Twenty Minutes

Twenty Minutes: Short story by James SalterThere is a saying that your life flashes before your eyes in the moments before you die. In this James Salter story, the protagonist has twenty minutes to think about it. A woman riding a horse in the countryside is paralyzed in a fall. She estimates that she will die from her injuries if help doesn’t arrive within twenty minutes. As the minutes tick by, she recalls recent events in her life. Sadly, the picture they paint is not a very happy one. The central theme is, of course, death. Other themes: family estrangement, marriage, unfaithfulness, loneliness, desperation, unfulfilled dreams.

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Last Day at School

Last Day at School: Short story by Giovanni MoscaThis very short story describes the feelings of a teacher on the last day of a school year. It is clear from the story that the teacher cares greatly for his students. Grades have been sent home and the long holiday is about to begin. For the teacher, it is an especially memorable day. As well as being the end of the school year, he is leaving teaching and moving on to a different career. Last Day at School was written by Italian teacher-turned-journalist Giovanni Mosca, and presumably talks about his own feelings on leaving teaching in 1936.

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Taking Care

Taking Care: Short story by Joy WilliamsWritten at a writer’s retreat in the early 1970s, this is Joy Williams’s first published story. An understandably distracted parish priest goes through the motions of fulfilling his duties as his wife wastes away in hospital from an unknown blood disorder, and he cares for his six-month-old granddaughter and a dog abandoned by his irresponsible daughter. Caring for the baby while his daughter “finds herself” in Mexico provides solace and a reminder that life goes on as he prepares for his wife’s anticipated homecoming. Themes include family, abandonment, responsibility, nostalgia, childhood adaptability, love, marriage, suffering, death, grace.

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Testimonial

Testimonial: Short story by Edwidge DanticatThe major theme of this Edwidge Danticat story is cultism. A woman dies after 25 years in prison for murdering her baby son. Her daughter has had to keep a terrible secret. Her mother was a member of a bizarre sisterhood made up of descendants of former Haitian slaves. The killing of her brother was a sacrifice to restore the daughter’s failing health. For years, she has been trained in the ways of the cult. She must now unwillingly take her mother’s place among its membership. There appears no way out. Other themes: motherhood, fear, superstition, destiny.

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The Lady With the Dog

The Lady With the Dog: Short story by Anton ChekhovAnton Chekhov’s Lady With the Dog is about a philandering misogynist who meets a much younger woman while on vacation. Both have unhappy marriages; both are open to holiday romance. They enjoy a brief affair, then go their separate ways. After parting, each becomes obsessed with the memory of the other. He tracks her down, and soon they are planning a future together. The story has an open ending, but one suspects that each now looks at relationships and the world in a new way. Themes: love, infidelity, guilt, morality, chauvinism, sexual objectification, commitment.

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The Devil and Tom Walker

The Devil and Tom Walker: Short story by Washington IrvingThe major theme of this story by Washington Irving is greed. Other themes include storytelling, usury, religion and hypocrisy. Set in early eighteenth century America, a miserly, poverty-stricken man (Tom Webster) meets “Old Scratch” (the Devil) as he takes a short-cut home through a swamp. Tom initially declines an offer of riches for his soul, but later agrees after the Devil unknowingly does him a favor by disposing of his shrew-like wife. Upon becoming extremely wealthy by making and foreclosing on usurious loans, he tries to change his fate through “violent” religious piety. It doesn’t work!

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The Lifted Veil

The Lifted Veil: Short story by Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot)The titular veil in this story by Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot) could refer to several things: 1) the veils of time and private thought, lifted by the protagonist’s psychic powers; 2) the veil of innocence, lifted when his future wife’s narcissistic, manipulative nature is revealed; and 3) the veil of death, lifted when a dead woman is brought back to life and reveals that his wife is planning to murder him. Themes include alienation and isolation, the supernatural (clairvoyance), betrayal, despair, free-will vs. fate, scientific morality (playing God), death.

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Death in the Woods

Death in the Woods: Short story by Sherwood AndersonThis story is heralded as Sherwood Anderson’s finest work. Containing very little dialogue, it tells of the sad life of an exploited, hard-working woman whose frozen body in the woods radiates a mystical beauty. If readers will excuse the pun, one aspect of the story leaves me a little cold. The first person narrator, a young boy, seems to have way too much information about the woman’s history to make the backstory he provides convincing. Themes include workplace abuse, poverty, loneliness and isolation, gender roles, beauty and desire, and from the narrator’s perspective, completion of one’s destiny (feeding animal life!).

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