#739 The Way Up To Heaven- Roald Dahl

#739 The Way Up To Heaven- Roald Dahl

I guess the most apt adage for this story would be: “Never keep a lady waiting.” Mrs. Foster is a nervous traveler. What she is most nervous about is being late. She is always ready to go to an appointment or a train a good half hour earlier than she needs, and she will wait anxiously until her husband comes out to go with her. Mr. Foster is almost always running just a bit late, and this makes his wife frantic on the edge of breaking down.

For their long marriage this has been going on, and recently Mrs. Foster has been suspicious that her husband makes her wait on purpose, as if taunting her and her fear of missing her train. The biggest trip of her life is coming up, a solo trip to Paris to visit her daughter and granddaughter. When Mr. Foster seems intent on making her miss her plane, she does the unthinkable—leaves without him. This act of insolence or one of liberation (depending on your perspective) will be his undoing.

Rating: 7-7-7-7 Total= 28

#738 Danny In Transit- David Leavitt

#738 Danny In Transit- David Leavitt

This is a study in psychology. A man demanding to have a “proper” marriage with defined male/female roles comes to the realization after having a child that he is homosexual. The wife, already a little in need of mental therapy, loses it. She has a nervous breakdown and literally tears her own hair out. Danny, the only child, normally very self-reliant turns into a high maintenance situation with a hair-trigger reaction to tantrum.

The author does a great job flushing out each persons psychological tendencies in such a traumatic family break-up. It is also a test for the reader in which character you feel more sympathy for. Clearly none of this is the child’s fault so he had automatic sympathy. But what about the mother who is another clear victim, trying her best to be a mother in the face of her breakdown and being honest about not being able to handle life? Or perhaps the father, who is forced by a patriarchal expectation and an uber-machismo career to be something he is not, and then when he finds a road to freedom it causes so much harm to others. Stay in a cage and try to hold together a lie, or be honest and hope to weather the chaos?

Children are the only ones here that have carte blanche excuse for being selfish, but they are also the most resilient. Good story.

Notable Passage: “Just never trust cleanliness. All the bad stuff—the really bad stuff—happens in clean houses, where everything’s tidy and nobody says anything more than good morning.”

Rating: 8-8-8-7 Total= 31

#737 Legends of the White Lady- Mia Alvar

#737 Legends of the White Lady- Mia Alvar

The Legend of the White Lady is a story told in the streets of Manila. The details change, but something awful happened to a white woman during WWII and now she haunts all men around a few blocks downtown. Alice is visiting Manila for the second time and has heard this story from a cab driver that has one of the ladies white lace gloves as “proof” she exists.

Alice is here for work. She is a late twenties model with an all-American look. She cant get much work in NY because she isn't exotic enough, and lately she hasn’t been looking for work because she is depressed. Her best friend, also a model died of a stroke and Alice is feeling her mortality. She is lonely and more than ever feels like a freak, being taller than most people around her, and like the ghost, her white image stands out.

Her model gig has some snags after she is attacked late at night by a senile woman who mistakes her for the ghost (or something like that), and as she mulls retirement, wonders what else she has to offer the world.

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

#736 In Spite of Darkness- Alixa Garcia

#736 In Spite of Darkness- Alixa Garcia

The Suns have been quieted and the land has fallen into darkness. The humans have lived without solar warmth for eight years. Luminescent beings called Sol gatherers hide from them afraid they will be stolen and disappear forever.

 “The Sol Gatherers were effected by mood—fear and love being the strongest emotions that could make their firelike skin radiate.”

Mikra, born on the first day of the war and at the beginning of the current darkness is a mixture of Sol Gatherer and Pattern Keeper. For generations the Sol Gatherers had flown together to different dimensions in search of suns and returned to share their magnificence. This time, however they have not returned and the child gatherers are without teachers and the lineage is in danger of being broken.

This could be a morality play about human disrespect and destruction of the planet, or it could be a parable about forgotten culture. Either way it’s a powerful story about hope and perseverance in the face of utter darkness.

Notable Passage: “…and like any movement toward an unfolding future, so thundered down the unknown hand of destiny.”

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33

#735 My First Concert- Felisberto Hernandez

#735 My First Concert- Felisberto Hernandez

You can practice all you want, for years on end. Your technique could be perfected and your understanding of the music impeccable.  In the comfort of your own studio you may be the greatest musician ever, but unless you can overcome the nerves of stage-fright, you will never be as good as you think.

This is a charming and all-too realistic look into the fragile nerves of a first time performer. Having been a musician myself, I am very sensitive to these feelings. The days leading up to the performance is a steady roller coaster of emotion that Hernandez writes perfectly. Here are just a few of the telling quotes in this story:

“Rounding a corner I saw my name written large on two huge posters stuck on either side of a cart, and felt even more miserable. If the letters had only been smaller, perhaps less would have been expected of me.”

“I distrusted myself that morning and started going over my program like someone counting his money because he suspects it has been stolen from him during the night, and I soon found out I didn’t have as much as I had thought I did.”

We see the performance, and thankfully is wasn’t a disaster. The lighter moments on stage make for a great tension/release. I love using both a coffin and cannon as metaphors for the piano.

Rating: 9-8-9-8 Total= 34

#734 What’s in Alaska- Raymond Carver

#734 What’s in Alaska- Raymond Carver

This is a story about diversion. A couple going through life, a little bored and worn out. A man comes home from work, buys shoes and comes home to his wife who sneers at the shoes and gives him a drink. Maybe it’s the shoes and the beer, but at this point of the story I had Sinatra’s Love and Marriage running through my head (as the theme song from Married with Children, of course).

They go visit another couple down the street that just bought a hookah water pipe. The rest of the story is a whole stoner scene, full of laughs, munchies, misinterpreted conversations, fun with pets. Everyone is hyper-sensitive and yet extremely unaware. Funny, although not up to par with great stoner stories. Stylistically It is dialogue heavy. If there is any subtext beyond adults needing a diversion from their humdrum lives, I missed it and don’t feel the need to go back and find one. We never find out exactly what’s in Alaska.

Rating: 7-6-6-5 Total= 24

#733 Blood Child- Octavia Butler

#733 Blood Child- Octavia Butler

In this reality a group of humans fled earth as refugees and now live on another planet with superior beings. They are large slug-like creatures that, after seeing the violence in human nature, keep them in preservations. They allow humans and themselves to live together as host families. “Host” also being literal as they are used to incubate their young. When old enough, they are implanted with baby slugs.

“They don’t take woman” he said with contempt

“They do sometimes.” I glanced at him. “Actually, they prefer woman.

You should be around when they talk among themselves.. They say woman have more body fat to protect the grubs. But they usually take men to leave

The woman free to bear their own young.”

“To provide the next generation of host animals,” he said, switching

from contempt to bitterness.

In the family we see, Gan has just become implantation age and is chosen by his host slug for the job. There is a theme of subservience, with most humans living off the eggs of slugs that keeps them in a dreamlike trance and also helps them live longer. That theme turns into one of choice and free will as Gan has second thoughts about the situation.

There is a lot packed into this story. In the preface to this collection Butler, talks about her struggle with the short story:

“The truth is I hate short story writing. Trying to do it has taught me much more about frustration and despair than I ever wanted—yet there is something seductive about writing short stories. It looks so easy. You come up with an idea, then ten, twenty, perhaps thirty pages later, you’ve got a finished story.”

For the most part, I have had some trouble with stories that pack in so much, with stories that could and should be turned into longer pieces. However, this story I like both at this length, and could also see it expanded to a larger format. Perhaps it’s the genre. It’s more about the conceptual situation you’d want to hear more about than the characters themselves. Either way, good start to this book. 

Rating: 8-8-8-8- Total= 32