The message of this satirical story by Philip Roth is applicable to all religions: the need to guard against zealotry. A teenaged Jewish boy is disciplined for suggesting that God could impregnate a woman without intercourse. He wasn’t questioning the Jewish belief that Jesus was a man, but rather asserting the power of God to do so. After being slapped for questioning his rabbi’s knowledge of God, the boy flees to the synagogue roof and finds a creative way to force the whole community to acknowledge his point of view. Themes include bigotry vs. tolerance, irreverence, search for truth, hypocrisy. More…
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In Paris
In this story by Ivan Bunin, a well-to-do, middle-aged Russian exile becomes “animated” for the first time in years when he encounters a sophisticated Russian waitress in a Paris restaurant. Both live in isolation and solitude, having fled their homeland for supporting the wrong side in the Russian Civil War. A date at the cinema predictably leads to a steamy romance. The woman moves in with the man, but it is not until the tragic final paragraph that readers can appreciate how much she loved him. Themes include loss, isolation and loneliness, sexuality, love, mortality, despair, a community in exile. More…
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
This story from Gabriel Marquez describes how the body of a huge man washed in from the sea transforms a drab, sleepy fishing village. The body goes through stages of being admired for its power and good looks, pitied for the inconvenience being so large must have caused, given a name, claimed by the village as one of its own, and re-buried at sea with great dignity. The people feel such pride in being associated with the unknown man that their celebrations of his life turn the village into a famous landmark. Themes: myth creation, perceptions and influence of beauty. More…
Heat
In this confronting story by Joyce Carol Oates, mischievous eleven-year-old twin girls are brutally murdered by Roger Whipple, a supposedly harmless, mentally challenged man. Major themes are power, cruelty and violent revenge. The twins exercise persuasive power by demanding compliance with their wishes from school friends and cruelly harassing and making fun of Roger. The power theme is emphasized through anecdotes about the girls’ antics and dark humor: We liked it that Rhea and Rhoda had been killed … but we didn’t like it that they were dead; we missed them. In the end revenge, and Roger’s physical power, prevail. More…
Annie’s Day
Andy Weir’s Annie is a bad girl who sleeps around and likes to play nasty pranks on people. Whenever she has a free night she sleeps with Paul, whose wife has left him. However, she has two problems with Paul. First, he is a morning person and she is a night owl. He wakes at 6.00am every day while she doesn’t like getting up until 10.00am at the earliest. More importantly, there is a big age difference between them. Her dream, which she achieves in the story, is to sleep with Paul’s sixteen-year-old son. More…