In this story with an unlikely twist by Jeffrey Archer, a married man strikes his mistress and storms out of her house after catching her with another man. The next day, he learns she died during the night. He has three options: 1) to do nothing and live in fear that the police investigation will connect him to her; 2) to contact the police and claim that her death was an accident; and 3) to frame the other lover for her murder. He chooses the latter, and closely follows the innocent man’s trial. Themes include infidelity, violence, guilt, fear, injustice. More…
Brokeback Mountain
Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain is an unsettling story about how a sexual encounter between two male ranch-hands, Jack and Ennis, develops into a twenty-year love affair. The relationship develops over short, intimate camping trips, sometimes years apart. Jack wants more but Ennis’s marriage, social pressures of the day (1960’s), and anti-gay upbringing prevent him from “coming out”. It is not until Jack dies, possibly in a gay hate crime, that Ennis understands the intensity of their feelings for one another. Themes: desire, love, repressed sexuality, masculinity, homophobia, shame, acceptance (if you can’t fix it, you’ve got to stand it). More…
On the Bridge
In this coming of age story by Todd Strasser, a young teen learns the importance of being himself. As the boy (Seth) and the “cool” friend he looks up to (Adam) stand smoking on a highway bridge, Adam brags about his toughness and experience with older girls. When Adam throws his cigarette onto the windshield of a passing car, the three occupants confront the boys. Adam points to Seth as the culprit, and stands by as Seth is brutally beaten. Seth finally sees Adam for what he is: a boastful fake. Themes include friendship, social acceptance, bravado, betrayal, violence, enlightenment. More…
The Toll-House
Today we have another classic horror story from W. W. Jacobs. Four young travelers are drinking (tea of all things!) at an Inn. They are discussing the supernatural, and it soon becomes clear that three are believers to varying degrees and one is a total skeptic. One of them tells a story about a nearby haunted house that takes a “toll” of at least one life from every family or group that lives there—however short the time. Foolishly, they decide to put the story to the test. Themes: bravado, fear, the supernatural. More…
The Ant and The Grasshopper
This story by W. Somerset Maugham takes its name from a famous Aesop fable. The fable carries the message that hard work is rewarded, while laziness leads to disaster. The story presents a more balanced view of the world. Sometimes good things happen to lazy or even quite bad people, causing them to be better off than those who work hard every day. After years of hard work, Gordon Ramsay (the Ant) is rewarded with a comfortable retirement. He thinks it unfair when his brother Tom (the Grasshopper) ends up many times richer after a life of laziness and cheating others. More…