The Eyes Have It / The Girl on the Train

Post category:Quick Reads

The Eyes Have It / Girl on the Train: Short story by Ruskin Bond In this story by Ruskin Bond, a blind man sitting in an empty train carriage is joined by a young woman. He is attracted by the sound of her voice as she farewells her family, and even the sound of her slippers. As he initiates a conversation, he decides to conceal the fact that he is blind. This extends to pretending to look out the window and describe the passing countryside. He is successful, only to learn after the woman exits the train that she is also blind. Themes include independence, loneliness, desire, self-consciousness, pretence, perception vs. reality.

The Wives of the Dead

Post category:Short Stories

The Wives of the Dead: Short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne This early story from Nathaniel Hawthorne seems to have the same effect on most who read it. We think we know what happened to the two recently married and even more recently widowed young women, but are not 100% sure. Their husbands were brothers, and the four shared a small house. After mourners leave, the women retire to their bedrooms. At different times during the night, each wakes to a messenger with news that their husband has survived. Was either of the messages real? Themes include loss, grief and mourning, dreams vs. reality, and consideration for others.

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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

A Child’s Dream of a Star
Grade 3-4 Story by Charles Dickens. A heart-warming 19th Century children’s story about life after death. A brother and sisters’ love lasts a lifetime, even though the girl died at an early age. As the boy ages, she waits with other deceased family members in the rays of the North Star.
The Horse Dealer’s Daughter
Short Story by D. H. Lawrence. In an act of desperation, a lonely woman facing a life of servitude and drudgery decides to join her much-loved dead mother by drowning herself. Her rescue by the passing town doctor results in an epiphany that awakens feelings of love and desire.
Raymond’s Run
Grade 5-6 Story by Toni Cade Bambara. A feisty school girl desperately wants to win a picnic race to show up an annoying and over-confident new girl in town. When she sees her mentally challenged older brother running beside her, she decides that winning races doesn’t mean as much anymore.
Father Against Mother
Short Story by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. A destitute Brazilian slave catcher faces a dilemma. His wife has just had a baby, which they may have to place in an orphanage. He captures a heavily pregnant runaway, who will be cruelly punished and perhaps miscarry if returned.

Sleeping Beauty
European Folktales. A reverse chronology of the three folktales behind this classic children's story: the Brothers Grimm’s Briar-Rose (1812); Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1697); and Giambattista Basile’s Sun, Moon and Talia (1634). As might be expected, the further back you go, the more brutal the storyline.
Araby
Short Story by James Joyce. An adolescent boy is infatuated with a friend’s older sister and becomes obsessed with the idea of visiting the “Grand Oriental Fete” (Araby) to buy her an exotic gift. Arriving shortly before closing time, the experience is not what he expected.
Gorilla, My Love
Grade 7-8 Story by Toni Cade Bambara. A feisty African-American girl growing up in New York City is angry over two acts of deceit. The first (a misleading movie title) receives a ‘fiery’ response. The second (an offhand promise made to pacify her as a child) results in tears.
Wolf
Young Adult Story by Francesca Lia Block. In this take on the Red Riding Hood fairy tale, a girl flees to her grandmother’s house after her stepfather repeatedly rapes her over several years. As in the fairy tale, when she reaches grandmother’s house the wolf is waiting for her.

Hunted Down
Novelette by Charles Dickens. A witty detective-style story with a climax that would do Agatha Christie proud. With at least one murder and two more on the way, it is not until the end that readers learn that the “detective” on the killer’s trail is one of his intended victims.
Click-Clack the Rattlebag
Grade 7-8 Story by Neil Gaiman. A campfire-style horror story about Click-Clacks, “the best monsters ever” that come from the dark when you don’t pay attention. We are left to ponder how the narrator, who was spending time with his girlfriend’s younger brother, is still around to tell the tale.
Inem
Short Story by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. A six-year-old boy’s best friend, an eight-year-old girl, is married off to a seventeen-year-old-man. Her family are neighbors, and for months afterwards he is kept awake by her screams at night. A year later she is divorced, a tainted “woman” facing a miserable future.
The Other Wife / Woman
Quick Read by Colette. A recently married couple visiting a restaurant chance upon the husband’s ex-wife. The self-centered, controlling husband cannot understand why his first wife ended their relationship. The new marriage, in which the younger woman flirtatiously plays the part of a trophy wife, appears more to his liking.

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