Featured Stories

The Ass, the Table, and the Stick

The Ass, the Table, and the Stick: English folktale from Joseph JacobsIn this English folktale, a young man works for a year and earns a magic donkey. An innkeeper tricks him out of it, so he works for another year and earns a magic table. The same innkeeper tricks him out of this. For his next job, the boy earns a magic stick. This helps the young man get his donkey and table back, as well as to marry his true love. Unfortunately, in winning the girl the young man shows a side of his personality that will make readers wonder if he really deserved all the magical help!

Continue ReadingThe Ass, the Table, and the Stick

The Big True

The Big True: Short story by Dina NayeriThis story by Dina Nayeri explores the circumstances of a once famous Iranian sitar player who, following his wife’s death and his daughter’s graduation from Harvard, chooses the simple life of a drifter. This and his clumsiness with technology causes a rift with his condescending daughter, who can’t even make time to share a coffee when he visits New York. Fortunately, he finds solace with a like-minded Indian immigrant and other residents sharing a YMCA hostel. Themes include the immigrant experience, cultural differences, generational conflict, friendship, father-daughter relationships, search for identity, loneliness, nostalgia, the Internet.

Continue ReadingThe Big True

No Witchcraft for Sale

No Witchcraft for Sale: Short story by Doris LessingDoris Lessing’s years growing up on a Rhodesian farm add credibility to this story about a condescending white family’s relationship with their native cook who, it seems, doubles as a local medicine man. The closeness that exists between the cook and their young son evaporates as the boy ages and becomes aware of racial issues, but is rekindled when the cook uses “bush medicine” to save the boy’s eyesight. The parents’ gratitude turns to anger as the cook refuses to reveal the secret of the cure to a greedy scientist. Themes: racism, ancient wisdom, altruism vs. commercial exploitation, cultural conflict.

Continue ReadingNo Witchcraft for Sale

Crazy Sunday

Crazy Sunday: Short story by F. Scott FitzgeraldThis partly autobiographical story from F. Scott Fitzgerald deals with the relationships between an up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriter (Joel), a powerful movie director (Miles), and the director’s wife (Stella). All three suffer major insecurity issues thanks to Hollywood’s toxic, highly competitive culture. Miles is a troubled adulterer; he and Stella look upon Joel as a friend/confidante; Joel has much stronger feelings for Stella. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it), Miles dies before the seemingly inevitable marriage bust-up, and the future of Joel and Stella is left up in the air. Themes include insecurity, jealousy, appearances, romance, infidelity.

Continue ReadingCrazy Sunday

Heat

Heat: Short story by Joyce Carol OatesIn this confronting story by Joyce Carol Oates, mischievous eleven-year-old twin girls are brutally murdered by Roger Whipple, a supposedly harmless, mentally challenged man. Major themes are power, cruelty and violent revenge. The twins exercise persuasive power by demanding compliance with their wishes from school friends and cruelly harassing and making fun of Roger. The power theme is emphasized through anecdotes about the girls’ antics and dark humor: We liked it that Rhea and Rhoda had been killed … but we didn’t like it that they were dead; we missed them. In the end revenge, and Roger’s physical power, prevail.

Continue ReadingHeat

The Egg

The Egg: Short story by Andy WeirAndy Weir’s The Egg is so thought provoking that I have re-read it several times over the years. The story comprises a conversation between “god” and a dead man about the meaning and purpose of life (to grow his soul through new experiences), and his place in the universe. Other themes (equality, consideration for others, and empathy) are nicely summed up in the paragraph: Every time you victimized someone, you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.

Continue ReadingThe Egg

The Legend of Nai Raeng

The Legend of Nai Raeng: Thai folktaleThis folktale from Southern Thailand is about a man who was so big when he was born that his parents named him Nai Raeng (in Thai ‘raeng’ means strength, energy or power). The boy eats so much that his poor parents cannot feed him. They get him a job as a sailor, but the captain also cannot feed him. As Nai Raeng grows, he proves to be so wise that he gets a high government job. He is also very honourable, and one day must order that his own head be cut off and placed above a buried treasure.

Continue ReadingThe Legend of Nai Raeng

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World: Short story by Gabriel Garcia MarquezThis story from Gabriel Marquez describes how the body of a huge man washed in from the sea transforms a drab, sleepy fishing village. The body goes through stages of being admired for its power and good looks, pitied for the inconvenience being so large must have caused, given a name, claimed by the village as one of its own, and re-buried at sea with great dignity. The people feel such pride in being associated with the unknown man that their celebrations of his life turn the village into a famous landmark. Themes: myth creation, perceptions and influence of beauty.

Continue ReadingThe Handsomest Drowned Man in the World