Quick Reads

Wedding Night

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Wedding Night: Short story by Sait Faik Abasıyanık In this touching story by Sait Faik Abasıyanık, a Turkish father belatedly registers the birth of his sixteen-year-old son so he can get married. Fortunately, the boy looks much older than he is. The minimum marriage age is twenty, and he must be registered as being twenty-four because his bride, who he has never seen, is twenty-six! The poor boy has been plied with alcohol, and is trembling like he did at his circumcision four years earlier. After a shaky start, they emerge from the bridal chamber happy. Themes include tradition, arranged marriages, naivety, anxiety, confusion.

Passing Wind

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Passing Wind: Flash story by Lydia Davis For me, the most enjoyable aspect of this humorous flash story from Lydia Davis is that it describes an embarrassing situation we have all probably encountered: after going to great lengths to silently pass wind among a group of strangers, the smell gives us away. Do we say nothing, excuse ourselves, or immediately cast a dirty look at the person standing next to us? Here the narrator faces a slightly different dilemma. She tries to think of a polite way to let a guest know that if he didn’t do it, then it wasn’t her but the dog.

A Man Who Had No Eyes

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A Man Who Had No Eyes: Short story by MacKinlay Kantor In this story by MacKinlay Kantor, a blind peddler stops a man in the street to sell him a cigarette lighter. The man buys one and, in the hope of getting extra money, the peddler tells him a sob story about how he lost his sight after being held back while trying to escape poison gas released during a factory chemical explosion. The customer points out an error in his story, and how blindness need not be a hindrance to success. Themes include positivity and self-belief vs. denial and self-pity, bitterness, manipulation, deceit, cowardice.

My Name / Geraldo No Last Name

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My Name / Geraldo No Last Name: Short story by Sandra Cisneros What’s in a name? These two vignettes from Sandra Cisneros answer the question from different viewpoints. The narrator is unhappy with the anglicized spelling of her name (Esperanza) but proud of what it symbolizes — the strength of her great-grandmother who defied the Mexican stereotype of women being weak and subservient to their men. It provides a link to her heritage. Neighbor Geraldo, who illegally entered the USA for a better life, has no official name or identity. One moment, full of life and promise at a dance club. The next, dead with nobody to care or mourn his passing.

The King of Jazz

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The King of Jazz: Short story by Donald Barthelme The King of Jazz provides a satirical account of several aspects of the American music scene. Donald Barthelme loved jazz, and his main target here are fickle music critics and the way they try to out-do each other with flowery and often meaningless language when describing performances. He also makes fun of the ‘cutting contests’ once used by musicians to judge themselves against one another and, in so doing, satirizes the system of ‘chair challenges’ that were (are?) common in U.S. school bands. Finally, he sends up the notion that American musicians are the preeminent force in world jazz.

The Hit Man

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The Hit Man: Short story by T. C. Boyle T. C. Boyle’s The Hit Man is a clever satire of the short story genre. Written in short paragraphs under sub-headings, the story contains all the necessary elements of a short story. What makes it unusual is that Boyle is able to provide a meaningful account of his protagonist’s entire life (boyhood, adolescence, courtship, death of parents, ‘career’, marriage, family, retirement, death… and even dislike of peas!) in less than 1,200 words. He also manages to deal with some serious issues (bullying, schoolyard violence, judicial system failure, gratuitous murder, glamorized crime and death) along the way.

The Eyes Have It / The Girl on the Train

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The Eyes Have It / Girl on the Train: Short story by Ruskin Bond In this story by Ruskin Bond, a blind man sitting in an empty train carriage is joined by a young woman. He is attracted by the sound of her voice as she farewells her family, and even the sound of her slippers. As he initiates a conversation, he decides to conceal the fact that he is blind. This extends to pretending to look out the window and describe the passing countryside. He is successful, only to learn after the woman exits the train that she is also blind. Themes include independence, loneliness, desire, self-consciousness, pretence, perception vs. reality.

The Blue Jar

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The Blue Jar: Short story by Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen) In this Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen) story, a shipwreck leads to a quest. A sailor rescues the daughter of an art-collecting nobleman from a burning ship. They spend nine days alone in a lifeboat, during which they become lovers. The nobleman pays the sailor to return to sea, and she spends the rest of her life sailing the world, ostensibly seeking a uniquely colored Chinese porcelain jar. The jar, a symbol of the woman’s lost youth and time in the lifeboat, becomes her final resting place. Themes: enduring love, class, aging, beauty in art vs. the beauty of nature.