#874 The Ring of Kerry- Dennis McFadden

#874 The Ring of Kerry- Dennis McFadden

Lafferty was working a long con of a seemingly shy and gullible woman named Eena. She was running from her violent ex-boyfriend was now in prison, or so she said. He knew the girl had known the whereabouts of her grandmother’s old ring. Her family finally convinced her to allow him to dig up her grave to get it. But what about his wife? He had to shed himself of his old entanglements.

“Betrayal was not his currency, but there were degrees of betrayal, and accommodations could often be reached, given the right rationale.”

While digging up the grave he learned that there was a decoy ring, and we find out both sides are playing each other. When a third party gets into the act, things get messy. Don’t they always?

Notable Passage: “He was accustomed to cheap rooms, some of the happiest moments of his life had been squandered in cheap rooms, and he could only hope this would prove to be another.”

Rating: 7-6-6-7 Total= 26

#873 The Crawl- China Mieville

#873 The Crawl- China Mieville

This is a written breakdown of a two-minute clip of a zombie attack film. Not much to it, as far as analysis goes. Pretty fun.

“Close up, a dead man’s face. Camera pulls back. He is one of many zombies in a city square. They crawl toward the camera. They do not crawl on their knees but on their toes and their knuckles or fingertips or the palms of their hands. They move as odds with their own bodies, like humans raised by spiders.”

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

#872 Ragnarok! The Day the Gods Die- Randall Kenan

#872 Ragnarok! The Day the Gods Die- Randall Kenan

The Reverend Barden has been living in sin. His wife has not given him all he desires, so he has fallen into the arms of another woman. He is ashamed of this bow to temptation, but he is more ashamed of getting caught. His lover is now dying. He has lost his wife, his lover and the respect of his son.

“Who shall hide me now? I have no place to go. I am the living dead denied the grave.”

What does a shamed preacher hang onto. That’s right hope, it’s the only thing left.

“But without hope? He’s like those dried bones full of wind and sound, cut off from his parts. He is not alive but just exists. There is no life without hope. It is hope and only hope which gives his existence meaning.”

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

#871 Why Aardvark Never Landed on the Moon- Chuck Palahniuk

#871 Why Aardvark Never Landed on the Moon- Chuck Palahniuk

Rabbit, Rooster and Aardvark were the fifth-grade nerds. They were undersized and over-brained and because that made them stand out, they were ostracized and bullied.

“…came from clean homes and parents who expressed love and respect for them. It goes without saying that they were beaten by bullies almost weekly.”

This aggression would not stand. They were at their wits end, so being geniuses, they came up with a genius solution. They would start failing and drop back a few grades. Then, they would be bigger than their piers and could once again be as smart as they wanted without fear of retribution. In a fun reference to one of Palahniuk’s most popular books, they called it “Flunk Klub.” And as you might have guessed: “The first rule of Flunk Klub, is you don’t talk about Flunk Klub.”

“Watching television seems to help, but it took brainpower to be so dumb.” They were so intent on their own dumbining, that they started sniffing glue to seal the deal. Their success at hand, their plan caused unintended consequences and instead of graduating to the next grade they just graduated to harder drugs.

This is one of a few stories in this collection that use animals as human characters. It reminds me of the Far Side cartoon by Gary Larsen.

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

#870 Moving On- Diane Cook

#870 Moving On- Diane Cook

This is kind of a Stepford Wives look at widowhood. If you die here before a certain qualifying age you are sent to camps for re-learning and re-assignment to another spouse-- if you are lucky. We see a woman go through this process. She is not really taking well to it, but then again she is not trying to escape like some of the others.

“We are woman with very little to do and no certain future. Aside from the daily work of bettering ourselves, we are mostly left alone.”

                                                         

More than the Stepford wife thing, is a 1984 Orwellian vibe. The re-training of this woman and the way she just can’t move on is very much like the protagonist in Orwell’s novel not quite taking to newspeak and all the rules. There are rules for everything, just follow the manual and change will happen.

“Maybe I’ve changed. The manual says that in order to move forward we must change. But this change feels more like a collapse. And that is not how the manual says it will feel.”

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

#869 The King of Elves- Philip K. Dick

#869 The King of Elves- Philip K. Dick

At the end of a quiet rainy day, Shadrach was closing up his filling station and saw a group of elves cowering in the cold and wet. He welcomed them to his home up the street and they were thankful. In the night, the Elf King died and announced his successor to be Shadrach himself. The simple act of kindness he had shown in their hour of need, had proven him kind and worthy enough to be King of the Elves.

“You brought him inside your house, out of the rain. He knew that you ecpected nothing for it, that there was nothing you wanted. He had known few who gave and asked nothing back.”

He accepted the post, and although most of his friends and neighbors thought he was going a bit looney, His best friend Phineas knew he wasn’t. A war with the trolls was coming and his leadership was needed. He wasn’t prepared to leave his filling station so soon, but found himself face-to-face with the surprising leader of the Trolls. Great opportunity reveals great men, even if you are not prepared for it.

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

#868 The Monkey- Tove Jansson

#868 The Monkey- Tove Jansson

This is a humorous dig at critics. An aging sculptor lives a lonely life. His only companion is a monkey he treats like a child or a friend. This is the day his latest art show is being reviewed and like the rest, he reads the write-ups with disdain. He sees the critics as leeches and brainless animals intent only on destroying what’s there instead of enjoying or supporting artists. In the following statement he compares his monkey to the critics:

“The monkey was like all the rest of them. The tiniest crack, the least stain or defect, and her fingers were there to make it worse or pick it apart. She noticed everything, every tiny sign of weakness, and that’s where she’d bite and rip and tear. That’s the way monkeys are, but they don’t know any better and so we forgive them. The others are unforgivable.”

Notable Passage: “He overtipped him out of pure contempt.”

Rating: 7-7-8-6 Total= 28