This Nathaniel Hawthorne story is set in the unsettling times shortly before the American Revolution. A naïve eighteen-year-old man travels from the countryside to an unnamed town seeking promised favors from Major Molineux, a distant relative and officer in the British army. Whenever he enquires about the Major’s address, he is met with either scorn or an evasive answer. He learns why when his tarred-and-feathered kinsman is led past him in a street parade. Fortunately, thanks to a kind stranger, there is still a possible future for him in the town. Themes: hope, political unrest, disorder, loss of innocence, compassion. More…
The Goose Father
In this story by Krys Lee, loneliness drives a South Korean gireogi appa (goose father) to take in a tenant after six months’ living alone. The tenant, an enigmatic young man half the landlord’s age, arrives on his doorstep with a goose he believes to be his reincarnated mother. As the mismatched pair get to know each other, sexual tension builds between them. Something unexpected occurs when the landlord finally comes to terms with his sexual inclinations and is about to express his feelings by kissing the younger man. Themes include family, loneliness, sexuality, love, betrayal, guilt, forgiveness, the supernatural. More…
Rain Frogs
In this story from Shiga Naoya, the naïve wife of a rural businessman is either seduced by or coerced into having sex with a predatory novelist. Surprisingly, in addition to appearing remarkably understanding, the woman’s husband is sexually aroused by her experience. The woman’s reaction is equally surprising. Initially, she is described as being a pleasure to look at but having no light in her tea-brown eyes. After the encounter, she has a knowing smile and “dreamy” eyes, as of someone experiencing a very sweet dream. Themes: tradition, attitudes to women in Japanese society, lack of fulfillment, sexual predation. More…
Snow
Although this Alice Adams story has little action, a lot is achieved. A middle-aged man initially questions his decision to create a “diversion” for his first meeting with his daughter’s lesbian lover in the form of a weekend skiing trip with his girlfriend. Talking in their isolated cabin that night, the three women reveal things about themselves that not only bring the man closer to his daughter and girlfriend, but also help him understand his initial feelings (jealousy) toward his daughter’s partner. Themes include fatherhood, sexuality, deception, sexual assault, teenage pregnancy, jealousy, love. More…
Old Woman Magoun
In this story by Mary R. Wilkins Freeman an old woman takes drastic action to prevent her granddaughter’s father from trafficking her to settle a gambling debt. The girl’s mother had died shortly after she was born. Wary of the shiftless, hard drinking men of the town, the grandmother had raised her in sheltered isolation. Now fourteen and innocent to the ways of the world, her father demands that she be handed over. Desperate, the grandmother turns to nature to “spare” her. Themes include patriarchy and gender roles, overprotectiveness, alcohol abuse, human trafficking, innocence, piety, love, despair, mercy killing. More…