This story from Italo Calvino starts off aslike a horror story. A young couple with a baby move to a peaceful seaside village looking for work, only to discover that the whole place is crawling with ants. After they find the baby covered in ants and their food destroyed, Calvino takes a playful turn. He goes on to describe the sometimes farcical ways villagers try to exterminate and/or pretend they are not affected by the invaders, and the couple’s embarrassing confrontation with the reportedly self-serving government “Ant Man”. Themes: co-existing with nature, powerlessness, futility, tolerance/accepting the inevitable, mob hysteria. More…
The Overcoat (The Cloak)
This story by Nikolai Gogol, described by Vladimir Nabokov as the greatest Russian short story ever written, uses pathos and dry humor to get its messages across. The protagonist represents Russia’s working class, eking out a living in a tedious, low-level job. Things improve dramatically when a windfall allows him to buy a new overcoat. Sadly, after a mugger steals the coat, shortcomings in the justice system and failing health contribute to his death. Perhaps metaphorically, his ghost rises up and terrorizes the city in retribution. Themes: alienation, (lack of) connection and compassion, bureaucracy, materialism, social class, the supernatural, revenge. More…
Usher II
First published in 1950 as Carnival of Madness, this story by Ray Bradbury is also included in his anthologies The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. A wealthy book-lover, angry about destruction of his extensive library because of fantasy and horror story censorship on Earth, builds a look-alike version of Edgar Allan Poe’s House of Usher on Mars. He invites prominent book-banners to a party at the house, where they meet different Poe-inspired ends. Themes include censorship vs. personal freedom, the importance of speculative fiction, the danger of excess political correctness, zealotry (in this case, taking a protest too far!) More…
Unaccustomed Earth
The major themes of this story from Jhumpa Lahiri are connection (daughter-parents, grandfather-grandson) and biculturalism (how different generations respond to belonging to two different cultures). A widowed Indian immigrant visits his daughter and three-year-old grandson. The visit triggers memories of the difficulties and frustrations the daughter experienced growing with parents who had different values and beliefs to their adopted culture. It also highlights her lonely, isolated life and strained marriage, and an inner-conflict she feels about the Indian cultural practice of a child taking a widowed parent into their home. Other themes: death and grief, moving on, independence, companionship, loneliness. More…
The Scholarship Jacket
This story by Marta Salinas is about prejudice, privilege and hope. Martha is 14 and about to enter High-School. Her parents are very poor, so she lives with her grandparents. Marta gets top grades, and wants nothing more than for this to be recognized by winning the Grade 8 Scholarship Jacket. She is devastated when she hears two teachers arguing about whether the jacket should go instead to a lesser student whose father is on the School Board. When Martha explains the problem to her grandfather, his answer proves that you don’t need a formal education to acquire great wisdom. More…