(last updated May 23, 2015: Added Packing for Mars)
CLASSIC SHORT STORIES
The Lightning-Rod Man, Herman Melville (1854)
A strange visitor with an odd walking stick barges in on Melville's character in the midst of a thunderstorm in this first person narrative. He is ordered about in his own cabin by this interloper, who seems to have an irrational fear of lightning. He turns out to be a lightning-rod salesman, thus his "walking stick." In the end, he returns to the woods to haunt the environs. A much lesser commitment for a reader than Moby Dick. Still, the title reminds of a screen name for a porn actor. What's with this guy?The Man with the Golden Brain, Alphonse Daudet, (1869)
Daudet serves up a fanciful story about a boy born with a brain composed of solid gold. After a difficult childhood, he begins selling pieces of his gold brain to repay his parents for their kindness. As a young a man, he continuous to sell ingots of brain to support an avaricious lifestyle. Feeling weakened by the loss of brain matter, he resolves to conserve for his future and adopts a more healthy approach to life. But then he meets a girl, marries her, and begins spending brain in profusion to please her. Then, tragically, she dies, and he expends the very last of his gold brain for tribute in a gruesome ending. Don't eat some spicy chili just prior to this read. But don't worry: the story is too stupid too leave you with a lifetime of nightmares.Tennessee's Partner, Bret Harte (1869)
Here's a gold rush yarn about a ne'er-do-well who is effectively lynched (under the color of law) by the town's people. It has a poignant ending, and is great example of the truth that literature does a better a job of exploring morality than does academic or theological bloviating. Read it and learn. Too bad I'm not configured to accept bitcoin or paypal. You owe me.My Watch, Mark Twain (1870)
A humorous adventure through every which way anything and everything can and does go awry with Twain's timepiece. One of my favorite Twain classics, among so many. I was particularly amused by the two hands getting stuck together at 10:00 and then being carried around in tandem around the clock face. I take it as a metaphor for life itself. If you don't have at least ten good laughs through this little story, I will kill myself.The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant (1885)
An aspiring wife of a common clerk is invited to a ball. Complaining she has nothing to wear, she persuades her husband to give up a considerable amount of money for an evening gown. But she has no jewelry. He suggests she borrow something from a socialite acquaintance. Making a visit, she selects a diamond necklace. She is a smash hit at the ball, looks the part, and meets and greets with the best of them. But after they leave, she discovers she has lost the precious necklace. Her husband searches their route to and fro to no avail. The necklace is lost. They purchase an exact replacement to return to the original owner, which leaves them deeply in debt. They live a very hard life of privation for ten years to repay what they owe, during which time our lovely protagonist, due her toil, becomes very rundown, disheveled, and very far from the image she had hoped to rise to. One day afterward, she encounters the woman from whom she had borrowed the ill-fated jewelry, who barely recognizes her, and is shocked by her condition. She confesses what happened. Why, they were only "pasties" she was told. Positively depressing. Leave it to the French.A Pair of Silk Stockings, Kate Chopin (1897)
A frugal woman loses herself in a spending spree. A dreamy story with a finely crafted ending. Best read in a U.S. state that has legalized marijuana.The New Catacomb, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1898)
The setting is a rivalry between two archeologists, the rivalry being in more than one sense. It's a classic plot reveal in the mystery genre, a craft that "Sir" had so well mastered. The point of it includes a heavy dose of the macabre. Take it or leave it. But full disclosure: there's no Sherlock.The Leopard Man's Story, Jack London (1903)
Here's a humorous folktale about a lion tamer, and how he was killed. No spoiler intended, but you may want to snort some finely ground black pepper at the last paragraph.
CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES
So I Can Win, The Galatrix Must Die, by Seyward Goodhand, appearing in The SubTerrain, Vol. 7, Issue # 69. This is a gross-out story that is all in the telling. A female weightlifter consumes a fictional animal called a "galatrix" for competitive parity. The details are gory. It is no peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Nor does it have a proper ending, really. I liked it anyway. Choke on it, refuters.
The Spider In You, by Sean Markey, appearing in Neon Literary Magazine Issue #40, winter 2015 (Originally appeared in STRANGE HORIZONS.) The third bite is the worst! A family keeps their spider-god in an aquarium in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. A sacred ritual of their culture is that the children must be venomously bitten three times to find acceptance. This mother's first two didn't survive. But Mahlina is special. She takes the first two bites without complaint. But on the third, she commits heresy...
NOVELS
The Dinner, Herman Koch. (Originally published 2009 in Holland as Het Diner.)
Genres: Fiction, Suspense
Date read: March 2014
Author: Herman Koch [pr. kox], b. September 5, 1953
Publisher: Hogarth, London, New York, 2009. English translation 2012 by Sam Garrett
Awards: None determined by this blogger.
Quote: "Dear old dad."
Opinion: The Dinner is a macabre story and bleeding out with dark humor. There seemed to be a surprise with every turn of the page. From one dinner course to the next, the plot doesn't just get thicker, it begs the next Bear Gryll's bug-eat that might come to mind. However, if you read the online reviews, this taunting satire is obviously not to everybody's taste. Proceed at your own risk.
The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling
Genres: Fiction, Tragic Comedy
Date read: March 13, 2015
Author: J.K. Rowling, b. July 31, 1965
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (2012)
Awards: Category of Best Fiction, Goodreads Choice Awards 2012
Quote:
...The needle slid easily into Krystal's vein. She pressed the plunger down hard in hope and without regret.
By the time Kay and Gaia arrived, and the police decided to force their way in, Krystal Weedon had achieved her only ambition: she had joined her brother where nobody could part them.
Opinion: I never read the Harry Potter books. That isn't because I think there is anything wrong with grown ups reading juvenile literature. If the stories are good, why not? But after reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit through twice in my twenties, I lost interest in the fantasy genre.
Imagine my joy, upon deciding to pick up The Casual Vacancy, to discover what an excellent writer J.K. Rowling truly is. Her prose is vivid: the pages radiate sights, molest the reader with odors and smells, and enervate her with soft or rough touches. Her characters are fully three dimensional and her craft with dialogue is essentially flawless. She has a flare for the comic too, not to mention the upset of tragedy that afflicts us all and is told so well through her characters.
Tragedy and comedy are the park ride of this novel and make no mistake: this is no soap opera. Ms. Rowling's book again demonstrates the superiority of literature over philosophy in confronting the dilemmas of ethics and morality. She doesn't quite achieve the titanic greatness of Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy in these regards, but she approaches it - closely.
NON-FICTION
Team of Rivals
Genres: Non-fiction, History, American History
Date read: October, 2014
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin, b. January 4, 1943
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York (2005)
Awards: 2006 Lincoln Prize; Inaugural Book Prize for American History, New York Historical Society
Quote:
We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We need to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Opinion: Doris Kearns Goodwin's exploration of Lincoln's political savvy in our time of greatest national crisis won the awards noted above quite deservedly. In her book, she adheres tightly to her thesis and does not wander off into other circumstances or subjects related to the American Civil War. Does she succeed in making her case? That it was Lincoln's political brilliance that saved the Union? Her argument is compelling. As she polls Lincoln's cabinet members she adduces what seems millions of data points to support her. But is it evidence or anecdote?
I am not a profession historian and cannot credibly review her scholarship. And I have heard no grumbling from her peers. Nevertheless, I am a critical reader, and I am not sure I am inclined to swallow her whole, without her servings being passed through a poison-tester first. The Union was saved. With that hindsight, isn't it easy, tempting to ascribe it to Lincoln's godlike wisdom? Maybe there was a lot of good luck involved too; not too mention the superior economic and military strength of the Union side. Or maybe she's right: things came out right because Lincoln was a political genius.
Her study is excellent and is certainly recommended reading. I give it four stars (I don't read bad books, and neither should you.)
Packing for Mars
Genres: Non-fiction, Science, Popular Science
Date read: September, 2010
Author: Mary Roach, b. March 20, 1959
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, New York (2010)
Awards: Book of the Year, One City One Book, San Francisco Read Literary Event
Quote:
I will tell you sincerely and without exaggeration that the best of part of lunch today at the NASA Ames cafeteria is the urine.
Opinion: Blog post here.
The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader, Jason Redman with John R. Bruning, Harper Collins 2013.
The Discoverers, Daniel J. Boorstin, Random House 1983.
The Classics of Science: A Study of Twelve Enduring Scientific Works, Derek Gjertsen, Lilian Barber Press, Inc.: New York 1984.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn, Second Edition, Chicago University Press 1972. (There is a third ed. published in 1996.)
Life's a Campaign, Chris Matthews, Random House, New York 2007.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2010.
Mathematics for the Million, Fourth Edition, Lancelot Hogben, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 1968.
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens, Hachette Book Group, New York, 2007.
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