Featured Stories

Hominids

Hominids: Short story by Jill McCorkleIn this story by Jill McCorkle, a woman hosting a dinner party for a group of her husband’s old friends is disgusted by the way the men joke about the bodies of women they had encountered at a strip club earlier in the day. She muses about modern man’s obsession with breasts, and the contrast between the privileged life of the wives present and the circumstances that might lead other women to take up such work. She confronts the men, along the way cynically threatening to open her own club called “Peckers”. Themes include machismo, sexualization, misogyny, beauty and womanhood.

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Looking for a Rain-God

Looking for a Rain-God: Short story by Bessie HeadThis story by Botswanan writer Bessie Head deals with one of the world’s most terrible crimes. It takes place in Botswana’s “lonely lands” where families usually live a poor but contented life in harmony with nature. Every year, when village headmen proclaim the beginning of the cropping season, farming families relocate from the villages to their ploughing lands. We follow a family who, having endured six years of crippling drought, reach a point in the seventh year where they feel they must make a devastating decision: to all perish from starvation or sacrifice their children to a rain-god.

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The Man in the Well

The Man in the Well: Short story by Ira SherIn this story by Ira Sher, a group of children find a man trapped in a well and reach an unspoken agreement to leave him there. Readers are left with three questions: 1) How/why did the man end up in the well? 2) Why wouldn’t he give the children his name? and 3) Why didn’t the children get help? The first question is of interest, but doesn’t affect the story. The second question begs another: Would the outcome have been different if the man had given his name? The third suggests a major theme: insensitivity to the suffering of others.

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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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Man from the South

Man From the South: Short Story by Roald DahlThis story by Roald Dahl is about gambling, greed, appearances and ‘face’. A young man accepts what appears to be an easy bet. If he is successful, he will win an expensive car. If he loses, he must give up a small body part. Many reviews suggest that the English girl is not important to the story. I disagree. The young man was at first unhappy with the bet. If he was alone at the time, he could well have walked away. But this is not something a young sailor out to win a girl would do!

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The Two Frogs

The Two Frogs: Japanese folktale from Andrew LangThis Japanese folktale teaches some important lessons. Two frogs from different cities set off on a journey, each wanting to visit the other’s city. They meet on a mountaintop halfway and accidentally look back at their own city, thinking it their destination. Deciding that the two cities look the same, they each return home. Possible morals: 1) If you really want to do something, learn all you can about it before you start; and 2) Don’t look for reasons to give up in the middle of something important. They are too easy to find and you may be sorry later.

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In Paris

In Paris: Short story by Ivan BuninIn 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.

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The Twelve Months

The Twelve Months: Slavic folktale from Josef BaudisAlthough this folktale has been called the “Slavic Cinderella”, for me it doesn’t quite get there. We have a young girl persecuted by family and a magical element (the gods of the twelve months of the year) that helps her, but here the comparison ends. There is no ball or special event, no beautiful clothes, and no handsome prince. She falls in love with a kind man and the two spend a blissful life of drudgery taking care of her family farm. As nice as it seems, this is not what most people would call a ‘fairytale’ ending!

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