Featured Stories

With All Flags Flying

With All Flags Flying: Short story by Anne TylerAn 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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Pumpkin Seed and the Snake

Pumpkin Seed and the Snake: Hmong Folktale from Livo and ChaThis Hmong folktale is full of broken promises. Three times a widow breaks a promise that whoever removes a large rock from her field can marry one of her daughters. Each time the rock is returned. She finally relents and agrees that the mystery helper (a huge, shape-shifting snake), can marry her daughter “Pumpkin Seed”. Later, over three nights, she breaks a promise to Pumpkin Seed that she will kill the snake while it is sleeping. Forced to accompany the snake to its home, Pumpkin Seed proves just as untrustworthy as her mother before unexpectedly living “Happily Ever After”.

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The Cranes

The Cranes: Short story by Peter MeinkePeter Meinke’s The Cranes is a story about enduring love. Both members of a frail, elderly couple suffer from serious medical issues that have destroyed their quality of life. The woman appears to be the sicker of the two, and may be terminally ill. They reflect on their lives together as they sit in their car near some isolated marshland. As they talk, they observe two aged whooping cranes feeding along the shoreline. These birds, which are long-lived and mate for life, symbolize the couple. As a shot rings out, the cranes soar into the sky.

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The Thakur’s Well / Thakur Ka Kuan

The Thakur’s Well / Thakur Ka Kuan: Short story by PremchandThis poignant story by Premchand highlights the degrading treatment of Dalits (untouchables) under India’s caste system. A woman brings water for her sick husband from the only well in the village available to Dalits. It is contaminated and has a foul smell. She doesn’t know that boiling will purify the water, and decides that her only option is to risk a severe beating by secretly drawing water from the well of a Thakur (high-caste villager), who forbids lower-caste villagers from using it. Themes include social class, discrimination, poverty, courage, gender roles, corruption of the upper classes.

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Long Distance

Long Distance: Short story by Jane SmileyIn this story by Jane Smiley, an early middle-aged bachelor learns an important lesson about himself. The story begins with his Japanese girlfriend calling off their long-distance relationship due to the impending death of her father. Although she is distraught, he is relieved because he did not think he could meet her expectations. After drinking too much at a family Christmas gathering, he comes to realize that the self-centered affair has probably ruined the poor woman’s chances of a happy life. Themes include physical and emotional distance, family, marriage, responsibility, identity, loneliness and isolation, selfishness, guilt.

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The Management of Grief

The Management of Grief: Short story by Bharati MukherjeeThis story by Bharati Mukherjee is a fictional account of how families of Canadian-Indian passengers coped (or in some cases couldn’t cope) in the aftermath of the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. Told through the eyes of a woman who lost her husband and two sons, the story contrasts the Canadian government’s insensitive, “textbook” approach to grief management with the protagonist’s conviction that we must all grieve in our own way according to our cultural traditions and personal preferences. Themes: denial (hope) vs. acceptance, despair, cultural tradition, bureaucracy, collective vs individual identity, collective blame.

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The Flight

The Flight: Short story by Kamala DasThere are two “flights” in this story by Kamala Das. The first occurs after a successful sculptor finds city living and her city models devoid of inspiration. Once dependent on her husband, who is now disabled and dependent on her, she has a new sense of control over her life. They move to a dream house by the sea where, re-inspired, she becomes infatuated with a seventeen-year-old nude model. She once again “takes flight” upon finding her husband having sex with the girl, this time into the sea. Themes include marriage, lust, gender roles, control, art, betrayal.

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Neighbours

Neighbours: Short story by Moe Moe (Inya)Set in 1970s Burma, this story by Moe Moe (aka Inya) uses the experiences of a young couple with a four-month-old child to explore the theme of “neighborliness”. Moving to the suburbs after living with family “downtown”, they find the neighbors friendly and helpful but also experience incidences of prying, malicious gossip, quarreling, greed, and pressure to keep up appearances. Moving to an apartment closer to the city, they find an individualistic environment where nobody even talks to their neighbors. This leaves the poor protagonist with no idea what sort of neighborhood she wants to live in.

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