An unusual aspect of this Anne Tyler story about an eighty-two-year-old man going into an “old folks’ home” is that he is doing it out of choice and on his own terms. The old man has renounced the material world. For him, the most important possessions in life are his independence and dignity. Although he has a loving family who would gladly house and care for him, he is ashamed of his growing weakness and steadfastly (and somewhat selfishly) refuses to be loved at any cost. Themes: aging, independence, frugality/minimalism, family, pride, stubbornness.
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The Man to Send Rain Clouds
This playful story by Leslie Marmon Silko illustrates how two cultures, one indigenous and very much attached to their land, the other foreign and dominant, coexist. When an aging Pueblo Native American dies tending their sheep, his people plan to give him a traditional tribal burial. They deceive a young Catholic priest, who would have insisted on a Christian ceremony, but later find they need something from him. Themes include death, tradition, adaptability (by the tribe as a means of mitigating culture clash) and flexibility (by the priest as a means of being accepted into the community). More…
A Conversation With My Father
This story from Grace Paley uses a meta-fictional approach (a story about storytelling) to highlight generational differences between a writer and her aged father. The father, who is confined to bed, asks his daughter to write a simple story just once more, the kind Maupassant wrote. Instead, she relates a minimalist, open-ended tale with several possible outcomes. These artistic differences reflect the ailing father’s coming death. He has accepted that the end is near; she is not ready to. Her story challenges the father’s views on themes such as family, parenting, addiction, and the ability to change one’s destiny. More…
Christmas Every Day
This children’s story by W. D. Howells is actually a ‘story within a story’. A demanding daughter insists that her busy father tell her a Christmas story. Perhaps with his daughter in mind, he makes up a tale about a little girl who makes a selfish Christmas wish. She wants it to be Christmas every day so she can get presents and eat Christmas treats all year long. The wish comes true but in so doing causes problems for almost everyone in the world. Although told in an amusing way, you could call this a Christmas horror fairy-tale. More…
Parallel Universes
The title of this Etgar Keret story describes his writing, which takes readers on humorous, often shocking journeys to worlds so absurd they could only exist outside our own. Keret developed a special interest in parallel universe theory when told that thinking about them helped his father get through the privations of Jewish persecution in World War 2 Europe. Although Parallel Universes fits the Keret mould in terms of the absurd contrasts between the described worlds, it is also a poignant love story that ends: I enjoy knowing there’s one place … where I’m falling asleep happy. More…