Pillar of Salt

Pillar of Salt: Short story by Shirley JacksonIn this story by Shirley Jackson, a New Hampshire couple’s idyllic holiday in New York goes awry when the woman panics after falsely thinking a building they were in was on fire. She sees the once bright, exciting city differently, losing confidence among the crowds and imagining decay everywhere. When the couple discover a body part on a Long Island beach, she spins out of control. The next day, alone on a crowded sidewalk, she is too scared to even cross the street. Themes include loss of identity (powerlessness and invisibility among the crowds), anxiety, paranoia, fear.

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A City of Churches

A City of Churches: Short story by Donald BarthelmeThis story begins with a woman talking to a realtor about moving to the city of Prester to open a car rental business. As they talk, she notices that every building in the city is a church of some kind. Typical of Donald Barthelme, things get stranger. Nobody rents cars in Prester, but the city has a problem. It needs a girl to work in its car-rental agency to make the town ‘complete’. The girl has a special talent; she can will her dreams. When told she cannot leave, she threatens to dream the life [they] are most afraid of.

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Chivalry

Chivalry: Short story by Neil GaimanThis Neil Gaiman fantasy features a nice old lady with nice friends, who lives in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. She was also living a nice, peaceful life until one day her routine was interrupted by Sir Galahad on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Having recently bought the Grail at an op-shop, the woman refuses Galahad’s offers of the Sword of Invincibility and Apple of (eternal) Life in exchange. Fortunately, the lad finds two other items she thinks would look better on the mantelpiece. Themes include civility and respect, patience, perseverance, and contentment in old age.

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The Final Problem / Empty House

The Final Problem / Empty House: Short stories by Arthur Conan DoyleToday we have two stories by Arthur Conan Doyle dealing with the “death” and “rebirth” of Sherlock Holmes. In The Final Problem, Holmes has his first and last encounter with master criminal and his intellectual equal, Professor James Moriarty. After a pursuit across Europe, the pair are believed to have perished when they tumbled off the Reichenbach Falls during a struggle. In the Adventure of the Empty House, Holmes miraculously returns to bring three remaining members of Moriarty’s criminal network to justice. In capturing the first, he solves an important murder investigation. Themes include justice, pursuit, deception, courage, sacrifice, death.

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Lakshmi’s Adventure

Lakshmi’s Adventure: Short story by Manoj DasThis story from Manoj Das contrasts the innocence of a six-year-old girl with the intolerance of her village priest and the hypocrisy of corrupt temple officials. After dreaming that her deity spoke to her, the girl sneaks into the temple and has a wide-ranging “discussion” with him, including his problems (hearing and too many bananas), hers (arithmetic), and her family’s (an aggressive money-lender). On leaving with two bananas from his shrine, she is chased by an angry mob into a pond in which she catches a fatal fever. Themes include innocence, faith, family, poverty, righteous indignation, guilt and remorse.

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My Life with the Wave

My Life with the Wave: Short story by Octavio PazIn this surrealist prose poem by Octavio Paz, a man at a beach is seduced by a sensuous ocean wave. The wave insists on following him home, where they begin a passionate love affair. The wave is subject to sudden mood swings and, to make sure she is not lonely, he buys a colony of fish to swim in her waters. The attention she and the fish give each other leads to jealousy and hatred on his part, and an icy end for the hapless wave. Themes include freedom and oppression, love and passion, jealousy, fear and hatred.

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Old Man at the Bridge

Old Man at the Bridge: Short story by Ernest HemingwayAlthough a war story, the major theme of this vignette by Ernest Hemingway is not the physical horrors of armed conflict, but rather the psychological impact on the lives of those caught up in its wake. An old man has dedicated his life to caring for several pets. Forced to set them free and flee, he now fears for their safety and sits alone on a bridge, having lost the drive to go on. The narrator, a soldier focused on this duty, reluctantly leaves him to his fate. Other themes include alienation, anxiety, guilt and despair, resignation, duty vs. compassion.

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The Fall of Edward Barnard

The Fall of Edward Barnard: Short story by W. Somerset MaughamAlthough ostensibly themed around a clash of cultures (East vs. West), this story from W. Somerset Maugham is also about alternative lifestyles (materialistic vs. minimalist). Through extensive use of irony, the story contrasts the lust for money, power and status of American industrialists and socialites with the Tahitian way of living in harmony with nature. In presenting the contrast, the story implies that although the environment a person grows up in shapes their values and beliefs, a change of surroundings can drastically alter them. Other themes: friendship, loyalty, romance, pride, racism.

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The Undertaker / Coffin-Maker

The Undertaker / Coffin-Maker: Short story by Alexander PushkinMany readers feel let down by this gloomy Alexander Pushkin story because of its seemingly abrupt ending. A Russian undertaker moves house to a more affluent Moscow suburb of predominantly German artisans. Invited to a neighbor’s party, he over-indulges in wine. After taking a proposed toast to his “corpses” as an insult to his profession, he threatens to have his own celebration the next day for those for whom I work: the orthodox dead. He wakes to find that his threat has become a reality. Or has it? Themes: life and death; racial, professional and religious prejudice; insecurity; unethical conduct/cheating.

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Priscilla and the Wimps

Priscilla and the Wimps: Short story by Richard PeckIn addition to this being Richard Peck’s first young adult story, it is one of his most popular. This is undoubtedly because it not only follows the age-old success formula of a victorious underdog, but does so in the context of humiliating a school bully. Another plus is that the denouement is left to the reader’s imagination. Does Pricilla come back later in the day to release Monk? Do her or Melvin’s parents phone the school and arrange for the locker to be opened? Or do they come back in a week’s time and find that Monk is an ice-block?

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