Short Stories - Aug
We are what we read, so we must be careful about the things we want to read.
— with apologies to Kurt Vonnegut.
You should not take reading recommendations from some influencer's Instagram stories or #booktok. They'll have you reading Coleen Hoover's It Starts with Us, convinced that it's something of substance. What you read affects what and how you think. What you think morphs into how you behave. How you behave defines your personality and so on and so forth.
With that out of the way, this month's reviews features 22 (!) stories where almost half of the authors are women from various nationalities.
Let's roll:
A Lady’s Maid - Sarah Gailey
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
One of the craziest stories I've read and I mean that in a good way. A woman announces her engagement at a dinner party and the news isn't taken well by one of the guests. The rest of the evening gets crazier and crazier as everything goes wrong. My reaction several times while reading this was laughing in disbelief and exclaiming "bro, what???"
Summary: It's a Victorian comedy.
Year Published: 2017
Recommend? Yes
The Mysterious Stranger - Mark Twain
⭐⭐⭐⭐
In the beginning of the story: Oh, I love the description of this simple, medieval town of Eseldorf, Austria in 1702. These people are pure of heart and seem to be living the ideal life.
A little further down: Never mind. Just remembered how I would've hated being in medieval times. What with all the fanaticism and the hysteria around the witches; burning little girls and old women alive on the slightest suspicion, the maladies and learned helplessness.
The mysterious stranger is none other than Satan himself who reveals himself to three young boys on a hill in rural Austria. These boys and the towns folk are simple, devout Christians. While Satan is generally very friendly and charismatic, he doesn't hides his disdain for man's ability to differentiate the good from the bad and thinks it's mostly a useless trait. Anyone who is part of the monotheistic gang™️ knows what Satan's grievance with man is. So the question to be asked is what does he gets out of this friendship? And why doesn't he reveal himself to anyone else in the town?
I think this story would make for a great read-out-loud session to children aged 4-99. Twain never misses on the readability aspect. I do, however, wish it were a little shorter in length because it really tested my patience. If you do read it, I want you to pay attention to Satan's narrative of Man's condition because you will realize a lot of people around you — everyday people, media people, that one professor in the school — sound like him and I want you to think how aligning with his argument would irrevocably change a person's life.
Summary: A young boy befriends an angel called Satan but doesn't grasps how masterfully he influences his perspective about life and his time in the world.
Year Published: 1916
Recommend? Yes
Mrs. Fox - Sarah Hall
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The prose is soooo beautiful in this one and the first few paragraphs are so utterly captivating that you're not surprised it won awards in fiction. The couple in the story are working professionals living a quiet, suburban life. They go out for a walk one weekend when something unexpected happens to the wife leaving the husband flabbergasted. So much of his astonishment and despair is valid that it makes you cuss out the author in the end.
Summary: A young husband and wife are living a blissful suburban life until one day something peculiar happens to the wife.
Year Published: 2013
Recommend? Yes
The Bungalow House - Thomas Ligotti
⭐⭐⭐
A librarian spends his lunch breaks at a nearby art galley and becomes obsessed with some audio tapes describing the dreary state of a bungalow house. He asks the eccentric gallery owner to set up a meeting with the artist who has been recording these tapes. To the librarian, it is surprising that someone is able to capture despair and desolation in such a personal manner. But little does he or the reader knows how strange things will get.
Summary: A librarian is trying to meet with an anonymous artist whose audio tapes has him transfixed.
Year Published: 1995
Recommend? Yes
Zaabalawi - Naguib Mahfouz
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A man in Cairo is on a quest for a saint who has a reputation for curing mysterious illnesses. The catch is that the saint has no permanent abode so the man has to find him by asking around. Trying to locate him is a whole act in itself. I am always taken by i-am-on-a-quest type plots and am rooting for the main character. If that's your thing, go for it.
Summary: A man is in search of a Sheikh who, he is convinced, will cure him of his affliction.
Year Published: 1963
Recommend? Yes
The Husband Stitch - Carmen Maria Machado
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I fucking loved this story. Girl meets a boy in teenage, falls in love, marries young and is recounting her ardent love life before and after marriage. The one mysterious detail about her is the green ribbon tied around her neck that she doesn't lets her husband touch. As time passes, the question about unravelling the ribbon comes up several times but the woman always deflects divulging information about it. Speculative fiction and/or magical realism fans, this one's right up your alley. Just don't accidentally google what a husband stitch is.
Summary: A woman keeps no secrets from her husband except the bit about why she has a green ribbon around her neck.
Year Published: 2014
Recommend? Yes
Wants - Grace Paley
⭐⭐⭐
About a chance encounter between an ex-couple at the footsteps of a library and the woman comparing her personality to that of her ex-husband's. Three stars because the writing was Good but the length was simply too short.
Summary: A woman comparing what she versus her ex-husband wanted during an impromptu meeting.
Year Published: 1974
Recommend? Tough, but no
The Birds of God - Mia Couto
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ernesto is a fisherman feeling sad that he hasn't caught enough fish for the day and would have to return empty-handed to his wife and kids. While he is contemplating the sad state of affairs, a bird literally lands from the sky in his tug boat. He thinks of killing it but is overcome by emotion thinking that the bird materializing out of nowhere is a sign. The whole story felt like an allusion to how people hold on to certain keepsakes because it reminds them of an epiphany or a turning point in life.
Summary: A man is adamant not to hunt the birds he found while fishing thinking they're a sign from God.
Year Published: 1986
Recommend? Yes
The Fruit of My Woman - Han Kang
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A running joke I have is that if you're reading an East-Asian author, prepare to come across a normal-sounding title whose meaning will be revealed in the final lines of the story. Only then will you realize how devastating the title actually is. This one is no exception to that observation.
The story is about a Korean couple in their 30s. One day the wife complains about bruises forming on her skin and the husband instructs her to get it checked. She brushes it off, saying the doctor said it's nothing but the bruises only get darker and more pronounced over time. It's a bit of an upsetting read especially regarding the husband's conduct which doesn't get any better as the story progresses.
Summary: A wife complains about mysterious bruises appearing on her body that won't go away.
Year Published: 1997
Recommend? Yes
The District Doctor - Ivan Turgenev
⭐⭐⭐
Sometimes you read stories and you can tell... you can just tell how it will end. A doctor reminisces about an old patient of his that he was smitten with. It's always amusing to me how, both in real and fictional world, people disclose their deepest, darkest secrets to strangers they'll only meet once.
Summary: A doctor goes to a far-off house to tend to an ailing patient and catches feelings for her (btw it's considered unethical/malpractice today and even has a name aka 'transference').
Year Published: 1951
Recommend? Yes
A Manual For Cleaning Women - Lucia Berlin
⭐⭐⭐⭐
You ever wonder how someone from a service industry would start divulging trade secrets to you? Lucia Berlin made a story out of that. The protagonist is a house maid in Oakland, California and is explaining her line of work. It has a tinge of melancholy to it but it's not a sentiment that masks the entire story.
Summary: A maid recalls her experience of working at different houses.
Year Published: 2015
Recommend? Yes
The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I feel like there are certain books/stories you should hang on to and read only when you are receptive enough to receive the message. This is one such book. Written in prose poetry format; it centers around a wise man departing the fictional city of Orphalese. People gather around to bid farewell, asking him a plethora of questions about topics like time, work, love, friendship and others and he answers them as best as he can.
Summary: You're a wise man leaving the town after 12 years and the towns folk ask you advice about life matters.
Year Published: 1923
Recommend? Yes
The Birds - Daphne du Maurier
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Nat Hocken lives in Cornwall. It's early December and the weather has gone unusually cold all of a sudden. Nat notices that the flocks of birds that usually migrate around this time have become inexplicably hostile. They are restless, they attack people and they constantly tap on the windows. It's not just a coastal town occurrence, it's happening all around Britain. Imagine everyday as darkness descends, your anxiety levels dial up to the nines as the tide turns outside and with it the frenzy of the birds.
There's very few horror stories that can produce that eyes-wide-in-trepidation feeling in me. Glad to report this one had that effect. While I'm lucky that I've never been a victim of a bird attack, I can imagine how unsettling it can be (even biblical?). Definitely a highlight from this month's reading.
Summary: You live in a coastal British town and birds of all shapes and sizes around you have suddenly turned hostile.
Year Published: 1952
Recommend? Yes
The Warriors - Larry Niven
⭐⭐⭐
This is the first of a multi-part, sci-fi series based on interstellar conflict between humans and the Kzinti, an alien species that have a proclivity for war. A human colony ship encounters aliens for the first time in a distant future. The captain of the ship is suspicious of the aliens and is anticipating some kind of attack. Part of his distrust is warranted - the Kzinti possess advance tech not seen before.
Meanwhile, all knowledge of violence has been kept under wraps from humans on earth and as a result, many crew members are not familiar with what violence/an active threat is. It took me a while to piece together what the story was about. Maybe it gets better as the series goes on. I would never know.
Summary: A human colony ship encounters an alien species in space and the captain and the crew members are of different minds on whether to open fire or not.
Year Published: 1966
Recommend? No
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? - Joyce Carol Oates
⭐⭐
Connie is 15, good-looking and likes hanging out at the mall with her friends in summertime. One time she sees a passerby in a car who eyes her and mysteriously visits her house next day while her family is away.
Now it isn't exactly news that weird creeps, obsessed with minors, exist in the world. My main gripe with Oates is that she spends a great deal of time detailing how the creep is trying to lure Connie out of the house. That part felt dragged out and unnecessary and the ending was also kinda meh.
Summary: A creepy dude making advances towards a minor who doesn't know how to handle the situation.
Year Published: 1966
Recommend? No
Utopia, LOL? - Jamie Wahls
⭐⭐⭐
They say humor is (partially) subjective and I agree but I failed to spot it in this one. A man wakes up from his cryogenic slumber and finds himself with a chatty woman who is his tour guide to a post-human world run by a friendly AI. This new world can be whatever you want it to be. You can be a bird and experience the reality around you as a bird or conjure up a time period of your liking.
Though the premise is nice, the story felt all-too-predictable. I like my utopia tour guides no-nonsense style like Morpheus (The Matrix) and not someone who resembles a prattling over-excited girl.
Summary: How long can you chill in a utopia before you get bored?
Year Published: 2017
Recommend? No
You're Ugly Too - Laurie Moore
⭐⭐⭐
I winced more than once while reading this thinking "damn b**** did you even try to be happy?". The main character is a college teacher in a small Midwestern town. She is rather plain in appearance and that aspect clouds the way she looks and deals with her life. She's not evil but her eccentricities often get in the way of her being likable. It made me think of something we've candidly discussed in the girls' group chat: if you are not conventionally good-looking, just go and get really good at one thing. I promise looks aren't the be-all and end-all if you have a formidable skill.
One line summary: A cynical woman is being set up by her sister to chat with a man at a Halloween party.
Year Published: 1990
Recommend? Torn but no
Gandasa - Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi
⭐⭐⭐
Gandasa (a large, axe-like tool similar to a Halberd) revolves around Maula who lives in rural Punjab. Maula is an esteemed wrestler whose father gets murdered by a man named Ranga just as he is about to compete in a competitive match. Mad with grief, he vows to avenge his father. The situation gets complicated when he meets Raju, a girl engaged to the one of Ranga's sons, on a chance encounter and catches feelings for her.
Reading like this was like plunging through a hyperbole galore. I couldn't help but giggle at the prose. I suppose for a folk tale, it makes sense that the story needs to be as dramatic as possible.
Summary: A man is hell-bent on avenging his father's murder and make the enemies' future generations pay but things get complicated quick.
Year Published: ??
Recommend? Yes
Nazara Darmyan Hai - Qurat ul Ain Haidar
⭐⭐⭐
A guy returns from Paris to Mumbai and is looking for a job. He had a love interest abroad but his family convinces him to marry a local girl from an affluent family because marrying her would mean long-term financial security. Meanwhile his Parisian love interest who also happens to be Indian but of a different ethnicity returns around the same time to Mumbai. Rest of the story revolves around what happens to the first girl. I couldn't help but think that the odds of something like this happening in real life would be slim but hey! it's fiction.
Summary: Don't build your house on sand.
Year Published: ??
Recommend? No
Flowering Judas - Katherine Anne Porter
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was swept away by Katherine Porter's brilliant writing style. The prose has a certain poeticism that I can only describe as similar to ebb and flow of waves.
The story is set in Mexico; it is 1920 and Laura is a young, 22 year old teacher who is secretly helping the Socialist cause in the aftermath of the Mexican revolution. She is wary of her benefactor, Braggioni, who was a revolutionist but has now succumbed to materialism. Laura fears that she might become cynical and jaded like him one day.
Summary: That uneasy feeling you get when you fear that your character might be at odds with who you are underneath.
Year Published: 1935
Recommend? Yes
A Clean, Well– Lighted Place - Ernest Hemingway
⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you're at the how-to-make-people-devastated-with-words Olympics and your opponent is Hemingway, it's like what's the point? The plot revolves around the divide between youth and old age and all the baggage that comes with it. Hemingway is not someone you should read in summer with a sunny disposition because this is how your good mood will be looking at you.
Summary: Two waiters are having a conversation on why the cafe should stay open until late at night.
Year Published: 1933
Recommend? Yes
Warm - Robert Sheckley
⭐⭐⭐
The story begins on a tender note: a man is about to confess his feelings to his lover but starts hearing an internal voice just before walking out of his apartment. The more he converses with it, the stranger things become.
Things kinda start going south for him after this BUT the whole read did offer an interesting thought experiment: would you, given a chance, choose to see people for what they really are? I'd rather not. When choosing superpowers in games as a child, I liked being an omniscient, sphinx-like entity but now that I'm 84, I prefer not knowing things too.
Summary: A man is conversing with an invisible voice and starts seeing people beyond their exterior.
Year Published: 1953
Recommend? Yes
We write and publish handwritten, non-chatGPT-slop reviews that are not influenced by Goodreads comments in any shape or form*
It bears repeating that everything you see here — from the raving to the passionate hating to the ambivalence towards certain prose/plot/genres — is coming from the heart and is not parroting someone else's opinions. To even suggest writing something influenced by AI overlords, Grammarly or some other blog writer would be absurd. The author is too individualistic for that.
Until later.
*last heading inspired by this meme
