Stories

The list of stories at right includes some lucky finds, some gifts from friends, many personal favorites and a few classics. It's in reverse alpha order, and while I'm generally not a huge fan of reverse alpha order--being forced to go first across the stage at my high school graduation made up my mind about that, the anti-alphabetical arrangement happened by accident and is time-consuming to fix, so it's staying as is.

I think all these stories are great reads, but here's a bit of an overview. Margaret Atwood is a favorite author, and "Happy Endings" shows her sharp wit, gives her usual dry take on the war between the sexes, gets to the essence of the human condition and offers insight into writing. Geoffrey Becker's "Black Elvis" and Marilyn Krysl's "The Thing Around Them" come from the 2000 Best American Short Stories, the best of the series IMO. "The Thing Around Them" has a heart-stopping opening line, "Because of the boy dragged behind the jeep...." How can you not have to read that story now. The other Krysl piece is a bonus, and a great example of meta-fiction. I'm fond of stories that observe the writing process. Amy Hempel's "The Harvest" is another example. Her "Today Will Be A Quiet Day," is a lovely slice of life, full of her typical spot-on perfect details, told in to-the-essence minimalist style. "Offertory," is a long piece for Hempel, and a sequel to her mini-novella, "Tumble Home" to boot.

"Offertory," like Mary Gaitskill's "The Secretary," and AM Homes "A Real Doll" is a bit raw and erotic; yet none of these stories titillate. Despite the raw sexual content, they veer towards sadness, underlining our human need for connection and our need to be valued.

Classics I ran across on the web include "The Swimmer," "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "Everything That Rises Must Converge," "The Dead," and "A&P." "181/2" features famous voices and a surprise twist; "The Things They Carried," gets me every time and "Memento Mori," is the short story the movie "Momento" came from. "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had," is another personal favorite. "Birds in Fall," is the opening chapter to Brad Kessler's novel. Interesting use of first person pov, plus it's beautifully written. And Lou Matthews blows me away with the variety of voices he fully inhabits, "the Garlic Eater," being one fine example.
Probably I will add more to this list from time to time, when inspiration or the need to procrastinate strike...

And I'm adding one more right now: Amy Bloom's "The Gates are Closing." The list will no longer be in reverse alpha order...