Featured Stories

Fatso

Seventh Grade: Short story by Gary SotoThe concept of shapeshifting is not new. Examples exist in mythology, fairy-tales, and innumerable science fiction plots. The protagonist in this Etgar Keret story falls in love with a woman who is beautiful by day but, in a twist on Princess Fiona of Shrek fame, turns into a fat, hairy man by night. The man and womanly side remain lovers and even contemplate a family (ugh!), while he and the fat man become good friends. As absurd as the story might seem, it contains an important message about the role of friends in ensuring a complete and fulfilling life.

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At the Jim Bridger

At the Jim Bridger: Short story by Ron CarlsonIn this story by Ron Carlson, a man regrets having used a censored version of a story about how he saved the life of a hiker to seduce a woman. The hiker was suffering from hypothermia and, trapped in a small tent during a blizzard, the only way to warm him up was to lay naked together in the same sleeping bag. Nature took its course and, although the hiker either isn’t bothered by what happened or doesn’t remember, the protagonist has trouble coming to terms with it. Themes include marriage/relationships, male bonding, fatherhood, betrayal, guilt.

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A. V. Laider

A. V. Laider: Short story by Max BeerbohmThis story by Max Beerbohm raises the philosophical themes of faith vs. reason and free will vs. fate in the context of a conversation between the narrator and a stranger about palmistry. The stranger, a self-proclaimed amateur palm reader, relates how he once failed to prevent a train crash predicted in the palms of four fellow passengers. Too weak-willed to intervene, he let fate take its course and now feels guilty of murder. The sympathetic narrator writes him a consoling letter and, when the two meet again a year later, receives a nasty shock. Other themes include insecurity, guilt, fabulism.

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When the Mice Failed to Arrive

When the Mice Failed to Arrive: Short story by Gerald MurnaneIn 2018, the New York Times dubbed Gerald Murnane “the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of.” Now 83, Murnane has remained largely unknown due to his distinctive stream of consciousness writing style. Stories contain frequent changes of perspective from character to character, and between past and present. In When the Mice Failed to Arrive, a storm breaking as a father waits for his son to come home from school triggers memories of the man’s earlier life. Themes include father-son relationships, childhood anxiety, religious parody, awakening sexuality, insecurity, deceit, and what some may consider animal cruelty.

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The Son

The Son: Short story by Horacio QuirogaIn this emotionally charged story by Horacio Quiroga, a thirteen-year-old boy goes hunting in woods near his home. He is well aware of the dangers associated with hunting alone, and competent in the use of a gun. The boy’s father, who is not well and suffers from hallucinations, becomes concerned when he does not return at the agreed time. Fearing the worst, he begins a frantic search, growing increasingly anxious until finding, or thinking he finds, the boy safe and unharmed. Themes include parental love, isolation, nature and survival, trust, anxiety, fear, illusion, death.

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The Secret Cause

The Secret Cause: Short story by Joaquim Maria Machado de AssisCharacters in Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis stories often have a causa secreta (ulterior motive) for their actions. When a young doctor opens a hospital in partnership with a forty-year-old acquaintance, he is amazed by the older man’s dedication to nursing the most seriously ill and injured patients. A visit to his partner’s house explains why. He is a sadist who finds pleasure in inflicting pain on animals and observing the suffering of others. The doctor suppresses a growing love for the man’s frightened wife, only letting it show on her deathbed. Themes include sadism, cruelty, and secret love.

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Nobody Will Laugh

Nobody Will Laugh: Novelette by Milan KunderaIn this story by Milan Kundera, a Czechoslovakian college lecturer “rewards” an amateur researcher’s gushing praise by going to great lengths to avoid telling the truth about a substandard paper he has submitted for review. Having spent several years on the paper, the man needs the lecturer’s endorsement to have it published. He refuses to give up, resulting in a comic series of events that culminate in the lecturer not only being charged with immoral conduct by his local communist party committee, but losing his job and the partner he belatedly realizes he loves. Themes include hubris, deception, manipulation, persistence.

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The Erlking

The Erlking: Short story by Angela CarterThis “fairy-tale” by Angela Carter is derived from a European myth. A magical being living in harmony with nature seduces young women traveling through his forest domain. The women are powerless to resist. When he tires of one, he transforms her into a bird, cages her, and adds the cage to a collection of similar cages adorning the walls of his house. The protagonist, sensing her fate, decides that the only way to free herself and his “bird” collection is to do away with him. Themes include connectedness to nature, the supernatural, power and objectification, sexuality, entrapment, liberation.

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