Featured Stories

Flowering Judas

Flowering Judas: Short story by Katherine Anne PorterThe major theme of this story by Katherine Porter is betrayal. Other themes include alienation, fear, corruption, despair and guilt. Laura, an idealistic American schoolteacher who traveled to Mexico to support the socialist revolution has a sense of impending doom. Trapped by the unwanted attentions of the corrupt, adulterous revolutionary Braggioni and with no love for the Mexican people, she feels lost and alone. Braggioni’s lifestyle is a betrayal of both his socialist ideals and marriage. In working for a socialist cause, Laura betrays her Catholic faith. Her sexual repression could also be seen as betrayal of her womanhood.

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Tam and Cam

Tam and Cam: Vietnamese folktaleAs indicated in our comments on the famous children’s story Cinderella, there are hundreds of folktales around the world that have the similar central plots. This Vietnamese version is longer and continues after the protagonist becomes Queen. The story from here on could only happen in a folktale from a country where people believe that after we die we can be born again in non-human form. The poor girl is killed twice after marrying the king, each time coming back to life in a different form. Fortunately, goodness wins out and the evil stepsister soon finds herself in hot water.

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Three Thanksgivings

Three Thanksgivings: Short story by Charlotte GilmanIn this story by Charlotte Gilman, a widow faces pressure from three sides. Her married children want her to come and live with them, and the man who holds a mortgage over her large family home wants to marry her. She doesn’t want to move or remarry, doesn’t have the means to repay the mortgage, and has three Thanksgivings to make a decision or find the money. In helping five hundred other women, she builds a new life and solves the problem. Themes include gender expectations, financial independence, self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, community.

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Nobody Will Laugh

Nobody Will Laugh: Novelette by Milan KunderaIn this story by Milan Kundera, a Czechoslovakian college lecturer “rewards” an amateur researcher’s gushing praise by going to great lengths to avoid telling the truth about a substandard paper he has submitted for review. Having spent several years on the paper, the man needs the lecturer’s endorsement to have it published. He refuses to give up, resulting in a comic series of events that culminate in the lecturer not only being charged with immoral conduct by his local communist party committee, but losing his job and the partner he belatedly realizes he loves. Themes include hubris, deception, manipulation, persistence.

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May Day Eve

May Day Eve: Short story by Nick JoaquinThe major theme of this story by Nick Joaquin is that happy marriages don’t happen by magic; they require a foundation of mutual respect and constant effort on both sides. A wealthy, controlling man marries a beautiful, feisty, free-spirited woman. Set in late 1800s Philippines under Spanish (Catholic) rule, there is no way out as things go wrong. The woman likens their marriage to living in hell. Her resulting bitterness prompts the vindictive man to label her a witch. After her death, he breaks into tears when thinking about what might have been. Other themes: superstition, compatibility, aging, death, regret.

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The Pugilist at Rest

The Pugilist at Rest: Novelette by Thom JonesThis story by Thom Jones is unusual in that the protagonist, a reflective American Marine, freely admits committing unspeakable war crimes (and getting medals for them) after the rest of his reconnaissance patrol was slaughtered in Vietnam. Post-war PTSD leads to excessive drinking and a vicious boxing match in which he suffers serious brain damage. He must now choose between a life of seizures in a drug-induced haze, or risky surgery that could turn him into a vegetable. Themes include friendship, masculinity, the brutality of war, morality, violence and suffering, choices and consequences, philosophy and art.

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The Man Who Lived Underground

The Man Who Lived Underground: Novella by Richard WrightThis is the shortened, anthologized version of this Richard Wright title, not the recently released (2021) novel. Having said that, it is still a very powerful story. An innocent man, tortured by police into confessing to murder, escapes and takes refuge in the sewers and basements of an unnamed city. As he struggles for survival, uncertainty and sensory deprivation cause him to lose touch with reality. He comes to believe that all men are inherently evil and, unable to go on, decides to face his guilt by handing himself in. Themes: guilt vs. innocence, isolation, identity, racism, police brutality.

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Pigs is Pigs

Pigs is Pigs: Short story by Ellis Parker ButlerThis humorous story by Ellis Parker Butler illustrates how excessive bureaucracy can have dire consequences. A customer argues with a railway freight agent who claims that two guinea pigs he has been sent should be charged as common pigs (sixty cents) rather than pets (fifty cents). The customer leaves the pigs with the agent, planning to collect them after complaining to the freight company’s Head Office. By the time the matter is settled in the customer’s favour, the ten-cent dispute has almost brought the company to its knees. Themes include misinterpretation, stubbornness, bureaucracy gone awry.

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