In this story by José Eduardo Agualusa, an itinerant Russian has been traveling remote areas of Angola for over forty years, entertaining villagers with a pedal-powered projector and old films. During one of the country’s many civil wars, his Russian heritage brings him to the attention of authorities. From a hiding place, he watches in horror as the soldiers sent to find him savagely beat and rape innocent bystanders. He talks his way out of arrest, but loses his treasured projector. In desperation, he turns to “James Dean” for help. Themes include aging, brutality, fear, abuse of power, despair. More…
Girls at Play
In this confronting coming of age story by Celeste Ng three rebellious junior high school girls, ostracized by their peers because they come from the poor part of town, respond by playing a sex game with boys every recess. The girls are outsiders, and one day pause the game to befriend another outsider, a sweet, naïve new girl in town, and teach her teenage ways. To their horror, when other students tell the girl about their sex game, she insists on joining in. Themes include friendship, sexuality, social class, innocence, fitting in. More…
Waldo
In this science fiction fantasy by Robert Heinlein, Earth needs help from “Waldo”, an eccentric genius born with degenerative muscle weakness. Angry at mankind after being cheated out of a ground-breaking invention, Waldo lives as a recluse in a gravity-free home in orbit above the planet. Earth’s problem is a series of physically impossible breakdowns in “deKalbs”, radiant power receptors used to power everything from vehicles to cities. With help from a little magic, he not only solves this but also makes three other important discoveries. Themes: identity, conquering disability, self-reliance and independence, science vs. “magic”. More…
The Imp of the Perverse
Like two of our earlier Edgar Allan Poe tales (The Back Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart), this story involves an unreliable, unhinged narrator facing execution for murder trying to account for his crime. He blames his actions on an agent he claims to be in all of us called the “Imp of the Perverse”. The Imp, he argues, is an urge that drives people to do things they shouldn’t for the simple reason that they know it to be wrong. Ironically, the Imp that drove him to murder also drove him to confess. Themes include perverseness, obsession, madness, self-destruction. More…
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
A major theme of this story by James Thurber is escapism (in this case taking charge of one’s life through fantasy). Walter Mitty, a meek, blundering man who leads a mundane suburban life is perhaps the world’s best-known daydreamer. Constantly humiliated by his dominating, nagging wife and others he encounters in the community, his way of compensating is to escape into exciting, imaginary worlds. There, he acts out fantasies in which he is the opposite of his real self, performing wondrous feats and bravely facing all kinds of danger. Other themes: identity, self-respect, masculinity, gender roles. More…