Featured Stories

The Gold of Tomás Vargas

The Gold of Tomás Vargas: Short story by Isabel AllendeIsabel Allende’s Tomás Vargas is a lecherous, wife-beating, boastful drunkard. At a time when paper money has lost its value, he is wealthy thanks to gold he buried in better times. He enjoys a luxurious, self-indulgent “macho” lifestyle as his wife and children live in poverty. To add to his family’s misery, he brings his pregnant mistress home to live with them. In addition to Vargas’s wife, the “heroes” of the story are the shop-keeper (Riad) and school-teacher (Inés), who take pity on and try to help the women. Themes include greed, cruelty, morality, dignity, compassion, responsibility, and karma.

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The Moustache

The Moustache: Short story by Robert CormierIn this coming of age story by Robert Cormier, seventeen-year-old Mike grew a moustache to prove he could. He likes the look, and wants to keep it. When he visits his grandmother, who lives in a nursing home and is losing her memory, he is worried she won’t recognize him. However, when she sees him she smiles and calls him by name. Later, he realizes she has mistaken him for his late grandfather who he was named after and also wore a moustache. She then tells him a secret that affects him greatly. Themes: identity, family, aging, guilt, forgiveness, communication.

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The Minister’s Black Veil

The Minister's Black Veil: Short story by Nathaniel HawthorneIn this Nathaniel Hawthorne story, a church minister frightens and intrigues parishioners by spending most of his life hiding his face behind a black veil. themes include uncertainty (Why the veil?), alienation and loneliness, hidden sins (for which the veil may be a symbol), moral superiority, guilt, fear, and death. Most readers consider the story from the parishioner’s side. However, it is interesting to contemplate how dark the world must look to the minister. Is the veil the equivalent of the dream by a character in another Hawthorne story (Young Goodman Brown): a reminder of the evil in every man?

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Outside

Outside: Short story by Etgar KeretEtgar Keret’s Outside was published in July, 2020, just over six months into the Covid-19 epidemic. Eighteen months later, we are now into our third wave of the disease. The story is a humorous account of the effects of being locked-down at home. The experience so traumatizes the protagonist that, along with thousands of others, he refuses to leave home when things improve. Forced outside by the army, he struggles to remember where to go and what to do. Fortunately, a chance encounter on the way to an ATM triggers a conditioned response that immediately brings him back to normal.

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Talpa

Talpa: Short story by Juan RulfoThe major themes of this story by Juan Rulfo, which some see as a religious allegory, are faith, conspiracy to cause death, suffering, betrayal, adultery and remorse. The wife and brother of a man dying slowly from a painful, weeping skin condition agree to take him on a pilgrimage to a famous religious shrine. They are in an adulterous relationship and, knowing the trip will kill him, hope to be together sooner. The man begs to return several times during the increasingly painful journey, but the pitiless couple drive him on. When he eventually does die, they return home disappointed.

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Four O’clock

Four O'clock: Short story by Price DayThis is the one notable short story from award-winning journalist Price Day. A seemingly ordinary man has been given a series of “special powers” that could benefit mankind. He is too slow in using the first two (the power to ground war planes and prevent road accidents), and is determined not to do the same with the third: the ability to change evil people all over the world in a way that makes them easily identifiable. When he tries to do this, things don’t go according to plan. Themes: moral superiority, tempting fate (be careful what you wish for!), karma.

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The Fun They Had

The Fun They Had: Short story by Isaac AsimovThis story by Isaac Asimov is set in the year 2155. A boy shows a friend something strange he found hidden away in his family attic. Neither of them has seen one before… it is a book! First, they discuss how wasteful paper books were compared to electronic books of their day. The book is about school, and they go on to compare home schooling of the future with “going to school” in the past. Themes include technological progress, human connection (computer-driven vs. classroom learning), paper-based vs. electronic reading, memories, longing for aspects of the past.

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Luck

Luck: Short story by Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain)As the name implies, the major theme of Luck by Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) is just that — Luck! Its main message is that good fortune can result in the most unlikely people achieving greatness. Other themes include envy and injustice. The clergyman envies Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby, V.C., K.C.B., etc. for his successes in life… especially on the battlefield where, in reality, he didn’t seem to know back from forwards and right from left. There is also a sense of injustice in that the General appears to show no appreciation for the clergyman’s role in his success.

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