brown

Separation.

A man struggles with fatherhood, with how to love and protect his young daughter and keep his sanity in tact while at the same time maintain his once tender relationship with his wife. He feels lost, alone, and useless as his daughter gets older and in his mind "favors" the mom.

This was a beautifully told story that I will not soon forget. There is a scene where the father shows up at his daughter's school when overcome with worry about her being abducted and him witnessing her defending herself on the playground. When he then tries to "save" his daughter and takes her to lunch at McDonald's, there is no way the reader of this story won't cringe and shed a tear at the same time.

Brilliant. Memorable. Heartbreaking.

Week Twenty-Two Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Forty-Eight: "Breathing" by Danit Brown
Day One Hundred Forty-Nine: "And the Greatest of These" by Louis Gallo
Day One Hundred Fifty: "A Last Fling, Like" by Richard Yates
Day One Hundred Fifty-One: "Black Dog" by Walter Mosley
Day One Hundred Fifty-Two: "You Don't Defriend Them" by Jeanne Holtzman
Day One Hundred Fifty-Three: "A Family of Breastfeeders" by Starkey Flythe, Jr.
Day One Hundred Fifty-Four: "This is a Voice from Your Past" by Merrill Joan Gerber

Day One Hundred Forty-Seven: "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" by Haruki Murakami

Divinity.

A man meets the perfect woman and she acknowledges that she too has met the perfect man in him. Yet, the two of them decide to part ways to "test" fate if you will, to see if they will meet back up without any acts of their own in order to convince themselves that they are truly meant for each other. Things happened at first too easily, too quickly. The rest of the story shows the reader what happens when people in love opt for a test of the future instead of opting for the here and now. A sad ending. It was what the narrator predicted from the start. Sometimes, as the story shows, we are determined to fail. We need to fail. Sometimes success is too much to handle.


A link to the story online is here:

http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/murakami-perfect.html

Day One Hundred Forty-Six: "Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy

Lessons.

A king seeks out answers to three questions:

what was the right time for every action?

who were the most necessary people?

how he might know what was the most important thing to do?


He asks and gets very different answers and unsatisfied with the responses, he approaches a hermit digging in the dirt. The hermit refuses to give him any answers and this frustrates the King. He stays with the hermit and overtakes his digging, pleading with the hermit for words of advice. Still, the hermit does not answer but as time passes and events occur, the lesson learned and the answers to the questions are gained by the King. At the conclusion of the story when the King is spared his life because of a kindness he didn't even realize he'd given, the following quote sums up the moral of this story.

"Remember then: there is only one time that is important-- Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!"

The following is a link to the story online:

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/6374/

Day One Hundred Forty-Five: "Back Windows" by Louisa May Alcott

Observation.

A woman sits and stares out of her back window at the world outside, at the children playing, at the adults who don't seem to notice or care what their children are up to, how they are neglecting life. This story is full of detail and reads almost like a list of characters more than it does a story--at least until the conclusion where this quote sums up the entire piece:


"I sometimes wonder if the kind spirits who feel an interest in mortals ever take a look at us on the shady side which we don't show the world, seeing the trouble, vanities, and sins which we think no one knows. If they love, pity, or condemn us? What records they keep, and what rewards they prepare for those who are so busy with their work and play that they forget who may be watching their back windows with clearer eyes and truer charity than any inquisitive old lady with a pen in her hand?"

This was a lovely and surprisingly fresh read for me. I wasn't expecting this from Alcott.



A link to the online story is here:

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/11301/

Day One Hundred Forty-Four: "Silver Water" by Amy Bloom

Broken.

A woman recounts the mental decline of her sister and how dealing with her sister's mental illness impacts her parents and their lives. This story was on one hand cold and distant but I got the feeling that the author wrote it that way. It didn't read as sappy or melodramatic. Instead, the story shows the reader how a family member's mental illness can sometimes numb those around to the harsh realities of the pain and confusion and desperation that pull the person any given moment. There was unpredictability in this story and in the writing itself. I very much enjoyed the voice and I thought it served the story and its subject matter well.



Here is a link to the story online:

http://producer.csi.edu/cdraney/2010/175/etexts/Bloom_Silver-Water.pdf

Day One Hundred Forty-Three: "The Blue Cross" by G.K. Chesterton

Wisdom.

A detective uses a different way of thinking, of reasoning, to search for a villain. This story read like a treatise in philosophy as much as it did in mystery. I quite enjoyed it though on a philosophical level and the writing was top notch.


A great quote from the piece that I wanted to make sure I posted here:

"The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen. A few clouds in heaven do come together into the staring shape of one human eye. A tree does stand up in the landscape of a doubtful journey in the exact and elaborate shape of a note of interrogation. I have seen both these things myself within the last few days. Nelson does die in the instant of victory; and a man named Williams does quite accidentally murder a man named Williamson; it sounds like a sort of infanticide. In short, there is in life an element of elfin coincidence which people reckoning on the prosaic may perpetually miss. As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reckon on the unforeseen."

Here is a link to the story online:

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/15494/

Day One Hundred Forty-Two: "Listening to the Chocolate" by Rebecca L. Brown

Concession.

A woman contrasts chocolate with her lover, pointing out the satisfaction she gets and maintains from chocolate and not from the other. This story could have come off as a bit cliche or even trite but it didn't. There was a clear and unique tone to the narrator's rant that made this very readable and almost addictive...like the chocolate itself. By story's end, the reader is given a treat when the narrator turns the tables. Very nicely done and memorable.

The link to this story can be found here:

http://metromoms.net/2012/05/20/listening-to-the-chocolate-by-rebecca-l-brown/

Day One Hundred Forty-One: "Twelve Days Out of Traction" by Dave Shaw

Commitment. Deceit.

A conman stages fall after fall sustaining injury after injury and makes a living on the settlements procured by con-attorneys. Told from his perspective, this story was fascinating and it moved quickly. I absolutely adored how lovable this character was despite how much I know I should have loathed him. I simply haven't read a story like this and you could tell it was a well researched premise. Nice job by a writer I'd not yet read.

Week Twenty-One Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Forty-One: "Twelve Days Out of Traction" by Dave Shaw
Day One Hundred Forty-Two: "Listening to the Chocolate" by Rebecca L. Brown
Day One Hundred Forty-Three: "The Blue Cross" by G.K. Chesterton
Day One Hundred Forty-Four: "Silver Water" by Amy Bloom
Day One Hundred Forty-Five: "Back Windows" by Louisa May Alcott
Day One Hundred Forty-Six: "Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy
Day One Hundred Forty-Seven: "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" by Haruki Murakami

Day One Hundred Forty: "What you Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie

Dignity.

A homeless Native American spots his grandmother's regalia in the window of a pawn shop, regalia that had been stolen from his family 50 years earlier. He asks the pawn dealer about it and discovers upon close inspection that it is in fact his grandmother's but the pawn dealer had paid a lot of money for it and he doesn't want to give it away. The pawn dealer and the Indian cut a deal. Then, the story takes off.

How can an Indian turn $5 into $1,000 in 24 hours? It's humorous and sad and heartbreaking and uplifting to watch this man struggle with his inner demons, his addictions, his status as a homeless man on his quest to scrounge up the money he needs. There is such humanity in this piece and the voice is so strong. I feel like I met this man and that I'd want to take him home. Ironically, he would never let me. The streets are his. As the character in the story says "Being homeless is probably the only thing I’ve ever been good at." He takes pride in this life and how he has navigated his way through it. There's something to be said for that kind of pride and certainty.



You can read this story in its entirety here:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/04/21/030421fi_fiction

Day One Hundred Thirty-Nine: "The True Story of Fresh Springs" by Gretchen McCullough

Recollection.

Two women are murdered in a town ironically named Fresh Springs and the search for the murderer results in an outlandish tale that is unbelievable while at the same time strangely convincing. The suspect is labeled "Superboy" and he is an instant celebrity in the community. As is the case in many murders, the killer is idolized and the girls who were killed have names that are soon forgotten. The small town gets caught up in the drama but because of the way the story is written, it's hard to discern what is actually happening and what is exaggeration. Perhaps this is an example of an unreliable narrator. Even so, the story worked for me and I could read this author over and over and over again.



The story can be found online here:

http://www.gretchenmccullough.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=72

Day One Hundred Thirty-Eight: "Home for Christmas" by Janhavi Acherakar

Relationships.

A young couple in search of their first home comes in contact with a real estate agent who is quite the character, quite the talker, who metaphorically introduces them to the world around them. Set in Dubai, this story was interesting to read for its regional effect, with spot on language that gave the story that extra thing that made it seem authentic and real to the reader. Perhaps a bit sentimental for my tastes, the story is nonetheless well written and full of rich detail. It's not every day I read a story set in Dubai and that alone made this worth the read.



Here is a link to the story online:

http://www.janhavistories.com/home_for_christmas.htm

Day One Hundred Thirty-Seven: "The Drop" by Alan Glynn

Convergence.

A man falls from a building and contemplates life, albeit briefly, and comes to the conclusion that there are no answers. He lands on the asphalt, is not killed, and he leaps up and runs away. A perfect metaphor for what happens when any of us fall on our faces. This was an extremely short story. Flash Fiction but...I figured it was perfect for today given it is National Flash Fiction Day.

Here is a link to this lovely story:

http://picadorbookroom.tumblr.com/post/23163826303/may-16th-is-national-flash-fiction-day-in-the-uk

Day One Hundred Thirty-Six: "Long Walk to Forever" by Kurt Vonnegut

Last Chances.

A young soldier returns home, goes AWOL in order to tell the girl he loves that he wants to marry her, to prevent her from marrying someone else. At one point in the story, the reader worries that the happy ending won't happen, that the stunt pulled by this young GI won't amount to more than just some embarrassment for him but by the end, we as the readers are cheering and happy and encouraged by a sense that somehow, somewhere, there are people willing to take these kinds of chances for what they want. Love matters. It's worth a shot. You can't quit!

Nice job and a Vonnegut surprise if I do say so, particularly as it relates to the topic. Still, well done and readable.

Day One Hundred Thirty-Five: "The Flowers" by Alice Walker

Reality.

A young girl walks into an unknown field on a hillside and gathers flowers. Just when she is ready to return home with an armful of flowers and other plants, she stumbles when she steps into the skull of a dead man. She stands back and observes that he was a tall man, had large white teeth and as she kneels down to sweep the foliage away from his face, she sees the noose around what was his neck. She immediately lays down the flowers and walks back home. Innocence lost if the little girl ever had it to begin with. What a nice story!

Here is a link to the story online:

http://theliterarylink.com/flowers.html

Day One Hundred Thirty-Four: "Taking the Plunge" by Armistead Maupin

Risk.

A young woman decides to leave her home in Ohio for San Francisco. Mostly, this story is a conversation between the girl and her mother but it still easily stood alone as a full story. This very short piece that serves as the first vignette if you will of the larger work "Tales of the City" is rich in details and I immediately found myself reading beyond the first story and into the second, the third, the fourth, and so on. I'm hooked on Maupin's style of writing. I could not be happier with today's story selection.

Week Twenty Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Thirty-Four: "Taking the Plunge" by Armistead Maupin
Day One Hundred Thirty-Five: "The Flowers" by Alice Walker
Day One Hundred Thirty-Six: "Long Walk to Forever" by Kurt Vonnegut
Day One Hundred Thirty-Seven: "The Drop" by Alan Glynn
Day One Hundred Thirty-Eight: "Home for Christmas" by Janhavi Acherakar
Day One Hundred Thirty-Nine: "The True Story of Fresh Springs" by Gretchen McCullough
Day One Hundred Forty: "What you Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie

Day One Hundred Thirty-Three: "The Beautiful, Beautiful Heron" by Gayetni

Lessons.

A young boy becomes infatuated with the thought of owning a heron. The only way he can get one is to trade 10 cigarettes for it. To get the 10 cigarettes, he must steal. There is a brief moment in the story where he is presented with a moral dilemma but he chooses to steal. He gets the bird, and strangely, by story's end, he is forgiven and the theft is forgotten. His reward-the bird without consequences. The lesson in all of this or perhaps, the warning?

You may get away with it once but you can't expect forgiveness twice. Overall, this story read like a parable but I didn't find it convincing or persuasive. It would have been more effective in my opinion had there been some sort of punishment for theft, even if slight. Even so, it was an easy to read story and that has merit on its own.

Day One Hundred Thirty-Two: "Anxious" by Susan M. Gilbert-Collins

Faith.

A girl calls her aunt on a weekly basis to discuss her anxiety issues, most of which are centered around the various ways she worries her family will die. Carbon monoxide poisoning, riding lawn mower accidents, lightning strikes, all of these are constant worries for this young teen and her aunt is the only one who can smoothe it over...until the little girl starts going to church and learns to pray. She begins praying to God, thanking him every time one of these terrible disasters does not befall her family. However, her method gets tested in a way that she nor her family imagined when her aunt, the one she confides in, winds up with cancer.

In a story that is compelling and well written, the question of what is FAITH and whether that can be sustained in the face of the actual tragedy instead of the anticipated one at its center. Overall, I enjoyed this story and the voice used. Nice job!

Day One Hundred Thirty-One: "Minotaurs on Holiday" by Paul Mihas

Florentina, a young woman who'd grown up in Buenos Aires, tells the story of her son finding and taking up with a stray dog. There's been a crime in the community, a drag queen murdered and left to die, and that story weighs on Florentina. The subtle comparison between the two people is woven throughout the story.

At the beginning, there is the following line which serves as a sort of overview of what this story is about at is center:

"Florentina was a woman who lived in lowercase letters. The drag queen had managed to die in all caps."


I thought that line was great and it made me interested in the rest of the story and to see HOW the author would tell it. The way he turned his phrases was perfect and insightful. I really enjoyed this story.

Day One Hundred Thirty: "Herman Wouk is Alive" by Stephen King

Collisions.

Two stories literally collide in an automobile collision between a depressed woman,her friend and their 7 children and two aging poets on their way to a reading. The reader sees the desperation and hopelessness in the minivan as the two women talk about their lives back home, the jobs and men they've lost, the worry over how their futures and their kids will work out and this image stands in stark contrast to the renewed hope of the two poets who, at an old age, have found each other again and are strangely happy, a bittersweet reunion complete with roadside picnics and reading to each other in the car as they travel.

The writing was great and the story was beautiful and ironic and cruel. Crafted perfectly to make these two worlds converge, King creates a memorable story about how you never know what is waiting around the corner but you always know that something has to be coming!

The website where this story can be found is here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/herman-wouk-is-still-alive/8451/

Day One Hundred Twenty-Nine: "Fla. Boys" by Heather Sellers

Coping.

A girl recounts time spent with her alcoholic father and how those experiences with her father shaped her own experiences with various boys in her life, experiences both sexual and nonsexual in nature. In a strong and irresistible voice, this story is alive from the beginning, full of vivid detail and wit and dialogue that is flawless. I could not get enough of it. The idea that shaped the story was perfect. You take what life gives you and you make it work. Sometimes it is painful, sometimes is is pleasurable, but it is always memorable.

I absolutely LOVED this story. I will not soon forget it!

Day One Hundred Twenty-Eight: "Spring Training" by Jennine Capo Crucet

Pressure. Comparisons.

A father attends a baseball practice with his son only to find out that the small kid from the team has turned into the biggest kid on the team in the off season. These are middle school kids subjected to their parents egos and it is fascinating to watch how this story unfolds. There is talk of steroids, the divulging of off season practicing tactics, embarrassing disclosures about high school romances. All of it though works to create a sad look at what it can be like for a kid with parents who go too far.

The writing in this piece was really good and it makes me want to read more by this author.

Day One Hundred Twenty-Seven: "Leaving for Kenosha" by Richard Ford

Explanation.

A man spends an afternoon with his middle school aged daughter. It's his designated night to spend with her following his recent divorce and this particular day, while seemingly routine, is anything but ordinary. The daughter's friend is moving away to Kenosha in order for her family to escape the devastation left behind after Hurricane Katrina. The girl asks her father to take her to visit her friend, to give her a card before she leaves. The dad battles Wal-mart for his daughter, drives into a rough neighborhood for his daughter, makes references to the "black" people around them and all of it sets up a situation where there is awkwardness in his love, misunderstandings without explanation, and the daughter gets fed up, wants to move away herself.

The reader senses that this story is one of escape or longed for escape...from New Orleans, from a marriage, from a life that needs fixing. The writing was wonderful and it felt real...almost too real. You hurt for this dad. He is trying very hard to "hang in there" as the story reiterates. He is trying. That's the point.



The story can be found online here:

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/03/03/080303fi_fiction_ford?currentPage=1

Week Nineteen Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Twenty-Seven: "Leaving for Kenosha" by Richard Ford
Day One Hundred Twenty-Eight: "Spring Training" by Jennine Capo Crucet
Day One Hundred Twenty-Nine: "Fla. Boys" by Heather Sellers
Day One Hundred Thirty: "Herman Wouk is Alive" by Stephen King
Day One Hundred Thirty-One: "Minotaurs on Holiday" by Paul Mihas
Day One Hundred Thirty-Two: "Anxious" by Susan M. Gilbert-Collins
Day One Hundred Thirty-Three: "The Beautiful, Beautiful Heron" by Gayetni

Rounding out my week with a Burmese short story from 1964. Talk about awesomeness!

Day One Hundred Twenty-Six: "A Field of Rice" by Pearl S. Buck

Progress.

A man in a Chinese village challenges the newcomer in power who decides that plowing deep into the soil will yield a better rice harvest. In a story that serves as one enormous metaphor for how the abuse of power can come back to bite the one wielding it, there are flashes of brilliance in quotes like:

"Rice is as willful as woman...forget what it wants and it withers without harvest."

and

"Never slice the skin of the earth."

Overall, this story was a nice read but a little long for me considering what little actually came out of the story. Still, the writing was solid and the message clear. Progress is good but only if checked. Otherwise, destruction awaits and is inevitable.

Day One Hundred Twenty-Five: "Losses" by Libby Schmais

Compounding.

A young girl finds herself at dinner with a married man. The conversation is simple, he doesn't love her. He wants her to know that. He tells her to make it clear, to make it clear to himself mostly it seems but still, she is there and alone at the table in his presence and her night only gets worse. She discovers her wallet is missing. She goes with the man to his apartment and finds she still wants to be with him even though he doesn't want her. She doesn't understand how she feels even though she rationally knows what she should do, how she should handle it all. But it's too much, she is overwhelmed. She stays and they hug and it is enough...sadly.

I read this story as one of a girl on the verge of a mistake. She's teetering and is about to topple when the story ends. If I had to guess, I'd say she will fall. The losses otherwise are empty because without the actual experience, what is there after all to miss?

Day One Hundred Twenty-Four: "Hand" by Stephen Dixon

Self-destruction.

A college professor, angry that he didn't win an award he'd hoped to win, punches his fist through the window in his office and cuts his hand badly. The mental struggle he goes through as he deals with how to then explain what happened to his hand also what happened to his window is an interesting look into the male psyche. I rather enjoyed the back and forth, the "I'm just joking" mentality that keeps the man from truly owning what it is that he did. Even when he tells his wife about his hand, he doesn't tell her everything, the extent to which he let his anger and frustration push him into a corner that resulted in this act of violence, violence against himself.

There is a point when he reassures himself that it's all for the best, that he didn't expect to win the award in the first place but that is the only time during the story where it is clear to the reader that the narrator is fooling himself. Overall, I thought this was a good story, not great, but good enough to make me read more of this writer in the future.

Day One Hundred Twenty-Three: "Roughie" by Stewart David Ikeda

Momentous.

A young boy comes home from school to find his father in the backyard, about to shoot their family pet named "Roughie." The scene is set perfectly. It's chaotic, the boy's sisters are crying, neighbors are out watching to see what will happen, and the daddy is trying his best to keep his kids from seeing what he is about to do but the dog is in pain and maybe rabid so, there is no choice but to shoot. Shooting was the easy part. Hitting the mark was the hard part. The dog doesn't die at first and instead, the death is prolonged and difficult for the reader to observe.

Overall, this was interesting metaphor I think...sometimes, some action that seems so mindless and rational can fall apart when in close proximity to the actual act. For anyone who has ever had to shoot a dog to put it down, for anyone who has ever had to make a decision only to have it haunt you until you retreat from it, this story makes perfect sense. It makes too much sense--but being uncomfortable is what reading is about at times. This story, for that reason, was a success.

Day One Hundred Twenty-Two: "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal" by Daniel Defoe

Advantage.

A woman tells of seeing an apparition of a dead friend and finds that she can profit from the telling of her story. It sounds unbelievable but people are traveling from miles away to hear her speak, to entertain the possibility of the afterlife, the spiritual dark side. The dead woman's husband pleads with her to stop, questions her about her "visit" with the apparition but the woman won't budge. There is something powerful behind her testament, power in numbers as more and more people become interested in this tale of Mrs. Veal.

While this story for me felt like it floundered and I didn't find a clear plot to follow, I still enjoyed it. For a story written so long ago, this one was surprisingly relevant and current and had a theme that is still sort of original.

Day One Hundred Fifty: "A Last Fling, Like" by Richard Yates

Conceitedness.

A woman returns from Paris after having one last hurrah before getting married and this story is basically her telling a friend all about her trip while the two of them have coffee. Interestingly, the story is straight monologue and there is no real interaction between the two women in the story yet, the way Yates writes it, the woman across the table, the woman listening and no doubt disgusted and annoyed by her friend, is VERY present. I disliked the narrator. I'm positive Yates intended it that way. She is to be despised for her pettiness, her selfishness, and her inability to detect those things about herself.

As always, I enjoyed Yates' style and the subtle ways in which he tells it EXACTLY like it is.

Day One Hundred Twenty-One: "Sleepover" by Roxana Robinson

Degradation. Acceptance.

A man suffers the ultimate humiliation as he is forced to answer questions for the first time when his children ask where their mother goes one night a week. These "sleepovers" seem to serve as a rejuvenating force for the woman who returns each week as a new woman, a better mom, a changed spirit. But this is just the overview. The opening scene of the story sets the tone for how painful the ending will be when this father/daughter confrontation finally occurs.

A mother stands in a bathroom applying calamine lotion to her young daugther's leg to treat apparent poison ivy. The girly simply asks her mother, what happens if it itches me during the night and the mom flatly replies that the girl's father will reapply if needed. He's secondary in the mom's mind and with just that quick scene, the reader believes it too. There is more to this story that we don't know. There is more to the father that we want to know. There has to be a reason for her actions. The reader doesn't want to believe that it is as gratuitous as the story projects.

But there doesn't have to be a reason, not in the story and not in this woman's life. Once we start looking for one, we miss the bigger and more important picture. She makes a choice. It isn't a chance or random act. There is will and she is exerting it. For me, in reading the story, that idea at its core is enough.

Day One Hundred Twenty: "Monday or Tuesday" by Virginia Woolf

Exposure.

The idea of "truth" is revealed through language in this rare short short story written by the wonderful Virginia Woolf. Truth in flight, truth in the flight of a heron at sunset or at dawn. Fog glazed like sugar on the mountains in the distance, leaf light, rising smoke, ferns like feathers, images all that shape the story, drive it forward, proving what a master the reader is working with.

In just 5 paragraphs, this story opens the eyes of the reader, a flash of brilliance and beauty, so much left unsaid but cleverly so. I loved loved loved this piece, but then again, rarely has Woolf ever disappointed me.

Week Eighteen Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred Twenty: "Monday or Tuesday" by Virginia Woolf
Day One Hundred Twenty-One: "Sleepover" by Roxana Robinson
Day One Hundred Twenty-Two: "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal" by Daniel Defoe
Day One Hundred Twenty-Three: "Roughie" by Stewart David Ikeda
Day One Hundred Twenty-Four: "Hand" by Stephen Dixon
Day One Hundred Twenty-Five: "Losses" by Libby Schmais
Day One Hundred Twenty-Six: "A Field of Rice" by Pearl S. Buck

Day One Hundred Nineteen: "Excerpt from Echolation" by Myfawny Collins

Toughness.

Two women find themselves in a situation where they are responsible for their aunt's affairs after she passes, a situation that means they will have to deal with a swarm of cats that the aunt left behind. The solution: shoot the cats. This story tracks the two women's decision making processes as they come to terms with this choice. Ultimately, this story is mostly a metaphor for the idea of moving on after a loss. Sometimes it is best to simply take aim and fire. Otherwise, cowardice sets in and in the face of death, that's the last thing anyone wants to have on their backs. Written well, this story appears to be an excerpt of a larger piece and I'd definitely read more to see what other dilemmas these two women will face. Nice work.

Day One Hundred Eighteen: "Peeling" by Nathan Holic

Diversion.

A woman struggling with fertility finds a distraction away from her marital and emotional struggle. She finds herself collecting beer labels, craft beers of all kinds, and saving them, pasting them into a scrapbook. As she catalogues this minutia, the reader sees her disintegrating mental state and can't help but wonder if she will ever be successful in both removing that last unattainable beer label (a Sweetwater 420 label) and the pregnancy she and her husband so desperately want and have been trying for.

This story was well-written and compelling and a very different story than I've read before in its originality. Below is the link to the story. Enjoy.

http://necessaryfiction.com/stories/NathanHolicPeeling

Day One Hundred Seventeen: "Runs Girl" by Chinelo Okparanta

Choice.

A young girl must decide how to help her mother who needs medical attention but who doesn't have the money she needs to get it. Set in Nigeria, the story is both heartbreaking and vivid with images of the lives of the lower class and how those lives are shaped by the poverty, by the corruption around them, and by the limited options they have to overcome any of it.

There is rape, shame, and death without resolution or forgiveness, all things that work together to make this story a nice spin on a traditional theme one sees in literature often. What do we do to protect the ones we love? Are there limits? Do we dare test them? Sadly, the answers this story provides are hard ones but realistic ones. The mother dies. The girl is ruined. Life...goes on.

Day One Hundred Sixteen: "The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)" by John Varley

Community.

I loved this story. LOVED IT! Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I have to say that this was a treat and a much needed break from some of the heavier stuff I've been reading and writing lately. Even so, this story has a darkness to it that is not lost in the ease of the read.

It's basically a narrator going through the phonebook and telling the reader about listing after listing, opening secrets, sharing intimate details of the lives that are given names on the page. It is such an innovative and interesting story that by its conclusion, feels like a sort of politcal statement even. That this author could pack so much into a very short story is astounding. I'm not disappointed in the least by this one.

Now I feel compelled to pick up my own phone book and let my mind go!

A link to the story is here:

http://www.varley.net/Pages/Manhattan.htm

Day One Hundred Fifteen: "Out of the Tombs" by Madison Smartt Bell

Doom.

A man looks death in the face, literally. He's playing Chinese Checkers waiting for a class of Tai Chi to finish when there is an image approaching him, beckoning, ominous and strange. Transitioning seamlessly from reality and dream, this story was on one level disturbing but on another level, not altogether very interesting to me. I wanted to like it but I couldn't get there. I re-read the ending several times and I still feel like the story was somehow incomplete despite the vivid descriptions.

Oh well, it was still worth the read I suppose. But now, on to the next story.

Day One Hundred Fourteen: "Petty Thief" by A Yi

Will.

Two cops pursue and decide to torture an orphan who is a petty thief, his only crime, stealing sweet potatoes and cured meat. There is no explanation for their desire to torture the boy and in the end, they find themselves outsmarted by the boy when he escapes. Sadly, the escape is only temporary but there is a level of respect that is established by the mere fact of the escape itself. Ultimately, the two cops rescue the boy from a certain death as he stands on a ledge in fear of retribution.

I sense that on a metaphorical level this story is much richer than what I gathered on a quick first read. This is one I'd return to and even in translation, it is powerful and hasn't lost its strength. That alone says a lot for this story and this writer. Very nice.

Day One Hundred Thirteen: "Little Nightmares, Little Dreams" by Rachel Simon

Resignation. Hesitation.

An aging couple develops a plan to dream together and the story tracks the afternoon when the two plan to actually go through with it. Filled with memories the couple shared and moments that may seem small unless they are the moments shared between two people who love each other, this beautiful story is full of detail, both bittersweet and sweet. The fear they both have about death, about the change it will mean to both of their lives is examined in a subtle and touching way that will make any reader shed a tear or two.

This is an excerpt from the story that makes this point very well I think:

"Then and now, we keep each other from falling. That's what those talks before bed are about. Holding out our arms as we stumble through life together, working each other loose if one of us gets stuck in a bad situation."

I absolutely love this image of an elderly couple so in love with each other that they are still trying to find ways to be closer when from the story, they seem inseparable and content and very much alive and at peace with themselves and their age. I'd read this writer over and over and I look forward to finding more of her work.

Week Seventeen Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred-Thirteen: "Little Nightmares, Little Dreams" by Rachel Simon
Day One Hundred-Fourteen: "Petty Thief" by A Yi
Day One Hundred-Fifteen: "Out of the Tombs" by Madison Smartt Bell
Day One Hundred-Sixteen: "The Manhattan Phonebook (Abridged)" by John Varley
Day One Hundred-Seventeen: "Runs Girl" by Chinelo Okparanta
Day One Hundred-Eighteen: "Peeling" by Nathan Holic
Day One Hundred-Nineteen: "Excerpt from Echolation" by Myfawny Collins

This week, I'm hitting on a Chinese writer, A Yi, and a Nigerian writer, Chinelo Okparanta, to supplement my reading... should be interesting.

Day One Hundred Twelve: "Tower Street" by Pierce Butler

Decline. A man visits his mother late at night on his way home from work. It's not where he wants to go but he is obligated. So he goes and the story that unfolds is a short and heartbreaking look at a mother-son relationship on its way out.

Strangely, I seem to have included several mother-son stories in my reading this week without even knowing it. The comparisons this has allowed me to make is refreshing and unexpected. I wonder what the universe is telling me by sending me into this reading direction. I guess we'll see what next week holds in that regard.

Day One Hundred Eleven: "Something Went with Daddy" by Larry L. King

Clinging. A man observes his mother on the verge of seeming insanity following the death of his father. He witnesses her mental and emotional state unraveling while at the same time trying to keep peace in his home, a place where his wife and his mother do not see eye to eye. Interestingly, this story on the surface seems very straightforward and simple but it has a serious dark side-a father with some sort of mental illness maybe? or simply a father who truly can't swim and loses his life because of it? The reader is left to sort this out but with tons of dialogue rich in southern dialect and spice, this story is one that keeps the reader wanting to know what really happened, what it is that went away with daddy.

Day One Hundred Ten: "Withered Leaves" by Alexander Kielland

Interpretation. A man ponders on the mysteries of art, its effect on people, how easily it may be observed and digested to fit into our own needs at a given time. This man in particular muses that a particular painting he is admiring is about a young couple on the verge of falling apart. He notes how often one stares at a painting and contemplates, one's mind reverting to memories and the wistfulness that accompanies that sort of journey.

Heavy in metaphor and with fantastic lines like the ones listed below, this little Norwegian gem of a short story was a wonderful discovery.

"The only thriving thing in the whole picture is the ivy; for ivy, like sorrow, is fresh both summer and winter."

and
"And in the course of time we all come--each in his turn--to seat ourselves on the empty chair in a corner of the garden and gaze on a little cairn of withered leaves."

For anyone interested, the story can be read here: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/58175/

Day One Hundred Nine: "Theodore and the Blue Danube" by Ludwig Bemelmans

Identity. A waiter decides to change his life, saves us money, and leaves his lonely apartment one day a new man, a man with an identity that has been restructured by a simple stroke of the pen. He signs a guestbook as "Director" and all of a sudden, it's as if his life has been transformed. People treat him differently, with more respect, all because of the title he has bestowed upon himself. By story's end, he has taken the title to heart. He owns it, is living his life by it with all of the extravagances he imagined that life would entail.

This was an interesting story and it was really well written with lots of interesting details. Coming from 1936, I was amazed at how forward it was, the actual story and the writing. I enjoyed this far more than I anticipated.

Day One Hundred Eight: "I Couldn't Have Dreamed It" by Christopher Coe

Faith. Wake-up.

A woman shows up on her son's doorstep after a gypsy tells her she has one year left to live. With bags packed, she stays at her son's house for one last night and talks of the travels she is about to undertake, explaining that she had no problem spending the rest of her life with her husband, her son's father, but that she couldn't stomach spending the end of her life with him. Her son and his wife try to come to terms with his mom's decision and in turn, examine their own life together and where it is headed and why.

I will say, this story's conclusion is one of the most poignant and heartbreaking ending's I've ever read. Talk about a profound story with so many layers that I'm not sure I fully comprehended all that was going on with just one reading. Sadly, I don't know that I can read this again, not yet. It's a lot to digest, especially if you are a woman, and especially if you are a woman struggling with her own identity, with loneliness, with how to live in the midst of all of it.

Breaks my heart. I wept at this ending. That's all I can say about it for now.

Day One Hundred Seven: "Three Hundred and Forty-Five Horsepower" by Irving Shulman

Dependency.

A young lawyer drives his sports car up the east coast and picks up a "tramp" or hitchhiker on the way. Through their conversations, you get a sort of warning from the tramp about what life can throw at you and how choices you make can shape everything and you see the smug lawyer looking for ways to fix the tramp but you can see, as the reader, that the lawyer isn't really listening like he should. He's driving and he's going fast. His life seems to be on the same speed and this great excerpt illustrates just this:

"With half of his attention given to the road, because never wanted it said of him that he was a man driven by his automobile,he could still hear the monologue of the old man at his side, a monologue of many wanderings...there were countless, better to have lost count, cold showers and bars of abrasive soap in the missions, the necessity to sleep in the raw in unheated dormitories with the two legs at the head of his cot stuck into each of his miserable shoes to keep them from being stolen."

Then, in a clever twist, the young lawyers finds himself questioning whether the tramp is his own father who had abandoned him as a child. When the story concludes, the reader finds the lawyer abandoning the tramp at a restaurant and driving already guilt ridden and swearing himself to secrecy over the meeting of this man and we know he is going to drive his car into perhaps as devastating a future as the tramp had.


WOW...this story was fantastic as a whole. The metaphor being played with was perfect and subtle. I'd read more of this writer for sure.

Day One Hundred Six: "Good Sounds" by Lou Ann Walker

Interpretation.

A daughter recounts her deaf parents' engagement and marriage ceremony, their courtship and its tenderness and the care with which they entered into a life together.

I'm so in love with this writer, with how she draws me into a world of sign language and alternate expression, that I will likely read the entire collection from which this story comes. It's titled "A Loss for Words" and wow, everything in it so far is just beautiful.

Talk about a fresh perspective. A child of two deaf parents. I can only read about this but I feel so honored to do so. This story is a great start!

Week Sixteen Short Story Selections

Day One Hundred-Six: "Good Sound" by Lou Ann Walker
Day One Hundred-Seven: "Three Hundred and Forty-Five Horsepower" by Irving Shulman
Day One Hundred-Eight: "I Couldn't Have Dreamed It" by Christopher Coe
Day One Hundred-Nine: "Theodore and the Blue Danube" by Ludwig Bemelmans
Day One Hundred-Ten: "Withered Leaves" by Alexander Kielland
Day One Hundred-Eleven: "Something Went with Daddy" by Larry L. King
Day One Hundred-Twelve: "Tower Street" by Pierce Butler

Day One Hundred Five: "Conviviality" by Carol Zapata-Whelan

Immersion.

A young girl rides a train and contemplates the cultures of those around her. She listens to Spanish and to Californians acting as if their lives are of significance. It's almost as if this passenger is on some sort of existential journey without realizing it and when the story concludes, the train has stopped and the world is waiting for her.

Is it a social scene she is ready for or is it a social scene at all? Her identity is in question and she is okay with that. Otherwise, the reader doesn't see much else into her mind. I'm not sure I liked the ending because it felt a little too abrupt and left me with a lot of questions. However, the dialogue was authentic and it really moved the piece along. I'd read more of this author.

Day One Hundred Four: "Things We Do Not Want to Hear" by Marcela Carbajo

Avoidance.

A woman suffering from depression gets out of bed and tries to make tea. She tries. That is all she can offer her husband who is apparently not buying in to illness but who is in effect ignoring it. When he tells her he doesn't want to hear what she has to say to him at a moment where the reader can see the woman is about to perhaps make a breakthrough, the husband tells her he knows that what she has to say "will hurt" so he chooses to NOT hear it, thereby condemning her to ONLY hear the very things she can't say...the very things that might just set her free.

This was a sad look at marital communications but it was spot on. We only hear what we want to hear. There is a reason for that.

Day One Hundred Three: "Hands" by Sherwood Anderson

Grotesque.

A man is troubled and paranoid about the size of his hands. He keeps them in his pockets, scared of the looks he'll receive if he removes them and waves them in the air while he talks. He is a man who is defined by this feature and his self-consciousness has made him isolated and lonely.

The story ends with him pacing the floorboards of his porch, looking into the night for someone who won't run away...he is lost to himself and the saddest part is that he knows it.

Day One Hundred Two: "The Backward Fall" by Jason Helmandollar

Coping.

A man observes his wife as she struggles with dementia, moving fluidly between different times in her life, between memories that include him, lead up to him, and some that sadly leave him behind. The reader gets the sense that the marriage, albeit a long one, has had its rocky turns but, in the end, the man is still there. He's more than just an observer. He spends his days coping, allowing her to slip away, documenting in his mind her deterioration whether he wants to or not.

This is a story about love, love challenged and love that persists despite it all. Rich in dialogue, the reader can't help but get caught up in the life of this couple. But what a place for us to begin. So sad.

Day One Hundred One: "She" by Charles Kaufmann

Control.

A female protagonist challenges the authority of her author and refuses to remain the "she" in the story. She wants a name, and to get it she forges her own identity and this story cleverly shows how control can define a person, particularly a female. I thought the voice was clear and the point being made was subtle.

What an interesting read this was and a nice change from the stories I've been reading up to this point.

Day One Hundred: "A Still Life" by Ruth Harris

Suspension of Disbelief.

A lesbian couple deals with the discovery that one of the women has breast cancer. This beautiful look at the horrors that follow from detection to treatment to the fear that simply never goes away is memorable and frightening. There are several lines from this story that hit you when you read them but this one sticks out and is worth including here:

"How strange it is, when moving away from the equilibrium of small changes, that extreme good luck, as well as bad, seems to be a given."

This story had a fantastic closing line too which I won't put here for fear of spoiling it for the reader. Needless to say, I'm pleased with my 100th day story selection for sure.

Day Ninety-Nine: "Grief" by Anton Chekhov

Too Late.

A man, after 40 years of marriage, finally decides to show his wife some attention and takes off on a trek to find her medical treatment. But he ventures out into the snow, into the dark, and he only thinks about his horse once he's on his way, the way the cold hits him in the face, the way the horse struggles to walk as the ground beneath them thickens with heavy flakes.

As the story concludes, the man realizes his wife has frozen to death and he is struck by the irony of losing her at a time when he finally cared enough NOT to lose her. While this story was a tad difficult to get into, by its end I felt myself spiralling out of control with the narrator and also felt that sometimes, it's all just a little bit too little...too late.

Week Fifteen Short Story Selections

This is a big week with day 100 on the list...I can't believe it's finally here. I hope my pick for that day will warrant that place on my list. Here are the picks:

Day Ninety-Nine: "Grief" by Anton Chekhov
Day One Hundred: "A Still Life" by Ruth Harris
Day One Hundred-One: "She" by Charles Kaufmann
Day One Hundred-Two: "The Backward Fall" by Jason Helmandollar
Day One Hundred-Three: "Things We Do Not Want to Hear" by Marcela Carbajo
Day One Hundred-Four: "Hands" by Sherwood Anderson
Day One Hundred-Five: "Conviviality" by Carol Zapata-Whelan

All of these stories can be found online at http://www.short-stories.co.uk/

Day Ninety-Eight: "My Name is Electra" by Joanna Leyland

Innocence.

A little girl idolizes her father and is blinded by that, unable to see how she is being manipulated already by observing his relationship to her mother. Her father is sexist and openly so and the little girl is seen applauding him, calling him her hero. There's such an innocence to her voice, to the headlong way in which she loves her father and relishes in his jokes at her mother's expense, and as a reader, you want to see more. You want to believe that the little girl will not always be this way.

Day Ninety-Seven: "La Lupa" by Giovanni Verga

Destruction.

A man is cursed by the allure of a she-wolf, a prostitute, a woman who seems determined to destroy him with the evils of her body. She ensnares him after he pushes her away by offering her daughter and her dowry. He accepts and gets much more than he bargains for. By story's end, he is committed to killing her in order to rid himself of the constant hunger, the preoccupation with something so vile but he can't do it. Her eyes and unrelenting love are all he sees.

Day Ninety-Six: "Counterparts" by James Joyce

Futility.

A man laments his job, the meaninglessness of it as he waits for quitting time so he can meet his friends afterward for drinks. But, on this day, he stands up to his boss and likely will lose his job but he's okay with that as soon as the post-work day alcohol kicks in.

Interestingly, this story takes a sad and revealing twist toward the end when the man's mood spirals downward as he watches those around him who are truly carefree. He notices women and he notices them not noticing him. He can't handle it and ultimately, he goes home and takes out the frustration on his son.

The ending of this story is brutal. I'm quite impressed by this James Joyce find. I was not disappointed.

my own short story

1,651 words...good words...a story I've fought telling for some reason but that I now can't get enough of.

There is a voice. That voice is mine, mine as it was when I was just shy of 7 years old, and it's that voice that is telling me to keep going this time. My grown up self will have to wait a while. I'm starting to realize that I don't mind this so much. That scares me, as it should, but I'm writing and the words are coming and coming fast. There's no need to complain and no room for it.

For now, I'm happy to spend time with me, the little girl me. We'll see where it goes!

Day Ninety-Five: "The Lolita School" by Brock Clarke

Depravity.

An instructor of an all girls' school where students are being taught to become "lolitas" in the Nabokov fashion narrates this story, shares with the reader what it's like to create these little monsters. There is a line that somehow doesn't get crossed with the storytelling even in how clearly disturbing it is and is reminiscent of the way Nabokov achieves the same thing in his masterpiece.

Overall, I found this story interesting even if very little happened. I could see that this piece was about pushing limits and by story's end, I found myself wishing it had pushed them a little bit more.

Day Ninety-Four: "Sam Weller Makes his Bow" by Charles Dickens

Dialogue.

I don't know what to say about this story other than...it's classic Dickens. For me, the story lagged, had too much dialogue that didn't advance the story and even then, the dialogue was so full of some sort of German dialect that it made it difficult to read entire passages.

I did it and I don't feel like I wasted my time doing it. Still, this reminds me why I don't read much of good ole Charles Dickens. It's just too much.

Day Ninety-Three: "Jeffrey, Believe Me" by Jane Smiley

Explanations.

A woman drugs her gay male friend in hopes of getting him into bed. She wants a child and she knows he won't agree to it, at least not any time soon. So, rather than keep waiting or embarrassing herself by asking him about it and getting rejected, she drugs him with marijuana brownies and then has her way with him though in truth, she doesn't remember much about the encounter herself by the time it's all over.

Told from her perspective as a sort of apology to this man, she is pondering where he might be as it is apparent by story's end that her efforts were a success. She is pregnant and alone. I couldn't help but wonder myself if it is what she really wanted after all.

This story was strong in voice and the author sustained it throughout the story. I'd read more Jane Smiley for sure after reading this story.

Day Ninety-Two: "Gathering Highland Moss" by Jonas Hallgrimsson

Storytelling.

A boy and his sister gather moss on the side of a mountain. During their journey, the sister tells her brother stories and when the story concludes and the two of them are huddled against the mountain to avoid a rockslide, the story takes a turn. It became something more than a mere depiction and instead, became a reflection of something bigger, of the life outside of these two that the reader knows they will be returning to.

Interestingly, this is the first Icelandic story I've read (and it is supposedly the first Icelandic short story ever written) and I read it in translation, a link to which is below. Overall, I thought the writing was solid and the story was layered in a way that made me wish there'd been more. A sibling rivalry on the literal rocks. Need I say more?


http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/jonas/Gras/Gras.html

Week Fourteen Short Story Selections

Day Ninety-Two: "Gathering Highland Moss" by Jónas Hallgrímsson
Day Ninety-Three:"Jeffrey, Believe Me" by Jane Smiley
Day Ninety-Four: "Sam Weller Makes his Bow" by Charles Dickens
Day Ninety-Five: "The Lolita School" by Brock Clarke
Day Ninety-Six: "Counterparts" by James Joyce
Day Ninety-Seven: "La Lupa" by Giovanni Verga
Day Ninety-Eight: "My Name is Electra" by Joanna Leyland

Day Ninety-One: "The Canvasser's Tale" by Mark Twain

Gullible.

A man buys "echoes" from a canvasser who weaves a tale about his uncle who collected echoes after all of his other efforts at collecting failed him. Overall, this story was well told but I don't really care for the story. Perhaps there is a deeper meaning I am missing or maybe, it's just that the story really is about how believing people can be or rather how willing we are to suspend belief for the sake of a great story.

In any event, this still serves as vintage Mark Twain and for that, it's worth taking a look.

Day Ninety: "You Mother was a Fish" by A.M. Homes

Identity. Confusion.

A woman is transformed into a mermaid but then cuts a seam down the middle of her tail to create legs, the area between her legs deemed therefore magical and mysterious. She becomes part of a carnival of sorts and spawns strange children with their own physical "traits" that differ from other children. One daughter is born with an elongated pointer finger with an eye at the tip through which thread could be run, as if her finger were a needle. This story was strange from the start and it only got stranger as it went.

I can't say I really enjoyed this story or that I understood it but I can say it is one I'll not soon forget. I have to give the author credit for that.

Day Eighty-Nine: "The White Water-Lily" by Stephane Mallarme

Ethereal.

A man rows his boat along a waterway, traveling to pay his last respects to the family of a deceased friend. He envisions a woman standing on the bank as he approaches his destination and he imagines what their conversations would be lack, a connection with some other being that he seems to clearly long for, longs for to the point of hallucinating.

The story ends with no resolution other than that the reader is left to be content with this man's madness. We are content with it because we understand it, the solitude that drives one to see things that aren't there.

Even in its translation from the original French, this story is beautiful and a delight to read.

Day Eighty-Eight: "Two Words" by Isabel Allende

Gifted.

A woman sells her words to individuals, selling speeches, farewells, introductions, anything she is asked to do but, if the person pays a certain amount of money, she gives the person a bonus. She gives the person a word, one word, a word that she will only give to that one person and that will be unique to the individual. The word, her unique word, is said to be in its way, magical. As the story progresses, the reader sees the woman manipulating her world with these words, ultimately luring and capturing the man she wants.

It is an interesting story that is full of rich allegory. For the most part, I really enjoyed it and appreciated what it was the author was doing with the story even if I wanted a little more from it by the conclusion. Even so, I still keep thinking about it.

Can words have that kind of power, a power over love, over life, over longing? I'd like to believe so.

Day Eighty-Seven: "In the Fifties" by Leonard Michaels

Cadence.

This story was all about rhythm, the line by line movement of a decade of a man's life. With strong and uniquely personal imagery, this story keeps the reader engaged and it also forces the reader to re-read passages just to feel it, to get caught up in it.

Passages like the following are good examples of how this story "flows" and why the flow of it works to keep the reader hooked:

"Eventually I had friends in New York, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Berkeley, & Los Angeles"

"I knew one who, before picking up his dates, ironed his dollar bills and powdered his testicles"

"I had a friend who was dragged down a courthouse stairway, in San Francisco, by her hair"

Any of these lines, if read aloud, not only read well, but the cadence of the line literally pulls the reader along, through the sentence and onto the next one. There's an urgency to this rhythm that I find refreshing and mesmerizing. It says, take me with you. Take me with you. As the reader, there is no hesitation.

Day Eighty-Six: "Water Liars" by Barry Hannah

Storytelling.

WHAT A STORY!

A man heads off to a fishing camp with a buddy to get away from his newfound jealousy over his wife's history with former lovers. He doesn't understand himself, why he's so hurt, but he heads off anyway. On the pier, he and his friend meet up with some other fisherman and they sit around and drink, telling stories from their past, a true scene of "bullshitting" among southern men, business men who want to feel country for just a while, country...again.

Then, as the story concludes, one man tells a story that is shocking to the rest of the bunch and that he told the story at all is what is most shocking. There's no shame in it. There's only hurt, a humiliation he still can't shake after more than 20 years. The truth of his story though turns the fishing trip into a trip of reflection, into a bonding of kindred spirits, all of them searching for answers to something but only the remaining three men willing to tackle the possibility of the truth.

GREAT GREAT story...wonderful voice. I'd read more of this author for sure!

(a link to the story online is here: http://gardenandgun.com/article/water-liars-barry-hannah )

Day Eighty-Five: "Lofty" by Ann Beattie

Returns.

A woman thinks back on a memory from her marriage that ended 10 years earlier and finds herself climbing a tree in the yard of her old home. She's at the wedding of her daughter, and that celebration juxtaposed with the obvious failure of her own marriage makes this story sad and honest and oddly hopeful. Her ex-husband arrives, tries to woo her down from the tree, and there's a moment when she is vulnerable again and the reader sees that perhaps that is what she'd lost that maybe destroyed their marriage.

Still, there is hope even if the woman doesn't see it. The story concludes with an embrace. It's nice to think that the ruins of a marriage can end that way.

Week Thirteen Short Story Selections

Day Eighty-Five: "Lofty" by Ann Beattie
Day Eighty-Six: "Water Liars" by Barry Hannah
Day Eighty-Seven: "In the Fifties" by Leonard Michaels
Day Eighty-Eight: "Two Words" by Isabel Allende
Day Eighty-Nine" "The White Water-Lily" by Stephane Mallarme
Day Ninety: "Your Mother was a Fish" by A.M. Homes
Day Ninety-One: "The Canvasser's Tale" by Mark Twain

Day Eighty-Four: "The Kangaroo" by Eva Sallis

Alien.

A group of young Arab-Australians encounter a strange animal on their journey into the country outside of Victoria, Australia after not being in the country for very long. The reader quickly learns that it is a kangaroo and there is something ominous about the collision between the animal and the vehicle that for me was reminiscent of the mighty albatross from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

This was an interesting story from a perspective I hadn't read yet. The Lebanese diaspora. Australia and its open arms. Yet still, some things are still foreign and this story highlights what happens when such differing worlds literally collide.

Day Eighty-Three: "Three Hearts" by Deborah Joy Corey

Hidden.

A mother awakens on a snowy morning sickened by her lost son, the one who hasn't come home after a night out drinking. She neglects her two younger children, a boy and a girl and when she takes sleeping pills and decides to take a nap and sleep off her frustration and depression over the oldest son's disappointing choices, she sends her young kids off into the morning snow to play. Their dad is at work, working a snow plow and little do they know that the day is about to go wrong.

The children get lost in the snow as the day continues and the sky lets loose dropping thick flakes into the sky and onto the ground, burying them even moreso as their father passes by without seeing them and dumps enough snow onto them to cover the brother. He's lost. The sister goes for help. Luckily, the mom makes it in time. Luckily.

Even so, this story is the perfect example of how sometimes you get a second chance even if undeserved. But it is also a warning...you can only get so lucky so many times. Mistakes are always teetering on the edge of devastation, waiting to end it all.

Day Eighty-Two: "Flies" by Robley Wilson

Revenge.

A man battles swarming flies and a bitter lover in a Canadian farmhouse. This story was creepy, touching, unpredictable, and memorable in the way the language moves the reader from scene to scene as the insects and the lover, both relentless and inconsiderate, literally take over and force the hand of the narrator.

He's a man trying to make the best of a bad situation and when the story concludes, you get the sense that things will only continue to get worse before they get better. I've never read an ending that made my skin crawl like this one did. I'll never look at a housefly in the same way.

479

New Words! Just keeping track here, glad to feel the rush of fiction, the creation of it. I'm reading a ton but I can't let go of this.

Daily. Daily. Daily.

Day Eighty-One: "Cattle Haul" by Jesmyn Ward

Voice.

I haven't read a story in a long time where the voice was this good! WOW!

A young man hauls cattle cross country in order to make enough money to repair his well at his house. The story follows him in the present as he makes stop after stop on his journey but it also shows us glimpses into his past so the reader can understand why it is that this journey is perhaps different, a trip to end all road trips.

In a voice that is easily readable, authentic, and vivid, Jesmyn Ward keeps the reader locked into the story from the start. In the end, it's about the night, the drive, and the trip back home. Who is there waiting for the trucker to return? The reader is dying to know.

GREAT!!!!!

Day Eighty: "The Field of Blue Children" by Tennessee Williams

Whimsy.

A young college student can't commit to a relationship and instead dates frat boy after frat boy until she meets Homer, a young poet at her college. He writes poetry that only she understands or either she is the only person he feels comfortable with his poetry. Either way, he takes her to a field of blue flowers...the "blue children" as referenced in the title. She comes alive there, finds herself with him but quickly, soon after, she leaves Homer, tells him she is marrying someone else.

However, as the story concludes, the reader finds her driving out into the night in search of this field of blue flowers. She left a note for her husband and even she doesn't know why she is doing it.

This was a great story and was Williams' first short story. I'm glad I found it for inclusion in my blog! Memorable for sure!

Day Seventy-Nine: "Woman on a Plane" by Andre Dubus

Starting.

WOW!!!!!!!

A woman, a lonely poet, travels on a plane to visit her dying brother. He's two years older and he doesn't fear death the way she fears the flight to see him. But she knows it's time to tell him that she is scared, finally. He has given up on his fears as she embraces hers.

Her brother tells her "Fear is a ghost; Embrace your fears and all you'll see in your arms is yourself." This is so great and as the story continues and she is on her flight home after a visit, she is hunched in her seat, belt fastened around her waist and she is hugging herself tight until the plane lands. I'm not sure exactly what to say about this other than it was brilliant and will be a story I remember for a very long time. It's easily one of my favorites I've read this year.

I read every word of it aloud. Fantastic Stuff!!

Week Twelve Short Story Selections

Day Seventy-Eight: "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde
Day Seventy-Nine: "Woman on a Plane" by Andre Dubus
Day Eighty: "The Field of Blue Children" by Tennessee Williams
Day Eighty-One: "Cattle Haul" by Jesmyn Ward
Day Eighty-Two: "Flies" by Robley Wilson
Day Eighty-Three: "Three Hearts" by Deborah Joy Corey
Day Eighty-Four: "The Kangaroo" by Eva Sallis

Day Seventy-Eight: "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde

Lessons.

Told in parable/fable form, this story is about a giant whose garden dies and doesn't blossom even in the Spring and Summer after he has put up a wall and banned all the children. Ultimately of course, he comes to realize what has happened, how his selfishness and his unwillingness to be vulnerable has left him alone and cold. He knocks down the wall, invites the children back in, and the flowers and trees bloom once more.

I liked this but the ending was a bit strange to me, particularly because it was truly a children's story until that point. However, when a child returns as an adult with stigmata on its hands and feet, I was thrown off as it came out of nowhere. I guess it could be interpreted as Wilde's attempt at touching on the vulnerability that comes with giving one's self to a religious belief but in light of the rest of the story, I'm not sure. It left me puzzled but even so, this was an enjoyable read and quite unexpected. I approve!

Day Seventy-Seven: "A Skyline Turkey" by Richard Stratton

Precedent.

An inmate nicknamed "Big Bird" climbs the water tower in the center of a penal compound and refuses to come down until his demands are met. His fellow inmates recount the man's loneliness, the mystery of this loner who has decided, and in face of the punishment that is bound to come, to wait it out, to challenge authority all for the sake of, as it turns out, a Big Mac sandwich.

This story for me was actually really beautiful and sad and the humor of the piece, which was ample, was needed in my opinion to offset the true hopelessness felt by these men that is seen in the way they plod through their daily routines and gossip like country club women might do about things as mundane as sweeping and changing of jail cells and rec yard politics.

Overall, I liked this enough to read more by Richard Stratton. That says a lot.

Day Seventy-Six: "I Don't Love You Anymore" by Joseph Heller

Concession.

A young couple deals with the aftermath of a soldier's return home after the war. A man tells his bride who had spent months alone while he was away that he doesn't love her anymore and the reader quickly sees that he is lying. He is lying to himself and to her and it's what he wants to do. It's easier that way. The concluding scene of this story is wonderful and sweet and gives the reader hope that things as simple as a pitcher of beer can sometimes make things alright. However, the undertone of the story is the fear that "alright" is only temporary.

Day Seventy-Five: "The Stockholm Syndrome" by Maxine Chernoff

Assumptions.

This story in my view is near perfect. There were few spared words as the narrator, a woman in her late 60's, tells of a friend who has left the comforts of their town and their book club, to live across the country in San Francisco with a mystery man. From an encounter with the woman's son and his male lover to an exploration into what made her friend leave in the first place, the narrator shows us that some things are not what they seem and that there is always someone out there who knows more about any given situation than you may think you know.

Falling in love with one's captor was an interesting thread throughout the story and Chernoff handles it by saying...there are all kinds of love...I suppose. It's that "I suppose" that makes the story work, lets the reader into the mind of the narrator and into the minds of her book club women. They were reading about Patty Hearst and now one of them has in effect become her. I wonder what book they'll choose next!

Day Seventy-Four: "Escapes" by Ann Hood

Tests.

A woman deals with her fourteen year old niece when her sister-in-law abandons her. The girl is a cutter and a thief and she doesn't know that her father had committed suicide while in prison when she was just four years old. The story is about revealing secrets, coming to terms with the truth no matter the consequences, and about "sticking it out" as the narrator points out.

The concluding scene where the aunt and niece are touring Alcatraz and imagining what life in solitary confinement would be like is a perfect image for the situation the two characters find themselves in.

How to escape...where to go if you do!

I really liked this one...I'll read more Ann Hood for sure.

310

New Words! I'm striving for at least 250-500 words a day this week and so far, I'm on track which feels great. Here's a little bit of tonight's writing:



I had nodded to say “I understand,” a nod in affirmation of the resolve he’d begun to love me for and need me for. But what he didn’t see in that nod was the fear, the scary certainty I had that my nod would make sure that his plans could come to fruition and that the drugs he’d come to rely on for his writing were merely a phone call away. My nod on that day told him I’d take care of everything. Suddenly I wonder if my nod will work on him anymore.

Day Seventy-Three: "The Rose and the Skull" by Alan Cheuse

Devotion.

Georgia O'Keeffe contemplates her life's work, her commitment to the daily grind of writing, her failing eyesight, her aging and the way it has both destroyed her and enlivened her to do her best work. It was beautifully told and has several memorable metaphors to show the reader not only what she feels but how she puts her feelings into the images she paints. Below is a quote that I felt was pretty great and serves as an example of this point:

"No matter how steady you are, no matter how fierce in your devotion to work, a certain sorrow creeps in, a tinge of sadness, in many ways natural, like the coating of pollen on your hand when you brush against a flower in certain seasons."

I finished this story and felt the need to get back to my fiction writing full speed. Time is time and it's passing even as I sit here typing this post. My hands, coated in pollen...my fingers typing to get clean.

Day Seventy-Two: "Georgie Porgie" by Rudyard Kipling

Mistrust.

A Burmese woman marries Georgie Porgie with visions of grandeur, of what her life will be with him when ultimately, she only wants to be free of her life in Burma. She contemplates the loose love life of Georgie and accepts it as her fate in a way. She is good enough. She can handle it. Embracing those things gives her power and takes it away from him. He doesn't know it and that is the beauty of this story.

What a nice job by a heavyweight!


You can read this story here:

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2428/

Looking Ahead

So...Monday April 9, 2012 will be Day 100 in my short story a day for 2012 reading. I'm debating on what to choose for that day and it's really the only short story so far that I'm putting this much forethought into. To be where I am in the year, I'm proud that I've continued in my efforts and delighted that I haven't grown bored with the project. On the contrary, I'm loving it and am excited week by week when I make my story selections to experience something new, someone new, to get a little taste of what Sartre referred to as "loaded pistols" when I read the words on the page that could have just as easily been written for me alone as for the reading population as a whole.

I'll keep thinking on this as the coming weeks tick away but I'm always open to suggestions. I just know that I have to do the 100th day justice. I may even surprise myself!

Day Seventy-One: "Propriety" by Bret Lott

Grief.

A man wakes up months after his wife's death and realizes that it's the first day of a new kind of mourning. He doesn't sense her in their house anymore. She's suddenly yet gradually been reduced to objects like her hairspray, her vitamins, her clothes still hanging in her closet. Does he go to work anyway, after waking to this realization? Does he try and move on, take another step in the direction of having a new life? Can he even say what it is that is happening to him on that morning? What if he does? Will she disappear from him forever?

This was a beautiful story about how one deals with grief after a tragic loss. Set in Charleston in the summer, the narrator is drenched in heat and humidity and yet there is an iciness to his demeanor and his approach to it all until the very end where we find him sitting in a chair on his porch whispering his wife's name into the morning air.

I absolutely loved this story. Beautiful and sad but not melodramatic. A must read in my opinion!

Week Eleven Short Story Selections

Day Seventy-One: "Propriety" by Bret Lott
Day Seventy-Two: "Georgie Porgie" by Rudyard Kipling
Day Seventy-Three: "The Rose and the Skull" by Alan Cheuse
Day Seventy-Four: "Escapes" by Ann Hood
Day Seventy-Five: "The Stockholm Syndrome" by Maxine Chernoff
Day Seventy-Six: "I Don't Love You Anymore" by Joseph Heller
Day Seventy-Seven: "A Skyline Turkey" by Richard Stratton

This week, mixing in some classics with some lesser known contemporary short story writers. Should be interesting!

Day Seventy: "When the Light Gets Green" by Robert Penn Warren

Heritage.

A boy remembers his grandfather in all of his "glory" and shame, harvesting tobacco, bullying his negro workers, not truly loving anyone until he's on the verge of death after having a stroke. The story is vivid and you can see the grandfather perfectly with his nicotine-tinged moustache as well as his tendency to expound on the working of field of tobacco or corn.

Touching and nostalgic, this short story was a nice story to conclude my week. The writing was really wonderfully simple but complete.

Day Sixty-Nine: "Recollection" by Guy de Maupassant

Thought.

A man sees a young woman and is taken back in time, remembers a dark night marching through the snow with his troop and having to carry a woman to her safety on a stretcher. I'm not sure how I felt about this story. It was well written but it seemed somehow unfinished. There was snow. There was marching. There was the shooting of 12 uhlans (the word for a soldier carrying a lance that is part of a cavalry) and even that was without much explanation or even suggestion.

This was a snapshot of one's past that I can't connect to the narrator's present. There's just not enough here in my opinion. I'm sorry that this story fell flat for me particularly when I had hopes it would be so much more.

Day Sixty-Eight: "A Marriage of Persuasion" by Susan Petigru King

Surrender.

A young woman challenges convention in the late 1800's and refuses to marry the man her family has chosen for her. Well, she refuses at first. This story tracks poor Anna as she fights the "good fight" and argues with her mother over marrying for love versus marrying for money.

Ultimately, Anna loses and as the story ends, her mother is more than simply pleased. She is almost overjoyed that not only does her daughter have wealth and prestige, but that she herself has won, as if her beliefs have been vindicated by her daughter's decision to give in to her mother's choice.

This story read to me as many other stories of the time did on this topic...with the exception of the closing paragraph that is, a paragraph about poor Anna's capacity any longer for love. It reads as follows:

"Is this grand automaton really dead, or does a heart, young and still untouched, lurk--strong, free and dangerous--in that quiet unmoved and stately figure?"

This is a story that I'd venture may not be published today but for its place in history, I commend it and its author. She took a risk but this story shows it paid off.

Day Sixty-Seven: "Tchaikovsky's Bust" by Josip Novakovich

Wonderment.

A writer takes his family (wife, son and 3 year old daughter) to a ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, and he finds himself entranced by a young Siberian woman next to him. She speaks good English having been an exchange student in Texas during high school yet he has a series of somewhat secretive conversations with her in German.

He exchanges email addresses with the budding female college student. He imagines an erotic encounter with her but ultimately, that is where his imaginings stop. His wife though, as the story opens, makes it clear that he is a philanderer and the reader, I believe, is left to believe that rather than showing his strength in not pursuing this young girl, we are to see the writer as vulnerable, a man who clearly has faults but even with those faults, he is someone who can be overcome with feeling and longing when the choice to be faithful is only partially in his hands.

I really liked the writing of this author and would read more. The story flew by and it is one I'll remember for the metaphor of Tchaikovsky's bust mounted on a cemetery wall. It is part of one of those scenes, that pivotal climax of a story, that stays with you.

Day Sixty-Six: "Hi! Howya Doin!" by Joyce Carol Oates

Preoccupation.

A jogger encounters other joggers on a morning run near a university and mentally sizes up several people, their desires, their disappointments, their annoyances, and all of it centered around the intrusion of someone speaking a greeting as silly as "Hi! Howya Doin!"

This story was told in stream of consciousness style and there were no periods to separate thoughts which made the story fly by and made the ending, where the jogger shoots an oncoming jogger in the face, both abrupt and fitting.

What an interesting read!

Day Sixty-Five: "The Rudolf Family Does Good Works" by Jakob Arjouni

Misled.

The story opens with a lie. A man tells a nosy neighbor in his apartment building that a certain man who is coming and going from his unit is an "uncle" who also happens to be a German of Russian origin. That lie turns into another one when the man's wife is questioned as to whether this immigrant she is housing pays rent. With one cover up after another, this story was an entertaining look at the life of a German couple trying to keep to themselves and that because of what was a seemingly harmful untruth, they wind up spiralling into chaos and deceit.

For me this read as a fresh and unique way of showing how no lies are little nor white!! The writing was top notch!

Day Sixty-Four: "Talk to the Music" by Arna Bontemps

Rhythm.

There is power in music. The narrator in this story, a young man who has searched out and found a renowned blues singer in Louisiana, ponders what this singer means, what has inspired her to sing the way she does, with the pain that she does. It's a touching scene at the end when the young man finally gets the chance to listen to Mayme perform. He is struck by the emotion in her, by the emotion her voice evokes in him.

"Fallen angels could never have wailed like this, no matter how they grieved over parardise."

It's a rather perfect description of the effect of listening to music, particularly blues music. Bontemps is obviously a fan. Now I am one of his writing and I'm glad I stumbled onto him.

Week Ten Short Story Selections

Day Sixty-Four: "Talk to the Music" by Arna Bontemps
Day Sixty-Five: "The Rudolf Family Does Good Works" by Jakob Arjouni
Day Sixty-Six: "Hi! Howya Doin!" by Joyce Carol Oates
Day Sixty-Seven: "Tchaikovsky's Bust" by Josip Novakovich
Day Sixty-Eight: "A Marriage of Persuasion" by Susan Petigru King
Day Sixty-Nine: "Recollection" by Guy de Maupassant
Day Seventy: "When the Light Gets Green" by Robert Penn Warren

Day Sixty-Three: "A Telephone Call" by Dorothy Parker

Suffering.

A woman questions God about why a lover hasn't called her at the time he said he'd call. The pleading and negotiating she does which is clearly inner dialogue is painfully realistic and honest and it exposes the vulnerable side of every woman when she is in the first phase of a relationship.

Will he call?
Should I call him?
What will he think if I call him?
Will he hate me if I call?
How long should I wait for his call?
What happens if he doesn't call?
Why didn't he call?

WOW, Dorothy Parker really blew me away with this story. It was made more potent with its brevity and with an ending that leaves the reader counting down the seconds until the woman makes a decision and answers her own questions.

My guess about the ultimate resolution?

She calls.
He doesn't answer.


Here is a link:
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/teleycal.html

Day Sixty-Two: "A Horseman in the Sky" by Ambrose Bierce

Delirium.

A soldier in the Civil War contemplates an apparition of a horsemen in the sky and the reader wonders whether it is in fact a ghost or the delirium of this soldier that is creating this wild horse and its rider. Shots are fired by one soldier, one soldier hides in the bushes at the base of a cliff and with each scenario, I was struck more than anything by the language used.

Somehow, Bierce managed to use the words "accoutrement" and "bivouac" and for that I applaud him. Overall though, this story didn't do it for me. Even so, I'd give him another chance.

Day Sixty-One: "One of These Days" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Cunning.

A dentist pulls the abcessed wisdom tooth of a crooked town mayor without using anesthesia. There was pleasure gained by the dentist in the pain he was both delivering and relieving by removing the tooth this way and the reader understands exactly how this can happen.

Retribution is its own relief. For this short story that comes in under 1,000 words, there is much to be examined and considered. Nice!


Here is a link to the story:

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/ootdays.html

Day Sixty: "The End of the Party" by Graham Greene

Unavoidable.

Twin brothers prepare for a birthday party where there will inevitably be played a game of Hide and Seek in the dark. Francis Morton is deathly afraid of the darkness, of being scared in it, of the anticipation of being suddenly found with no warning or way to brace for it. For me, this was a strange short story and not what I expected from Graham Greene. It didn't have the fluidity that some of his longer works do and it also left me feeling cheated by the end when the reader discovers that Francis Morton has died from apparent shock at the hands of his brother, Peter, who was only trying to assure him, comfort him through the darkness.

Perhaps this was an exercise in imagery and foreshadowing that warrants further evaluation but I'm not sure I really want to read the story again to even try. Over all, this was a low point for me in reading short stories so far this year. Even with tones of sweetness and innocence, this piece didn't rise to the level of making me care, of making me fear right along with these young twin brothers. The story had potential...sadly, I don't feel it delivered.

Here is a link to the story online:

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/EndParty.html

Day Fifty-Nine: "A Diamond Guitar" by Truman Capote

Escape.

An inmate arrives to a small southern prison and he brings with him a diamond faced guitar. Immediately, an older gentlemen, Mr. Schaeffer, takes to this interesting musician and they soon become lovers in addition to being friends. When the story concludes, Mr. Schaeffer is helping his young cell mate escape but he trips and breaks his ankle and doesn't make it out with his lover. Instead, he spends his days in the prison, the proud owner of the diamond guitar that was left behind, and the "hero" who tried to prevent an escape.

This story felt like it was told in the first person and it was only in the last couple of pages that I became aware of the fact that I was wrong. Capote writes it so well and with paragraphs like this, you can't help but acknowledge the genius that was his.

"Until that moment, he had not been lonesome. Now, recognizing his loneliness, he felt alive. To be alive was to remember brown rivers where the fish run, and sunlight on a lady's hair."

What a great few sentences!!!

Day Fifty-Eight: "A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin

Motherhood. Transformation.

A mother finds herself in possession of extra money and contemplates how to spend it. There's enough to buy fabric to make new clothes for her children and she imagines how lovely her family would look because of her hard work and selflessness. But then, while sitting at a department store counter to make her purchase, she notices a display of silk stockings of different colors and feels.

Soon, she has purchased the stockings and then a pair of shoes and she feels great, a little bit free. She hides in the changing room and puts the stockings on, depositing her cotton ones in her shopping bag. She's a new woman. Then she has gloves fitted for her hands and she takes lunch in a quiet cafe where the women are alive and interesting and there's music in the background instead of children's calls and she feels invigorated. She ends her day at the movies where she cries and eats chocolates and becomes a woman that perhaps she has put aside or has not been able to become. Either way, when the story concludes, she is waiting for the cable car and wishing it would never have to stop, that it would carry her far away, on and on into a future that she knows she'll likely never have.

This story is a moving look at the contradictions that exist for moms and no one does it better than Kate Chopin.

Day Fifty-Seven: "The Letter" by Bernard Malamud

Awareness.

In this story, Malamud gives the reader a look at madness, both realized and unrealized. The main character, Newman, visits his father every week in an asylum and is confronted by a resident who wants Newman to mail a letter for him. But the letter is blank. It has always blank, has been blank for years and every week the conversation ensues wherein Newman asks about the recipient of the letter and the content or rather, the letter's lack thereof.

When the story concludes, the reader is left questioning WHO it is that is mad or if anyone can be labelled that. Brilliant!!!

Week Nine Short Story Selections

Day Fifty-Seven: "The Letter" by Bernard Malamud
Day Fifty-Eight: "A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin
Day Fifty-Nine: "A Diamond Guitar" by Truman Capote
Day Sixty: "The End of the Party" by Graham Greene
Day Sixty-One: "One of These Days" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Day Sixty-Two: "A Horseman in the Sky" by Ambrose Bierce
Day Sixty-Three: "A Telephone Call" by Dorothy Parker

Hitting some heavyweights this week. We'll see how they stack up!!

Day Fifty-Six: "The Unripe Heart" by Max Steele

Impulse.

In the heat of the summer of 1932, a scared little boy is asked to retrieve a newspaper that had been thrown onto the roof of his porch. Convinced, irrationally it seems, that his mother is trying to kill him when his mother joins him on the roof, he crawls back into the house through the window and locks his mother out.

As he hides across the street and watches the day pass, hears people talk about his mom and her antics, he begins to worry, about himself, his fate when he returns, but also, about his mom. The reader understands that she has been sick and can also see how it has affected her young son. It's as if he is trying to escape his home for more than the simple reason he expresses.

This story was sweet but its inclusion in the Best of the South collection of New Stories from the South, Best of the Second Decade is a bit of a surprise to me. It was an easy and fun read but....the Best? I'm not sold but I'm also not willing to give up on Steele. This story was good enough at least.

Day Fifty Five: "Ramone" by Judy Troy

Family. FAMILY.

A teenage girl moves with her mom and step-dad to rural Ramone, Texas to care for the step-dad's ailing father. What we see is a family reunited in the midst of a family that has fallen apart as the teenage girl struggles to deal with the recent death of her own father.

What I liked most about this story was the setting, the way the reader sees the convenience store where they buy their groceries, the tree outside of the house where the rugs are hung and beaten clean, the blue morning sky that fills countrysides when not obstructed by highrises, skyscrapers, and smog. This story was enhanced by dialogue that was authentic and gripping without being melodramatic and it made me want to go home and hug my parents and my sisters and my cousins.

This was a WOW story for me. I'll read this one again and will read anything by Judy Troy I can find! WOW!

Day Fifty-Four: "The Summer Farmer" by John Cheever

Humanity.

"Memory is often more appealing than fact."

This second sentence from Cheever's brilliant short story is a true foreshadowing of things to come and also a statement about the human condition. We react without thinking and we think without considering for any length of time what prejudices might cloud our thinking.

A man takes the train to his family's farm on the weekends, leaving New York behind so he can be a man of the earth for a couple of days a week, to breathe clean air, to sweat and toil over something that is truly his own and he finds that he irrationally doesn't trust his farmhand, a Russian communist hard working man, when two pet rabbits turn up dead on the farm. There's a rush to judgment, an accusation based on impulse and the story ends with the man taking the train back into town, wondering if he ever really wants to return.

He is truly a "summer farmer" and the reader sees at the story's conclusion that this man's season has passed.

WHAT AN AMAZING STORY...Cheever always leaves me a little numb but in a good way! Wow!