Short Stories - Sep
I wrote back in Jan that I dedicated one hour a day to reading short stories and that I thought it was manageable. Not every month is a smooth sail like that. Some times I don't have the time or the inclination to read. And in those months, it's very amusing to see me finish the reading before the month is over.
But let's cut to the chase. This month's review spans 14 stories. Details below:
Super Toys Last All Summer Long - Brian Aldiss
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This sci-fi lays out an interesting scenario: what if the government is cracking down on population control so that you can only have kids once every four years? What if, to stave off loneliness or the desire to have kids, you "adopt" synthetic humans or robots-kids until you can birth your own?
The story goes back-and-forth between a robot-boy and a stay-at-home wife and how the woman struggles to feel strong maternal love for him because he is not really human or her own flesh-and-blood. I've a lot of mixed emotions about this one, thanks in part to the advanced robot-kids having feelings and all. Lots to think about.
Summary: Congrats! you made a machine in the likeness of human mind and Frank Herbert would like a word.
Year Published: 1969
Recommend? Yes
Swarm - Bruce Sterling
⭐⭐⭐
I thought Blood child by Octavia Butler was gross in terms of the vivid imagery about revolting creatures. I was wrong. This is way worse. We find two humans on a mission to survive in a hive world of symbiotic species. One of them is tasked with collecting information about the pheromones that control the dominant species, sample it and bring it back for cloning research and threat mitigation.
An insect-like hierarchy is used to maintain peace between the hostile and docile species in the alien hive world. There is a queen, a group that takes care of eggs, one group that kills and another that acts as scavengers. Will the humans succeed in their mission through intelligent planning and foresight? Or is intelligence a liability in this realm? Swarm is very good in world-building but doesn't get the ending quite right.
Summary: You're on a hostile mission to collect intel and it's not really clear if you're outsmarting the aliens or if they're luring you into a trap.
Year Published: 1982
Recommend? Yes
The School - Donald Barthelme
⭐⭐⭐
This one is about a teacher who has to answer questions from his students about death and, indirectly, the meaning of life. Thankfully, the plot doesn't plunges you deep in the throes of philosophical dilemmas but rather grapples with these existential questions with a light hold. Kids are awesome because they'll ask you something innocent and suddenly you are scrambling to come up with a good answer that feels like you are justifying it as much to yourself as you are to them.
Summary: A teacher answers questions about mortality to his young pupils.
Year Published: 1976
Recommend? Yes
The Man - E. B. Dongala
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Really enjoying reading works from African authors and am grateful to translators for bringing stories from languages like French and others to English. The story opens with vivid descriptions of how dictators in totalitarian regimes maintain their chokehold on a poverty-stricken population and the stark contrast between their lifestyle and that of the people they rule over.
The thing about total repression is that it works until it doesn't. One day a lone-wolf type comes along, executes his plan and becomes the worst nightmare for the dictator. Wise men say "do not obey in advance" but it usually takes a heroic figure to first break the illusion of the dictator's power before average people start resisting authoritarianism.
Summary: A mysterious man sets out to break the myth of a totalitarian ruler's invincibility.
Year Published: 1984
Recommend? Yes
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I had made a mental note to read Carver ever since a lively discussion over dinner about whether Nabokov, Hemingway and Carver are similar in their writing style. The plot revolves around a man whose wife has been in contact with a blind man through audio tapes. The woman used to work for the blind man some years ago and they had kept in touch later.
Fast forward to now and the couple are about to welcome this man over their house. The husband isn't very fond of the guest not because of jealousy but because he has never socialized with a blind person before, much less one who has been a good friend of his wife for years. In a weird way, it reminded me of Past Lives movie though they're not exactly the same.
Summary: A blind man is visiting his friend and her husband but the husband isn't sure how to get along with him.
Year Published: 1983
Recommend? Yes
Tauba Shikan - Bano Qudsia
⭐⭐⭐
A young woman has feelings for her professor and has to decide between him and an affluent suitor with whom she doesn't share any chemistry. The catch is that while the girl is attracted to her professor, he isn't rich whereas the other guy runs a successful hotel business but the girl hardly knows him and doesn't have enough time to figure out if she is enamored of him. Qudsia is critical of young women's criteria of who to fall in love with. Good read but a bit meandering at times.
Summary: A woman looks back at the time when she had to choose out of two potential life partners with very different personalities.
Year Published: ??
Recommend? Yes
The Rocking Horse Winner - D.H. Lawrence
⭐⭐⭐
The protagonist, Paul, is the first-born to a middle class English family; the kind where parents are obsessed with money and are always anxious that they never have enough of it. This obsession seeps into the psyche of their children where they feel that despite having a house and having most of their needs met, they are still somehow unlucky. Paul is obsessed with the concept of luck and to prove to his mother that he's the opposite of average.
It's D.H. Lawrence, he has a way with words. The first few paragraphs of the story are 10/10 in terms of prose though it gets a bit dull in the middle.
Summary: A boy is adamant to prove that despite being very young, luck smiles down on him always.
Year Published: 1926
Recommend? Yes
The Things - Peter Watts
⭐⭐
I don't know if you've noticed but anytime when a story is written in first-person, there's this subtle effect where any positive or negative emotion that the protagonist is feeling could be something you might mistake as your own. I'm always a bit cautious around these type of stories; sort of like absorbing the perspective at arm's length and reminding myself that these are not my thoughts.
The main character in this story is a shape-shifting alien who is recalling what it feels like to have lived many lives on earth. He can mimic whatever animal he resides in. In a way he is sentient and can think but has no thoughts or emotions of his own. This one, sadly, didn't make for an engrossing read. In fact, it felt like an internal monologue of a virus.
Summary: An alien is recounting what it feels like to inhabit different things on the planet.
Year Published: 2010
Recommend? No
In the hills, the cities - Clive Barker
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finally a good cult-horror story! A gay couple is on a road trip to visit a monastery in Yugoslavia. They get lost along the journey and run into a huge puddle of fresh blood and throngs of dead bodies coming down their way at a turn. Instead of turning back and running away, they decide to investigate out of sheer horror. And that is where things get darker and darker. Like you, I too am a bit scared at the prospect of getting lost in central Europe with no language comprehension, no GPS, no soul in sight on the road and the night fast approaching. It's not the most frightening story I've read but it's quite grotesque when it reveals what the "monster" is.
Summary: A road trip in Yugoslavia goes horribly wrong.
Year Published: 1984
Recommend? Yes
Angel's Egg - Edgar Pangborn
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You're a reclusive, 50-something, retired biologist living a quiet life in Massachusetts. One day you discover an unusual egg among the ones laid out by your chicken. What spawns out of it is an angel that looks like a descendant of Tinker Bell. Only this one has lots of magical powers, a longer life span than humans and the power to take life away.
For those of you wishing for a story where the humans are well-meaning and the foreign entity also does not have a nefarious agenda, rejoice! I liked the author's non-preachy take on optimism; it is neither unbridled nor scant. Plus major props for not making the protagonist and the angel's relationship sexual. Not everything has to be.
Summary: A man befriends a tiny angel who appears in his house under mysterious circumstances.
Year Published: 1951
Recommend? Yes
Eisenheim, the Illusionist - Steven Millhauser
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Abramovitz, who goes by the name Eisenheim, is a Slovakian Jew who is the son of a respected cabinet-maker. He is destined to follow his father's footsteps professionally until a chance encounter with a magician changes the trajectory of his life. At 28, he is fully committed to becoming a formidable magician in Vienna around the end of 19th century.
As his popularity grows, so does the professional envy among his peers. Overtime Eisenheim devises more and more creative magic tricks — from materializing adolescent boys and girls on the stage who could talk to conjuring new people that would appear seated in the middle of the audience.
Meanwhile the Viennese police have caught wind of his reputation and are contemplating if his acts could fall under the category of disrupting public peace. One can imagine that his fame and the police's growing skepticism of him creates a lot of tension. You should read it to find out how they resolve it. The prose is lovely and that together with consistent pacing is what makes this story memorable. It makes sense that it was adapted into a movie.
Summary: A talented Viennese magician keeps coming up with more and more dazzling magic tricks to keep the city folk hypnotized.
Year Published: 1989
Recommend? Yes
The First Seven Years - Bernard Malamud
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Set in mid-20th century, this story is about a shoemaker, his daughter and the immigrant assistant he has in his shop. The shoemaker wants to set up his daughter with a customer who visits his shop regularly for repairs. The catch is that his daughter is very independent-minded so the man is not sure if the date would be successful. I've seen some jokes about age-gap relationship on Twitter, so if that's your thing definitely read this one. My takeaway from this was that I continue to be awed by the power of love.
Summary: An aging man wants his obstinate daughter to marry someone very educated.
Year Published: 1958
Recommend? Yes
All You Zombies - Robert Heinlein
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A man is sitting in a bar dejected and the bartender tries to talk to him about it. The man explains that he was born a woman and had a gender-affirming surgery (fancy term for sex change operation) after giving birth. Sadly, the newborn was stolen from the hospital and the intersex person believes that the thief is the man who got him pregnant. This is where the bartender interrupts him asking if he wants revenge. He tells the person he knows a way to get him back in time so that he can set things right. That is where the adventure begins. Those of you who have seen this movie know what happens next.
Summary: An intersex person has the power to time-travel and does all sorts of weird things with that ability.
Year Published: 1959
Recommend? Yes
Red Wine - Lawrence G. Blochman
⭐⭐
I didn't like this one because of the weak plot development. A detective is trying to locate the murderer of a rich woman that leads him to three suspects. The problem is that none of the suspects match the killer's description so the detective has to get creative in finding a way that would lure the killer in giving himself away. So what does he do? Invite them all to dinner and notice their mannerisms to figure out the culprit.
Summary: It's a murder mystery.
Year Published: 1930
Recommend? No
Just because it is well-written doesn't mean it is of substance
Those who write well are the ones whose ideas need to be examined more carefully. When the writing is lackluster and accompanied by weak supporting evidence it can be dismissed easily. But when it's not, it becomes crucial to scrutinize the work.
You could say the whole thing is an exercise in looking at something without the deluxe-edition-rose-tinted sunglasses: ignoring how famous/well-received the book is, ignoring how clouted the author is, ignoring how long that work has been around. Instead focusing on these details: what is it that they're actually saying? what are the implications? and what about the first and second order effects of that line of thinking?
I've noticed that stories have three themes w.r.t story-telling:
- There is a moral lesson.
- There's no lesson. It's describing something mundane with a new perspective.
- It is trying to connect two disparate things together. Something you might've never considered before.
I have no desire of becoming the literary Anton Ego. But I do like figuring out what stories I like so I can find more of them. Regular reminder that if you vehemently disagreed with or outright rejected anything I said, you can and should let me know. I welcome feedback.
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