#397 The White Girl- Luis Alberto Urrea

#397 The White Girl- Luis Alberto Urrea

2-Short was a local graffiti artist, more of a tagger. His tag II-SHT could be seen big and present all over the neighborhood. One day he found a way into an old wreck yard full of broken down vehicles. In one of them, he found blood stains and a cracked windshield where the head of someone went through. He found hairs, of the dead person, it came from a white girl. An artist represents the things that effects them most.

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27

#396 Single, Carefree, Mellow- Katherine Heiny

#396 Single, Carefree, Mellow- Katherine Heiny

This story is about loss, dependence, love, worth. Maya knows that her dog is dying, and she also knows that her relationship should probably end soon, maybe. It’s a battle in her mind between the unconditional love of a dog and the complicated love between humans.

This is a no fault story, there is no antagonist, just the thoughts of Maya. We root for her to find that something that will settle het mind down. We don’t know, as readers either whether she should break up with her boyfriend. They seem somewhat happy, he is good to her, his family loves her. It’s a struggle we all deal with, is there such a thing as unconditional love?

One thing I found really interesting was this litmus test idea below, it’ll stick with me. I’m not sure if I know what my defining story is.

“Maya had a theory that everyone had a story that somehow defined them, both the good and the bad, and that these stories should be shared early on in relationships. If the other person appreciated the story, that meant you should proceed with the relationship, and if the other person failed to understand the depth of the story, or were judgmental, then there was basically no point in further contact.”

#395 Cannibal- Chuck Palahniuk

#395 Cannibal- Chuck Palahniuk

This story is most certainly Not Safe For Work due to sexual conent. And if you’re sensitive to language and slurs, I’d also steer away from this one. Although pointing out the disgusting and foul, things we say, think, and do is sometimes the job of writers, that doesn’t mean we are always in the mood to intake the onslaught of offensive language. However, as anyone who has been to a public high school in say the last 50 years can attest, this is actually kind of tame.

Cannibal is a loser, a seventh grade loner, over-sexed with no girlfriend.

“Because his dad, old Mr. Cannibal, only ever watched the Playboy Channel, and Mrs. Cannibal only liked the 700 Club, so it wasn’t lost on their boy how sex stuff and Christian stuff both looked the same.”

Because he is in such low High School standing, one of the school’s popular girls sees him as the perfect candidate, a low-risk investment, to seduce him into performing a sexual act her boyfriend wants to stay away from. As it turns out, Cannibal is surprisingly adapt at this particular act, and becomes a kind of specialist as the “secret boyfriend” of the school’s sexually oppressed female elite...until he gets too big for his own reputation.

“He brags like his every word’s wearing sunglasses.”

Rating: 8-7-9-8 Total= 32

#394 Dimension- Alice Munro

#394 Dimension- Alice Munro

This was a hard story to read. An emotionally oppressive marriage ends it the murder of three children. Lloyd was insane, getting there slowly, while Doree seemed happy at first, but as it is in this situation, she couldn’t reason with herself a way to get out.

“No matter how worn out she got with him, he was still the closest person in the world to her, and she felt that everything would collapse if she were to bring herself to tell someone exactly how he was, if she were to be entirely disloyal.”

Her fears seemed to be dead-on. When they had an argument and Doree spent the night with a friend to give it some space, he took that as betrayal, and killed their children: “I wanted to save them the misery…the misery of knowing that their mother walked out on them.”

In her emotional recovery—if a person can really recover from something like this—she decided to go visit him in prison. “It was almost like seeing a ghost.”

He was more worried about his own soul--“Peace. I arrived at peace and I’m still sane”—then the souls of his children. He wasn’t contrite or apologetic, just interested that he, himself was getting better. I guess that’s the true definition of psychosis…you murder three people, and make it all about yourself.

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#393 Her Odor First- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#393 Her Odor First- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

Death, family, regret, love. This is a sort of elegy. A spirit lingers in her house. He grandson, “her baby” is the last one left in the house. He is left to take care of her affairs, and he must sift through the boxes she left behind. She is still hanging on to the life she had, and wants to reach out and comfort him, but she can’t.

“My baby senses me as I’m coming out of the closet and he looks around, chasing my presence. He knows I’m here, we remain connected. But I can’t meet his cornered-bull eyes. I can’t touch his sagging face. From this distance forced upon us by my fate, I can’t sooth him. I can’t caress his reddened cheeks and bring relief to his expression, wet, drunk, full of angst. I’ve never seen my baby like this before, and for once I’m glad he can’t see me either.”

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29