The Return (Fernando Sorrentino)

The Return – General Understanding Quiz

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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

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The Elevator
Grade 7-8 Story by William Sleator. A timid twelve-year-old faces two fears... the old, creaky elevator in the apartment block they have just moved into, and a fat woman with a piggish look who stares at him uncomfortably and seems to be stalking him. The latter fear appears justified.
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Leaving the Yellow House
Novelette by Saul Bellow. A seventy-two-year-old woman reviews her life of lost opportunities after an accident threatens her ability to live independently in her isolated, off-the-grid Yellow House. She has no close family or friends to turn to, and nobody “good enough” to bequeath her only treasure (the house) to.
The Heavenly Christmas Tree
Short Story by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A poverty-stricken young boy leaves his dead mother and ventures out one Christmas Eve in search of food. Hungry and freezing, he shelters behind a woodpile. He feels sudden warmth, and wakes surrounded by other happy children along with his mother around Christ’s Christmas tree.
The Pearl of Love
Short Story by H. G. Wells. An Indian prince, devastated by the death of his young wife, builds a magnificent shrine to her named the “Pearl of Love”. Over the years he makes it and grander, until one day he disassembles it because it blocks his view of a mountain.
The Zulu and the Zeide
A South African businessman employs a “raw” Zulu from the countryside to keep his senile father out of trouble. The Zulu does such a good job that the old man begins to depend upon him. This infuriates the son, who expresses his anger by humiliating the poor Zulu.
The Good Deed
Novelette by Pearl S. Buck. The life of an elderly Chinese woman having difficulty adjusting to life in America changes when, despite speaking no English and being unable to get around, she decides to help a kind-hearted but “ugly” friend of her daughter-in-law find a husband.