Category: Short Story Review

  • Personal Review: The Great British Bake-Off

    I did it – Well, the wife and I did it – We watched all 13 seasons of The Great British Bake-Off, or Show, depending on where you are. That was a lot of baking, and a lot of British culture. We watched the show together on our lunch breaks, so we only got about half an episode done a day. The show has ebbed, and flowed several times, and gone from too serious to too silly a few times as well. In the end, I still enjoy the show, and I will be looking forward to the 14th season which should premiere in September 2023.

    To start with, the first two seasons of Bake-Off are awful, and no offense to the winners, are a slog to get through. The show that became the international hit hadn’t figured out its footing, nor it’s direction yet. It over all feels very American, as conflict is played up more, and it’s also a sort of an educational show – teaching the audience the history of the foods that are being baked. What I did find interesting is that they seemed to have nailed the music from the start, and pretty much have been using the same themes ever since. Luckily, after two seasons of feeling it out, they landed on what worked.

    What worked well, and is very refreshing, is that Bake-Off is still the nicest show on television. For what is basically a reality gameshow, the competitive nature of the contestants are playdown, and good sportsmanship is played up. The bakers are often shown coming to each other’s aid, and cheering each other on when they do well. There are no snide comments, or backhanded compliments displayed. All the bakers are given an opportunity to be shown as decent, friendly people that you enjoy spending time with.

    And that brings me to what makes the show so enjoyable season after season – the bakers. Bake-Off doesn’t go into detail about the bakers lives outside of the tent. Small details are given in the first few episodes, and the final, but outside of that, we are left to form our opinions about the bakers based on their bakes, and how they behave in the tent. There are no political discussions, nothing about sports or religion. Any subject matter that could divide people is avoided. We get twelve people who just want to bake. And for that, I am impressed with the casting of this show. Not only have the producers continually found charming and interesting people season after season, but they have also done an excellent job of showing Britain as a modern multi-cultural society, where everyone gets along and respects each other. In it’s very subtle way, this show whispers in our ear that we actually do have more in common than what divides us.

    Looking back at the UK ratings, Season 7 was their all-time high, with Season 6 being the runner up, which makes sense as Bake-Off was in the middle of their “salad days” at this point. I would argue that if you are going start watching the show, Season 5 to 9 is the run you want to partake in. This is especially impressive as starting with Season 8, the show undertook a radical change with the switching of broadcast channels, losing Mary Berry who was replaced with Prue Leith, and then the hosts Mel and Sue were replaced with Noel and Sandi. What could have been a stumble instead was a seamless continuation of the show.

    And with that switch in judge and hosts, I am torn. For one, though I do enjoy Prue as judge along with Paul Hollywood, they seem to be a team that “gets along” with respect of judging bakes. Mary Berry had a steeliness to her, where she had no issue with disagreeing with Paul, and digging in if he disagreed with her. It was the only time in the show where there could be tension between personalities, and it worked for the show. As for the hosts, I wasn’t a fan of Mel and Sue. They are two very funny comedians outside of the show, but in the tent they often pulled attention away from the bakers and the bakes by trying to be funny, or ending everything with a pun or a button. My preferred team was Noel and Sandi, but Sandi especially. They made a good “odd couple” paring, but what made them work was Sandi connection to the bakers. She came across more as a friend than a host as when she would talk bakers down from a cliff, or encourage them to continue on. And when Sandi had to announce who wouldn’t be coming back next week, and she would get choked up and cry, it felt like that was coming from an honest place in her. Noel did come around to Sandi’s level of connection, but when she left after Season 10, her replacement of Matt had rather big shoes to fill, no pun intended. What had worked in the past was the classic comedy pairing of straight man and wild card, but with Matt and Noel it was two wildcards which pulled attention away from the bakers. And Matt relied quite heavily on “Paul’s a mean guy” jokes. Entering Season 14, we will get a new co-host in Alison Hammond, and we’ll see how her and Noel get on.

    But when you go through thirteen seasons, you do start to see where some things have gone slightly off the rails. I point directly at Season 9, which also happens to be my personal favorite season. This was the moment when the show started moving toward more gimmick baking – just crazy shit to see how the bakers handle it. This was the season that had a biscuit chandelier which a baker pointed out wasn’t a thing, and made up for the show. Also, in the final episode, the three bakers had to “bake” on a camp fire outside of the tent. A stunt that has never been repeated, and for clear reasons as the bakers didn’t do well, and their annoyance was clearly visible. In earlier seasons, the bakers were asked to create bakes that were based on actually oven bakes, or techniques that revolved around baking. After Season 9, more and more gimmicks or “theme” weeks came into play, which didn’t add anything to the show. This finally blew up in the shows face with Season 13’s “Mexican Week,” which Tejal Rao criticized as “casually racist,” while I was confused why the bakers were making “tack-o’s?” It was a misstep on a show that should have known better.

    What I hope will happen in Season 14 is that Bake-Off sticks to what works, which is casting interesting people from the UK who love baking. And I also hope they get back to what has worked; letting the bakers bake – no more gimmicks. Because at the end of the day, what I look forward to in Bake-Off is an hour of comfort food television; I don’t have to think too hard, there is no one to root against, and I get the celebrate someone who is good at what they do.

  • Short Story Review: “The Autopsy” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya (Translated, from the Russian, by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.)

    (The short story “The Autopsy” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya appeared in the August 28th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (You know there are SPOILERS, right?)

    Photograph by Tereza Zelenková for The New Yorker

    First of all, I do want to give credit and say thank you to the Fiction Editor at The New Yorker, for exposing me to another Russian author. (I haven’t read this much Russian literature since I was a freshman theatre major.) In the writers of late, I have found this very interesting dynamic in their storytelling, where they take a pragmatic and a fantasifull world, and then combine them in a seamless fold of a believable surrealism.

    “The Autopsy” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya continues this form. It is a simple story that moves between a coroner, a mother, and her son. The storytelling is impressive, and with a few lines, I was pulled into this piece. The economy of words, simple yet pushing the story forward, lulls the reader into the throws of this very pragmatic world, first starting with a coroner. Then the story shifts to a mother who is looking for her missing son. Again, the beautiful simple language tells us of her wrenching, difficult life story, and the heartbreaking love she has for her son. Then the story shifts to the son’s perspective, and again we are betwixt by the magic of these words, though the language stays in it’s realistic form, we now move into an ethereal realm. All leading to the final section, and a completion of this story that leaves us feeling that this journey has fulfilled its purpose.

    I loved this story. I loved how it ran me through these lives, how they were connected to each other, and how strong and painful love and loving someone can be. There was a tragedy to this love, but also a dignity to loving someone so much. I appreciated that Ulitskaya swung for the fences on this, and made these two realms fit together. But most of all, I loved they style in which this story was presented; never going down a rabbit hole of flourishes or needless details. It got the job done in an effective use of language (And I know this was a translation) that never felt like a word was wasted.

  • Short Story Review: “The True Margaret” by Karan Mahajan

    (The short story “The True Margaret” by Karan Mahajan appeared in the August 14th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Photograph by Eliza Bourner for The New Yorker

    “The True Margaret” by Karan Mahajan, is an interesting short story, which ultimately is a well-crafted piece of fiction, yet I never found myself engrossed by it. The story has a great opening paragraph, which is compelling, but what follows is a deliberate plodding paced story that never rises in intensity, even as the climax approaches. As I finished the story, I liked it, but I was left feeling unsatisfied. I will say this; I do recommend reading this story.

    All the pieces are here for an effective short story. It is set in the past of 1959 London. An arranged marriage, an Indian bride brought 5,000 miles from her home. The adjustment to a new city and culture. The shadow of colonialism, patriarchy, class, and sexism. Questions about the idea of freedom being a reality or an illusion. How threats grow larger and more diabolical in our minds as we dwell on them. The duality of one’s nature. The courage to escape one’s situation, and a resolution that delivers our protagonist to a safer place, but not a rewarding place. There is a lot going on here, and it is all brought up in a natural way, never feeling forced.

    And still, I couldn’t shake the feeling of not being satisfied with the ending. Finally, I had to come to the conclusion that this ending was the point. That the plodding pace was there to help illustrate this point. Doing the right thing, breaking the mold, saving yourself doesn’t mean you get the happy ending – it only means you survived to live another day. And even if you get years beyond that incident, to where it doesn’t necessarily feel real anymore, it sometime can never be forgotten, or forgiven.

  • Short Story Review: “Yogurt Days” by Jamie Quatro

    (The short story “Yogurt Days” by Jamie Quatro appeared in the August 7th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (SPOILERS! Though I think you know that, and I should stop announcing it now…)

    Illustration by Alex Merto;

    Source photograph by Bonnie Taylor Barry / Shutterstock

    Ah… religion and faith, and rules and guidelines, and patriarchy and pragmatism. This all has to do with Christianity and not religion in general. Christianity does get a bad rap in most fiction – used mainly to highlight the hypocrisy in human nature. Every now and then we get a work of fiction that is nuanced toward its representation of Christianity in the world around us. That’s what I felt reading “Yogurt Days” by Jamie Quatro – a story that is strong on theme, ideas, and structure. While the prose is adequate for the piece, Quatro strength is in taking all the tricks that are taught in writing classes, and uses them effectively to accomplish her goal of delivery a solid story that is honest, and even a tad melancholic.

    This is a story about faith, and the actions behind faith, and those motivations. The story is about the narrator’s mother who has more faith than sense, and is blessed with an affluent lifestyle which allows her to survive with that disposition. This mother isn’t a bad person at all, and the narrator, even as a child, is aware of that. The story jumps from the past to the present, and how the past situation is still influencing the narrator in the present.

    I said writing tricks because that’s what they are, but it works. The opening sentence is a textbook in making the reader want to find out more. The first paragraph previews the theme of the story. An early example of the mother’s faith is given to show why she behaves the way she does. There is the breaking up of, what could have been, a simple linear story through time jumps, in essence to create more drama, but also pad out the story. I’m not saying this to be mean, or to imply this is a “color-by-number” story, but to say that Quatro’s structure is easy to follow, and allows us to know that this story is going to land.

    But what Quatro does very well, and I think it is a strength of the story, is that by using this standard structure, it gives the story freedom to flow and bring life to little truths about faith, or the illusion of faith, and how faith can even infect the unfaithful. And best of all, in the middle of this story, the daughter (narrator) forgives the mother for her past transgressions. I think most writers would have made this the climax of the story, but I appreciated that this type of cliché was avoided. Instead, by putting the forgiveness in the middle, what we received was a better understanding of how faith had influenced the narrator’s life, along with a better understanding of the relationship between mother and daughter.

  • Short Story Review: “A French Doll” By Cynthia Ozick

    (The short story “A French Doll” By Cynthia Ozick appeared in the July 31st, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (SPOILERS! There will always be SPOILERS!)

    Photo illustration by Joan Wong; Source photographs from Getty; NYPL

    And then sometimes, The New Yorker just publishes a good story. Why beat around the bush here; “A French Doll” by Cynthia Ozick is a very good story. A shorter piece by New Yorker standards, but not flash fiction as the story is at 3,300+ words. Yet, I did find a flash fiction ethos within this story – it didn’t rely on a hero cycle, or a plotless character study, nor was this the tried and true beginning/middle/end with a rise in action. No, this was a story that played with language, mood, atmosphere, and an inevitable lesson that is reinforced in the actions taken by the characters. Since plot and development weren’t necessary, that’s why I say it’s more flash than traditional short fiction.

    There are so many points that I could ding as examples of why Ozick’s story works so beautifully well, but I fear I could get mired down in unending details. The opening section serves many purposes of creating the mood, theme, and setting for the piece. I loved how the narrator, as a child talking to the elderly neighbor, would lie about not being able to help the old woman, but in the end would still do the requested tasks – just like a kid would do. I loved how the bookending of the elderly couples passing was used to reinforce the theme of the inevitability of passing away, and wanting to leave something, even the most basic truths, for someone to acknowledge later. And then the use of the doll, telegraphed to us with the title, but still manages to delicately make the point of life and art.

    And yet, with all of that said, the best part of this story was the language used by Ozick. The words that were crafted, how they painted and played with creating a picture and a world that this story took place in. This language made me slow down, savor what I was reading. Not only was this world given vibrant life within the words, it also created a rhythm – like a dance – for descriptions to unfold. My favorite example being, “The sublime defiled, the sacred embedded in a thing of vanity, ridiculed, pirated, usurped, stolen. A felony, a wickedness, a sin.” This is a writer that enjoyed making words pirouette, tumble, and slide off the page.

    I have told you nothing about the story, and that was on purpose. Cynthia Ozick created something very unique “A French Doll” and you should read it. Let the surprises and turns hit you like they did me. Because this isn’t a plot story – this is about mood and understanding. You just need to read it.