The Jay is one of Yasunari Kawabata’s famous Palm-of-the-Hand Stories. A small bird is causing a fuss because it can’t find a lost chick that has fallen from its nest. A young woman about to enter into an arranged marriage also feels lost. She has never known her birth mother, who her father divorced when she was very young, and lives with her grandmother. Her father and stepmother are coming to visit with the mother of her fiancé. The major theme, exemplified by the bird, is the intensity of motherly love. Other themes: family, marriage, uncertainty, wisdom of the aged. More…
A Useless Man
Rather than being “useless”, the protagonist of this story by Sait Faik Abasıyanık admits to having given up on life. A recluse, he hasn’t washed himself or left his Istanbul neighborhood of four streets in seven years. He follows the same routine, meets the same people, and fantasizes about the same voluptuous Jewish woman every day. One day, for no apparent reason, he ventures further afield and is dumbstruck by the changes to and vibrancy of the city. After returning home, he is so disoriented by the experience that he contemplates suicide. Themes include alienation, loneliness, fear, hopelessness, depression. More…
Five-Twenty
In this story by Patrick White, a woman with very low self-esteem spends her life at the beck and call of a rancorous, dominating husband. As they age and he gradually wastes away, they spend their days “traffic watching” from the veranda of their small house on a busy road. She becomes obsessed with a strange-looking man who drives by at five-twenty every day and, following a chance meeting after her husband dies, experiences what may be her first passionate stirrings. Sadly, death comes between them. Themes include patriarchy, gender roles, aging, loneliness, lack of passion and fulfilment, freedom, loss. More…
The Parsley Garden
In this coming-of-age story by William Saroya, an eleven-year-old boy redeems himself after being caught stealing a hammer from a department store. Rather than calling the police, the store manager makes him sweat for a while and lets him off with a warning. The boy spends the rest of the day plotting how to get the hammer and respond to what he considers humiliating treatment. The confusion in his mind is contrasted with the peace and tranquillity of his mother’s “parsley garden”, where everything is free for the taking. Themes include temptation, choices and consequences, shame/humiliation, anger, redemption, self-image. More…
The Soul is Not a Smithy
In this story by David Foster Wallace, a man looks back to a day when, as a “slow” nine-year-old student, he daydreamed his way through a Civics class by making up stories based on visual clues he saw while staring out the window. Oblivious to the growing panic of classmates as a deranged substitute teacher wrote KILL, KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL repeatedly on the chalkboard, he remained sitting after the other students fled. A major theme is fear of disappointment and lack of fulfilment in adult life. Other themes include childhood trauma, violence, pain and loss, time, memory, death. More…