This story by Alice Adams consists of several “snapshots” of the narrator’s encounters with fellow passengers on Greyhound buses. Recently divorced and facing potential homelessness, the woman’s self-esteem is at an all-time low. Taken in by an overbearing friend, her life has deteriorated into a daily grind. Faced with an inter-city bus commute morning and evening, the situations she encounters and people she meets awaken her to a whole new world. For perhaps the first time in her life, she begins to act independently and step out of her comfort zone. Themes: isolation, insecurity, friendship, dependency, anxiety/fear, personal growth. More…
In the Garden of the North American Martyrs
This early Tobias Wolff story is about a college history professor who has always played it safe by expounding non-controversial views. When her East Coast school of fifteen years closes, she finds tenure in Oregon. However, the climate is not to her liking. After gaining an interview for a position in a prestigious college in upstate New York, she learns that she is a token female candidate with no chance of success. Part of the application process is a lecture, where she finds her own voice for the first time. Themes: identity, betrayal, manipulation, academic integrity, conformity vs. original thought. More…
The Encyclopedia of the Dead
The legendary Encyclopedia in this story by Danilo Kiš records minute details of the lives of all people not famous enough to have a published biography. Readers encounter two sets of themes: those related to the book, and those arising from the protagonist’s dream about her father’s entry in the book. For the book we have egalitarianism (equality in eternity), individuality (each person is a star unto himself) and singularity (nothing in the history of mankind is ever repeated). For the protagonist’s dream, which ends with a supernatural twist, we have memories, love, aging, and coming to terms with death. More…
Fox Hunt
This story by Lensey Namioka is a blend of legend and reality . A studious Asian-American boy preparing for the PSAT exam is the only one in his class without a “study buddy”. The boy is pushed to do well by his father, who is descended from a long line of Chinese scholars. One day, his mother tells him a tale about how an ancestor was helped in his studies by a huli, or fox spirit disguised as a girl. Shortly afterwards, the boy meets his own huli. Themes include culture, alienation, pressure to succeed, determination, friendship, coincidence vs. the supernatural. More…
Islands
Set in the 1970s before the breakup of Yugoslavia, this semi-autobiographical story by Alexsander Hemon describes a Bosnian family’s holiday visit to relatives on a Croatian island. The narrator is a nine-year-old boy indoctrinated in communist ideology. He experiences several traumatic events over the week, the most notable of which is his uncle’s account of the brutal mistreatment and torture of children in Stalin’s prison camps. This shatters his view of the world, and challenges his belief in his own government (the Tito regime). Themes include memory, trauma, loss of innocence, self-awareness and identity, disillusionment, birth, death and futility. More…