Featured Stories

A Country Doctor

A Country Doctor: Short story by Franz KafkaIn this dream-like story by Franz Kafka, a country doctor experiences an existential crisis when his response to a call for help during a severe snowstorm sets off a surreal chain of events. The doctor’s horse has died, and a mystery groom who appears out of his pigsty with two unearthly horses rapes his housemaid as he leaves. When it becomes clear that the patient’s wound is incurable, the doctor is stripped naked in a pagan ritual and laid beside the dying man. Themes include isolation, duty, powerlessness, inner conflict, existentialism, loss of faith (in himself and his profession).

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Snapshots of a Wedding

Snapshots of a Wedding: Short story by Bessie HeadSet in the mid-1990s, this story by Bessie Head explores two aspects of a Botswanan wedding. The first is the rituals observed at the event and how, as a “modern wedding”, a lot of the traditional courtesies had been left out of the planning. The second is the circumstances leading up to the wedding, with the author seemingly inviting readers to judge whether the groom, who is rich in cattle and loved and respected by all who knew him, made the right choice for a bride. Themes include tradition vs. modernity, marriage, education, hubris vs. humility, money and status vs. love.

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Borrowing a Match

Borrowing-a-Match: Short story by Stephen LeacockHave you ever asked someone if you could borrow something, and then watched them go to so much trouble looking for it that you wish you hadn’t asked? If so, you will understand the building frustration of the man in this Stephen Leacock story. All he asked of a “decent, ordinary-looking” stranger was the loan of a match. In the process of looking for one, the stranger destroys his overcoat and the parcels and letters he is carrying, and then threatens to beat his young son when he gets home. Finally, . . . (you’ll have to read the story to find out!)

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Neighbours

Neighbours: Short story by Tim WintonThe underlying message of this heart-warming story by Tim Winton is the importance of cultural acceptance in a multicultural environment. A naïve Australian couple initially feel uncomfortable when they move into their first home and find that their street is full of European migrants. Despite language barriers, as time goes by the couple and migrants develop a mutual understanding, friendships and a sense of community. This culminates in a tearful scene where a migrant family gathers at their fence to cheer on the home-birth of the couple’s first child. Themes include prejudice, cultural differences, understanding, acceptance, friendship and community.

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A Game of Cards

A Game of Cards: Short story by Witi IhimaeraThis early story by Witi Ihimaera examines the universal themes of love, family, community and mortality from a Maori perspective. A university student visiting his dying grandmother symbolizes the deep family connections among his people. The old woman’s only recreation over the years has been lively card nights with friends and neighbors. These symbolize the strong connection and, despite some good-natured cheating, unity among community members. The spontaneous gathering in her final hours demonstrates her community’s approach to death. Rather than shying away until after the event, they come together to pay respects and ease her passing.

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Faith, Love, Time and Dr. Lazaro

Faith, Love, Time and Dr. Lazaro: Short story by Gregorio C. BrillantesThe major themes of this story by Gregorio C. Brillantes are expressed in the title. A country doctor, disillusioned by the suffering of patients and his oldest son’s suicide, has lost faith in religion and become detached from his deeply religious wife and younger son. As the son accompanies him on a late night house call to attend a dying baby, he realizes how out of touch the two have become. Upon their return, he has a momentary epiphany: for things like love, there was only so much time. Other themes include indifference, isolation, duty, father-son relationships, poverty.

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The Pardon of Becky Day

The Pardon of Becky Day: Short story by John Fox, Jr.A motif of this classic Western by John Fox, Jr. could well be the scheming nature of women. A neighbor misled the community as to Becky’s virtue to win her boyfriend Jim’s heart; both women manipulate the men around them to maintain their “honor”; a missionary uses the threat of a deathbed curse to force the reluctant neighbor to seek Becky’s forgiveness; and, based on the smile on Becky’s face when she dies, her words of forgiveness may have been feigned to make sure that she will “git thar” [where Jim is] first. Themes: deception, hate, lawless violence, forgiveness, superstition.

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Spunk

Spunk: Short story by Zora Neale HurstonIn Zora Neale Hurston’s Spunk, a mild-mannered man (Joe) is killed when he bravely but foolishly confronts his cheating wife and her macho lover. The story raises some interesting questions. Did Joe act out of love for his wife, or shame because she had humiliated him? Why did he stop at a store on the way? Was he hoping the “loungers” would talk him out of going, and too weak to back down when one of them encouraged him? Finally, who or what caused Spunk to fall into the saw? Themes include love and passion, courage and fear, the supernatural.

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