Featured Stories

A Manual for Cleaning Women

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Short story by Lucia BerlinDespite the title, this entertaining first-person narrative by Lucia Berlin focuses more on how to cope with being a cleaning woman than how to do the job. Major themes are the humanity of domestic workers, and the crucial role they can play in client households. The protagonist shares the frustrations of her work, the mind games and other devices she uses to deal with them, the pain of losing her partner, and her habit of stealing sleeping pills from clients for a rainy day. Other themes: camaraderie, life of the city poor, class, loss and loneliness.

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Astronomer’s Wife

Astronomer's Wife: Short story by Kay BoyleThis story by Kay Boyle explores an empty relationship between a woman and her astronomer husband, and how a brief encounter with a “down to earth” plumber opens her mind to what could be. The astronomer appears more in love with his work than his wife, treating her purely as someone whose role it is to maintain the household order. The plumber, who treats her with respect, communicates freely, and symbolizes the physical world, highlights the dysfunctional nature of her marriage. Themes: control, gender roles, loneliness and lack of fulfilment in marriage, the intellectual vs. physical worlds, epiphany/revelation.

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Marriage Is a Private Affair

Marriage Is a Private Affair: Short story by Chinua AchebeThe major themes of this early story by Chinua Achebe are generational conflict and change/progress. A young Nigerian couple living in 1950s Lagos decide to get married. They are from different ethnic groups, which causes tension with the man’s village-based father. He is from the Igbo ethnic group in which marriages are traditionally arranged by parents and restricted to others within the group. When the couple marry in defiance of tradition, the man’s father cuts off contact. Eight years later, a letter and rainstorm cause him to regret the decision. Other themes: family, tradition, bigotry, gender roles, defiance, pride, remorse.

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Amnesty

Amnesty: Short story by Octavia E. ButlerIn this story by Octavia Butler, Earth’s economy collapses following the arrival of an advanced alien race that settles in the world’s deserts. A reluctant co-existence develops when it becomes clear that the aliens cannot be destroyed. The protagonist, kidnapped by the aliens at age eleven and subjected to cruel experiments, is now an Interpreter for one of their “communities”. Her current mission: to “calm” and prepare six recruits for well-paid positions translating for other communities. Although they need the job, the applicants are full of anger and hostility towards the aliens. Themes: fear, ignorance, social experimentation, torture, hatred, détente.

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The Nightingale

The Nightingale: Children's story by H. C. AndersenIn this story by Hans Christian Andersen, a nightingale living near the palace of the Chinese Emperor sings so beautifully that it becomes famous all over the world. The Emperor loves the nightingale’s song so much that he makes a home for it in the palace. One day the Japanese Emperor sends him a mechanical bird covered in jewels that can sing as well as the nightingale. He replaces the live bird with the mechanical one, and does not come to appreciate the love of the real nightingale until close to death. Themes: artificial vs. natural beauty, friendship, betrayal, loyalty.

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Punishment

Punishment: Short story by Rabindranath TagoreThe central theme of this story by Rabindranath Tagore is the dehumanization of women under India’s patriarchal social structure. When a farmer murders his wife in a fit of rage, his brother asks his wife to take the blame, promising to testify that she did it in self-defence. In court she denies this, pleads guilty, and is sentenced to hang. For her, love and hope died when her husband asked her to lie and she saw death as preferable to a life of misery. Other themes include poverty, exploitation, jealousy, betrayal, the unpredictable consequences of a lie.

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The Holiday

The Holiday: Short story by Lily BrettThis chapter from Lily Brett’s book Things Could Be Worse describes how several Jewish migrant couples meet at an inexpensive Australian holiday resort in 1950 and form a close-knit group that holidays together over the next thirty-two years. Despite their growing prosperity, they are still haunted by memories of the past. The group breaks up when a meddling member has a photograph taken that suggests the husband of one couple is having an affair with the wife of another. As couples take sides, relationships are destroyed for both members and their children. Themes include assimilation, friendship, memories, “Jewishness”, gossip-mongering, aging.

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Residents and Transients

Residents and Transients: Short story by Bobbie Ann MasonThe protagonist in this Bobbie Ann Mason story is at a crossroads. Having returned to temporarily live on her parent’s Kentucky farm after they moved to Florida, she hates the idea of going back to suburban living. Her salesman husband has a new post and is away looking at houses in a nearby city, and in his absence she has been having an affair with a local man. She is caught between two places and two men. Her cats may prove the deciding factor. Themes: change (past vs. present), city vs. country living, rootedness vs mobilty, uncertainty, choices and consequences.

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