This dark comedy by Premchand follows father and son Chamars (one of the Dalit or “untouchable” sub-castes) as they go to buy a funeral shroud for the son’s deceased wife. The lazy but likeable pair, who will do anything to shirk work, end up spending donated shroud money on a boozy night in town. The story satirizes the caste system by pointing out that those who can never rise above their low birth position have little incentive to do more than ensure their survival. Themes include social class, callousness, indolence, tradition, selfishness, exploitation (of the generosity of others). More…
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
In this Flannery O’Connor story a cynical, manipulative, one-armed drifter is given a chance at redemption (settling down to a “better” life) by an equally manipulative mother desperate to secure a future for her mentally handicapped daughter. Rather than the daughter, the man only has eyes for the family’s “barn-find” automobile. Immediately after their wedding, he leaves the girl to an uncertain future at a roadside diner and drives on alone. Perhaps out of guilt, he unsuccessfully tries to absolve himself from the moral consequences of his actions by doing a good deed. Themes: disability, devotion, desperation, deception, redemption, independence. More…
The Gioconda Smile
Superficially Aldous Huxley’s Gioconda Smile is a straightforward story about a narcissistic womanizer who learns to his cost the meaning of the expression: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. On another level, it is a wonderful satire of the lavish, hedonistic lifestyles of upper-middle-class 1920s British society. The protagonist’s apparent lack of conscience may be due to his admitted psychopathy (not only did he not feel sympathy for the poor, the weak, the diseased, and deformed; he actually hated them). This raises the question: did he really deserve his fate? Themes: vanity, philandering, class, passion, murder, rejection, betrayal. More…
A Manual for Cleaning Women
Despite 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. More…
A Vermont Tale
In this story by Mark Helprin, two children from a distressed marriage are sent to live for a period on their grandparents’ idyllic Vermont farm. One night, they are frightened by the call of two Arctic loons. To calm them and perhaps provide hope about their parents, the grandfather tells a tale about two loons. The story is an allegory of his marriage, with themes of love, infidelity, separation, despair and reunion. Unfortunately, we learn later that the story’s “happily ever after” ending does not match reality. Themes of the frame story include natural beauty, childhood innocence, appearance vs. reality. More…